In an ongoing bid to get a bill passed to build a national museum honoring the history of Latinos in the United States entitled the National Museum of the American Latino has yet to be supported by the House of Representatives and the Senate. That is until the effort to get the museum built was given a push from an advocacy group demanding lawmakers to pass the bill that will get the plans going.
Plans for the museum to be built in the Smithsonian’s now vacant Arts and Industries building in Washington was pushed forward some on Capitol Hill this pass Wednesday when Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino held an event that was attended by supporters of the museum’s creation.
One of the attendees was the biggest supporter Democratic Representative Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles who said that the museum would be a home for “our history, for our culture, for our contributions to this country,” wanting to give recognitions to the Latinos who have contributed to the growth of this country.
Celebrities like Eva Longoria and music producer Emilio Estavez have been a part of the commission, which also consists of Becerra, trying to get the museum built since 2009.
At a press conference in 2011 on Capitol Hill Longoria said how, “Being a ninth-generation American, growing up in south Texas on land that was given to us from the Spanish around the 1600s, I’m living proof that Latinos have been in America for a very long time,” showing how the museum would benefit the Latino community. However, the bill has been tossed about.
Past bills proposing the construction of the museum have often gone nowhere failing to win a passing legislation in previous congressional sessions. The possible reasons for the failure to pass the bill may be due to various estimations about how much the museum would cost to be built, however it is expected that the cost will be around several hundred million.
Currently, the federal government is paying half for the construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture which is scheduled to open in 2015. The cost of the project is reported to be 500 million. The proposed legislation for the construction of the National Museum of the American Latino the federal government will not be spending any money.
“We’re going to be housed in the dark recesses of some storage container because there’s not enough room for all that, that’s not enough,” added Rep. Becerra about the failure to build such a monument honoring Latino Americans of the past.
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