Smithsonian bypasses new site vote for Latino museum, stirs criticism

The Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents has designated the Arts and Industries Building as the permanent home of the National Museum of the American Latino, a procedural move that lets the long-delayed project advance without a new congressional vote on its site and has revived conservative criticism that its inaugural exhibition pushed a Marxist, anti-Western narrative of American history.

The Regents made the designation Aug. 31. Because the Smithsonian already owns the 145-year-old redbrick building on the National Mall, the decision avoids the congressional approval that new construction on National Park Service land would have required. Congress authorized the Latino museum in 2020, but the Smithsonian spent years weighing sites before reversing an earlier recommendation to build new near the Washington Monument. Critics, including Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez, have characterized the choice as a way for the institution to sidestep a fight on Capitol Hill; that is Mr. Gonzalez’s interpretation of the Smithsonian’s motive, not a stated rationale from the institution itself.

Jorge Zamanillo, the museum’s founding director, called the designation a milestone in a decades-long effort, saying it “places the U.S. Latino story at the heart of the National Mall and the American story.”

Mr. Gonzalez, a longtime critic of the museum, told Fox News Digital, “We need to get rid of the Latino museum.” He said the museum “should not exist” and called for Smithsonian leadership to be fired. According to Fox News Digital, Mr. Gonzalez’s criticism cites the museum’s 2022 inaugural exhibition, “¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States,” faulting it for using the phrase “we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us” and for panels on Cuban American drag performer and gay-rights pioneer José Julio Sarria and on Orlando Letelier, a Chilean diplomat under Marxist President Salvador Allende who was assassinated in Washington in 1976. The Smithsonian declined to comment on his remarks.

Mr. Gonzalez has made a broader case against the museum in a Heritage Foundation report, which argues the museum’s exhibits and messaging cast Hispanics primarily as victims of American oppression and concludes, “Congress should end this madness and cut off funding for the museum.”

He pressed similar arguments in July 21 testimony before a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee, appearing alongside National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig. In written testimony submitted for that hearing, he called for the Latino museum and the planned Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum to be “de-authorized” before either opens a permanent building, writing, “Only a foolish people will pay $1.1 billion for their own cultural erasure.”

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, Florida Republican and a Smithsonian Regent, has pushed back on the broader criticism of the institution. A spokesman told Fox News Digital that the congressman believes the Smithsonian should be fair and balanced, and should aim for truth by presenting both sides of the historical record.

The renewed criticism comes as the Smithsonian prepares for a leadership change. Secretary Lonnie Bunch III announced Sept. 8 that he will retire at the end of the year after nearly four decades with the institution, seven of them as its top official. Mr. Bunch, the Smithsonian’s first Black secretary, has said the decision was not driven by the Trump administration’s monthslong pressure campaign over how its museums portray American history, telling The New York Times simply that “now’s the time.”

The Latino museum’s funding has already survived one round of this fight. President Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget request, submitted in May 2025, proposed eliminating development funding for the museum and replacing it with $5.8 million for a scaled-back Smithsonian Latino Center. A Senate Appropriations subcommittee instead advanced a bill in July 2025 that would have barred the Smithsonian from closing, merging or otherwise diminishing either the Latino museum or the planned women’s history museum. Congress ultimately enacted its fiscal 2026 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies spending bill, which provided $1.08 billion overall for the Smithsonian without adopting the administration’s proposal to eliminate the Latino museum. The Smithsonian has not released a timeline or cost estimate for converting the Arts and Industries Building, which most recently reopened this year for events marking the nation’s 250th anniversary.