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remember the Alameda

Ten years in the making, the Museo Alameda Smithsonian featuring the breadth of Hispanic contributions to art and culture is set to open in San Antonio this April.

Already being positioned as a national destination, the Museo Alameda Smithsonian will make its debut in grand fashion befitting its ambition, with public art by the late contemporary artist Félix González-Torres. The artwork features a large-scale photograph of an outstretched hand displayed in a series of six banner installations at various sites around San Antonio. The panels are on long-term loan from the Smithsonian’s Hirshborn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
The dizzying array of museum objects with which the Smithsonian is often associated is already being replicated at the Museo—albeit on a smaller scale and with a decidedly Hispanic twist. Among its objects, the Museo Alameda will display Emperor Maximilian’s Emerald Ring—the gemstone thought to have belonged to Cuahtemoc, the last Aztec king of Mexico City.
Familiar Smithsonian staples will be on hand for later exhibit from its National Air & Space Museum, but interpreted at the Museo Alameda to reflect contributions of Hispanics on space exploration.
Hispanic cultural contributions will be explored starting with the April launch of an elaborate presentation on conjunto music. By year’s end, the popular “Azucar: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz” will offer a comprehensive review of the late singer’s impact.
“The Museo Alameda Smithsonian will tell the story of the Latino experience in America through art, history and culture,” says Henry R. Muñoz III, founding chairman of The Alameda National Center for Latino Arts & Culture. He predicted the site would become a national destination. “Not only for Latino art and culture but also as a teaching museum with an already proven track record of world class Latino scholarship.”
Its location in the central business district, near popular tourist destinations such as the city’s Hispanic shopping plaza, Market Square, will enhance the museum’s chances of drawing a national audience, Muñoz noted. Even before opening, its striking pink façade had already helped create buzz.
An economic feasibility study supports Muñoz’s assertions of the museum’s likely appeal. Attendance is expected to top 400,000 in the first year of operations, making it the most visited Latino museum in the country, according to analysts.
Pilar O’Leary, director of the Smithsonian Institute for Latino Initiatives, says the new museum’s mission matches that of its parent: “Like its counterparts in Washington, D.C. and across the country, the Museo Alameda Smithsonian will preserve and promote the history and traditions as well as the current and future impact of the Latino experience in America.”
In merely opening its doors, the museum offers something of a defining moment for U.S. Hispanic culture, given its status as the first to sign on with the Smithsonian Institution’s Affiliations program. Today, there are 152 affiliate museums of the Smithsonian Institution nationwide.
Despite being first to gain affiliate status, the Museo Alameda took a decade to develop from original idea to fruition. As its significance loomed, major corporate contributions poured in from the likes of Anheuser-Busch, AT&T and Ford.
San Antonian Muñoz, who conceived of the idea for the museum, already sees it as personal legacy to his community: “I think this is probably the most important thing I’ll do in my life,” the head of Kell-Muñoz architectural and design firm says.
But in the beginning, creation of such a museum was in serious doubt. Muñoz says the idea for it was born of a disagreement over materials he sought to educate university students along the Texas-Mexico border. Appropriately in a city best known for containing the Alamo, it was conflict that begat the Museo.
“I had the door slammed in my face by the Smithsonian,” says Muñoz, recalling the day when he approached officials about borrowing a piece of technology for academic study. “I was basically laughed at.”
But as Smithsonian officials warmed up to the idea of sharing, Muñoz embarked on something of a diplomatic mission to convince them to shed their overprotective culture. Eventually, Smithsonian officials learned to share.
“I went to the Smithsonian to give them a piece of my mind, but instead ended up having a meaningful, strategic conversation,” Muñoz says.
He recalled the piéce de résistance in ending the tension: An elaborate dinner organized for Smithsonian officials on hallowed Alamo grounds—one of the few times the mission’s fiercely protective caretakers, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, have allowed for such a function.
Hard-fought, today he is able to laugh at the experience: “It’s the second time Mexicans pitched a tent on the Alamo grounds and won.”