UCLA professors Leisy Ábrego, Laura Gómez and Floridalma Boj López have been named to the scholarly advisory committee for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino. They will provide input on the newest Smithsonian’s plan to preserve, document, display, interpret and promote knowledge of U.S. Latino history, art and culture.
All three hold appointments in the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, where Ábrego serves as department chair. Gómez is also a professor at UCLA School of Law and in the sociology department.
“My hope is that the museum will encourage and support the hard but necessary public conversations about competing empires and settler-colonial dispossession that produce who we are as Latinxs,” Ábrego said. “I also hope that it offers new and compelling ways to appreciate the objects and contributions of communities that have been too often excluded from official historical narratives.”
Legislation creating the National Museum of the American Latino at the Smithsonian passed Dec. 27, 2020. The Smithsonian recently announced that Jorge Zamanillo, executive director and CEO of HistoryMiami, will be the director of the museum beginning May 2.
“Latinos are one-fifth of the nation’s population, but we remain understudied and undercovered at institutions such as the Smithsonian, so I am excited to contribute my expertise and passion on Latinx equality and history,” Gómez said.
