What's New at the Smithsonian Latino Center

Latino DC History Project

(Right to left) José Sueiro, René López, Eloy Hernández, James Early and Michael Mason talking with the audience about the history of Santería in Washington, DC at the Gala Theatre on June 26, 2010.

The Latino DC History Project is an initiative to document the Latino presence in the DC metro area, telling the unheard stories of Latinos in the institutions, culture, economy and daily life of the nation's capital. These diverse stories, which include the experiences of Salvadoran refugees, Aymara-speaking Bolivians and Puerto Rican federal workers, just to name a few, offer opportunities for understanding the connections between local and global history and responding to the urgent need to develop Latino content for school curricula. The Latino DC History Project has roots in previous Smithsonian research on the local Latino community conducted by the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the Anacostia Community Museum. It is also connected to an ongoing Smithsonian research initiative on immigration and migration.

In 2015, the Smithsonian Latino Center plans to open an exhibition at the National Museum of American History that connects to local, neighborhood-based exhibits and displays that feature the new collections and scholarship that will result from this project. Public programs about DC's Latino history began in 2010 and will continue until the exhibition closes, with plans to engage adults, youth, teachers and families in documenting their experiences and interpreting their community histories.

Central American Ceramics Research Project (CACRP)

This hand-built ceramic vessel represents a jaguar, an animal associated with great religious and political power by the peoples of Central America. It was made between AD 1200 and 1400, probably by an artisan of the Guanacaste-Nicoya culture in what is today Costa Rica. Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian

The Central American Ceramics Research Project (CACRP) is an initiative to study and assess the National Museum of the American Indian's (NMAI) 12,000-piece Central American archeological

ceramics collection. While this collection is one of the most important in the world, it has been rarely studied or exhibited. Led by Dr. Alex Benítez and his research team, working in collaboration with experts in universities and museums in the United States and overseas, the project will reveal exciting and previously unheard stories about daily and ritual life in Central America's diverse and complex cultures.

This project puts a spotlight on an emerging area of Latin American archeology while it offers the Smithsonian an invaluable opportunity to target its largest local Latino population—los centroamericanos—in order to invite them to discover their patrimony within the walls of the Nation's museum. Building to 2013, CACRP will nourish Central American culture and science-themed public programs both on and off the Mall, and will showcase NMAI's collection in an exhibition that will use archeological objects to illustrate complexity, change and cultural continuity within themes like design, ceremony and daily life.

Taíno Legacy Project

This clay zemi, or Taíno religious object, depicts the important deity Deminan Caracaracol. Made between 1200-1492 AD, this figurine was ritually deposited in a small cave in what is now the Dominican Republic, until it was collected in 1916. Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian.

The Taíno Legacy Project explores the culture, history and legacy of the Native peoples of the Caribbean islands. In particular, this project focuses on the Taíno, the inhabitants of Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, who both greeted—then resisted—Columbus and his men during the first decades

of Spanish colonization in the Americas.

This project tells the story of one of the most important cultural encounters in world history. It provides perspectives on Taíno civilization prior to European contact using the Smithsonian's first-rate (yet rarely studied or displayed) archeological collections, while it demonstrates the enduring Taíno presence on the islands—from domestic architecture, agriculture and spirituality to art, language and biology.

This project is a collaboration with the Smithsonian Latino Center, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). An exhibition on Taíno legacy is being planned for 2014 in the George Gustav Heye Center/National Museum of the American Indian, with a public program series commencing in the fall of 2011.

The Smithsonian Latino Center Dominican Initiative

Cover of the 1974 album by "Expresión Joven (Voice of Youth)," a group which traveled across the Dominican Republic singing songs about love, justice and political change. Courtesy of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

The Dominican Initiative is an effort to create space within the institution for documenting, researching, collecting and highlighting the

experiences of Dominicans in the United States and the historical/cultural intersections between the United States and the Dominican Republic. Dominicans are the fifth largest Latino population in the United States and the history of their island has been profoundly marked by US foreign policy and U.S. military interventions, yet very little work has occurred at the Smithsonian to capture and interpret these stories. This initiative is new collaboration between the Smithsonian Latino Center, the Dominican Studies Institute, CUNY and other institutional partners in the United States and the Dominican Republic.