The Molina Household Latino Gallery on the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of American Historical past, which has served as the house of the nascent Latino museum, will keep closed till April 2026. (all photos courtesy Felipe Galindo)
Since 2022, Galindo’s work had been reproduced on a label about anti-immigrant prejudice as a part of ¡Presente! A Latino Historical past of the USA within the Nationwide Museum of American Historical past’s (NMAH) Molina Household Latino Gallery. Over the past three years, the gallery house has served because the momentary location of the nascent Nationwide Museum of the American Latino, which is at the moment going through an unsure future underneath the Trump administration. Now, the Molina gallery has quietly closed for the subsequent 9 months, Hyperallergic confirmed.
After the White Home featured his work in its hit checklist, Galindo, who additionally goes by the identify “Feggo,” stated he traveled from New York Metropolis to Washington, DC, to see whether or not it was nonetheless up. When he arrived on the museum on Tuesday, he discovered the exhibition closed. An indication stated it might reopen in spring 2026. In keeping with the Smithsonian’s web site, ¡Presente! was scheduled to shut on the finish of November, in preparation for programming marking the USA’s 250th birthday. However the exhibition was shuttered on July 20, 4 months earlier than anticipated. The choice notably follows Trump’s March government order focusing on the Smithsonian Establishment and the discharge of his Fiscal 12 months 2026 finances, which excluded funding for the NMAL.
Felipe Galindo’s illustration “4th of July from the south border” was referenced within the White Home’s checklist of Smithsonian exhibitions it discovered to be objectionable.
The Molina Household Latino Gallery’s early closure means it’ll stay shuttered all through Hispanic Heritage Month this fall, and marks a prolonged interval of inactivity for the fledgling Nationwide Museum of the American Latino’s solely present bodily gallery, which the museum’s director, Jorge Zamanillo, has known as the establishment’s “first iteration.”
Reached by Hyperallergic, a spokesperson for the establishment cited preparations for the Smithsonian’s Our Shared Future: 250 programming as the explanation for the exhibition’s untimely closure.
“The National Museum of the American Latino is participating in the Smithsonian’s celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary and wanted to meet the spring 2026 deadline for opening the Puro Ritmo exhibition in support of the Smithsonian’s institution-wide plans,” the spokesperson stated, referring to the upcoming present ¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsa on the Molina gallery. “The Molina Family Latino Gallery is closed to visitors because museum staff need the space to safely de-install Presente and then transition the exhibition space into a staging area to prepare for the renovation and installation of Puro Ritmo.”
The establishment reportedly adopted the salsa-themed exhibition as a softer different to a deliberate exhibition on Latino youth actions that garnered important conservative backlash. Earlier than Trump’s crackdown on the Smithsonian started, that exhibition was broadly criticized by conservatives who disagreed with its concentrate on colonization and threatened to withhold federal funding for the forthcoming museum in 2023.
The Smithsonian spokesperson didn’t straight reply a query about whether or not Trump’s museum critiques or government motion influenced the choice to shut the Molina Gallery in July. Trump has repeatedly pushed the Smithsonian to advertise “unity, progress, and enduring values” in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary subsequent yr. Earlier this month, the administration demanded that Smithsonian museums submit their 250th anniversary plans to “align messaging” with the White Home Salute to America 250 Process Power.
Three of the works named on final week’s White Home checklist had been created by dwelling artists who had been born in Mexico, together with Galindo, elevating questions on how the establishment will defend its Latino artists underneath strain from the federal authorities.
When Galido realized from a workers member that the museum was “rotating” the exhibition, he instructed Hyperallergic he remembers pondering, “Is that a new word for censoring?”
The administration has already launched a evaluate of exhibitions deliberate for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence as a part of its bigger probe. Trump’s authorities referenced the US’s 250th anniversary 9 instances in its letter to the Smithsonian asserting its evaluate and forthcoming “content corrections.”
Galindo instructed Hyperallergic his 1999 illustration appeared within the 2010 e-book Manhatitlan: An Intertwining of Mexican and American Cultures.
“It’s something that reflected, in my case, how I saw immigration at that time,” Galindo stated. Within the Nineties, former President Invoice Clinton’s administration had cracked down on border crossings, together with by putting in fences. Galindo’s work contended with the rising militarization of the border, that includes a boy peering over a pink and white-striped fence at blue and white fireworks.
“I know art is very powerful and makes people ponder. That’s the idea. It’s not threatening,” Galindo stated. “It’s very disheartening to see [this] from people who are in power.”
