WASHINGTON—After the House of Representatives recently voted to defund the Smithsonian Latino Museum, Alfonso Aguilar, president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation, and Joshua Trevino, chief of intelligence and research and the director for the Texas Identity at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, released the following statement: 

“We are happy the language defunding the Latino Museum remained in the Interior Department appropriations bill that the House of Representatives passed last week. Conservative lawmakers must stand united as the bill moves forward with reconciliation negations and use the momentum from this House vote to end the Left’s use of museums to push a woke agenda.  

“We have warned for years that the Smithsonian’s Latino Museum would push the narrative that Latinos are victims in the simplistic, and damaging, ‘oppressor vs. oppressed’ paradigm. 

“If Marxist-leaning academics want to put together these exhibits, they should not do so with American taxpayer dollars. Americans should not be forced to fund museum programs that seek to destroy the very principles that make this country great.  

“It’s time for Congress to permanently defund the Latino Museum and put an end to efforts to use woke museums to further divide this country.”   

BACKGROUND: 

Last year, Gonzalez, Aguilar, and Trevino published a scathing review of a new Latino exhibit at the National Museum of American History. The scholars explained how the exhibit’s Marxist portrayal of history, religion, and economics proved that the National Museum of the American Latino should not be funded.