MYTHS
			The following statement was circulated as the search for a new director of El Museo was underway. The selection of a new director was announced on September 24th, 2002. Dear Colleagues, A short article entitled ’ÄúMuseo Moves Away from its Barrio Identity’Äù was published in Sunday's New York Times City Section on July 21, 2002 regarding El Museo del Barrio's search for a new director (and new direction). Written by Denny Lee, the article suggests that the point of contention between El Museo del Barrio's board and the Puerto Rican community is rooted in issues of class-that the board's elite composition has steered the museum away from its "ghetto" or better said, community-based, working class origins. Because Tony Bechara, the chair of El Museo’s board, is quoted at the end of the article, the average reader is left with the impression that the Puerto Ricans artists, activists and scholars who express discontent with the museum's Latin American focus are "ethnocentric" and that the museum is simply trying to fulfill its "moral" duty to represent the cultural heritage new immigrants to the city. Of course, we know there is much more to the story than this but how can we get our broader concerns across? Reviewing the articles that have been written about El Museo's conflicts with the community, we come across the some myths and sound bytes being repeated over and over that need some "deconstructing." The following is my response to two claims that mythologize the history El Museo del Barrio. Myth: El Museo del Barrio was founded by local artists, educators and community activists in a city classroom." El Museo del Barrio's origins are "humble." Problem and Clarification This summary account of El Museo's origins, which El Museo del barrio publicizes in one form or another in all its promotional material, eliminates the radical objectives that lay behind the founding of El Museo, namely to form a community-based museum run for and by working class people and artists of Puerto Rican/Latino descent. Moreover, this account of El Museo del Barrio eliminates the name of the world-renowned vanguard Nuyorican artist who founded the institution -- Rafael Montanez Ortiz -- thus participating in the erasure of a Latino artist from the cannon of art history in the United States. Of all things, a museum that reputedly wants to protect and preserve the history art and culture of the Latin Americans in the United States must be reproached for what is by now a deliberate omission of this valued artist's name. Some background information El Museo del Barrio was the outgrowth of a city-wide effort on the part of Puerto Rican and African American artists, educators and community activists to gain community control over education and social services. Because El Museo would not have been funded by the City without agitation on the part of these activists, it is right that we should think of the origins of El Museo as a community based working class institution. However, we should also recognize that it was founded and directed by a sole individual in 1969, the vanguard artist Rafael aka Ralph Montañez Ortiz, a first generation, New York born Puerto Rican or Nuyorican. Ortiz was by no means a humble individual but rather a very well respected and established artist who pioneered the genre of performance and video art in the United States and indeed the world. Although Ortiz’s works were collected by the Museum of Modern Art he did not want to be part of the conservative, white identified art market. Instead, he was part of the art workers coalition and other radical organizations that protested the elitism and racism of New York museums and galleries. Ortiz promoted the idea that cultural institutions that garnered public money must substantively represent the public in their programs and policies. Thus, from the beginning El Museo del Barrio was conceived as a community based institution that would offer an alternative to institutions that were run by upper class elites. Although El Museo has had different directors since Ortiz, it is safe to say that Marta Moreno Vega, Jack Augueros, and Petra Barreras shared this fundamental belief that El Museo del Barrio should be accountable and open to the Puerto Rican/Latino community. Ironically since the "expansion" of El Museo's mission in 1994 under the direction of Susanna Leval and current Chair Tony Bechara we have seen the constriction of community participation by Latinos in El Museo. At present there is no active community advisory board and no artist in residence program for Latino artists. Indeed, the last artist in residence at El Museo del Barrio was Pepon Osorio back in 1991. He credits his work at El Museo with contributing to immense success today as an artist and McArthur Fellow. Imagine how many other artists of Pepon's caliber El Museo could have been nurturing all these years. The lost opportunities are disheartening. El Museo has also failed in its outreach to Latino scholars. It does not sustain collegial relationships with other Latino Cultural/Educational institutions. And, recent attempts by certain centers to collaborate with El Museo have fallen on deaf ears. Lastly, the Dominican community, which rivals the Puerto Rican community in size and influence in New York has no representative on the board and Dominican artists have not had much exposure in El Museo's exhibitions. African Americans and Afro-Latinos are also conspicuously absent from the board, staff and exhibitions in El Museo del Barrio save the occasional show on Afro-Caribbean religions like Santeria. On the other hand, non-Spanish speaking white North Americans have become commonplace in El Museo's executive staff and board while Latino scholars and professionals are relegated to temporary "consulting" positions. Myth: "El Museo has to transcend its Puerto Rican roots." Puerto Ricans who criticize the expansion of El Museo's mission are ethnocentric and/or Anti-Latin American. Problem and Clarification These statements assume that El Museo was once Puerto Rican and now it is not. The facts are much more nuanced. Firstly, Latinos from other groups participated in Museo exhibitions even when it was reputedly a Puerto Rican museum; (2) El Museo del Barrio continues to be a Puerto Rican institution despite all attempts to eliminate the presence of Puerto Ricans on the staff and board because its permanent collection is largely made up of ancient and contemporary Puerto Rican art and artifacts- (3) Critics of El Museo are not ethnocentric. Practically all the Puerto Rican artists, activists and scholars that I have spoken to about El Museo do not subscribe to the idea that El Museo del Barrio should be exclusively Puerto Rican. Background Information A cursory look at El Museo del Barrio's exhibition history over the past 30 years will prove that Latin American artists have been participating in exhibitions even when it was a "Puerto Rican" museum. The Puerto Rican centered-mission never precluded other Latinos from being part of El Museo del Barrio if they so choose just as Puerto Ricans and now more Dominicans have been welcome at the African American based Studio Museum. The expansion in the mission has been more a case of a fiduciary duty on the part of the board than anything to do with morality or transcendence. It is clear that these elite board members would not give to largely working class Puerto Rican institution unless some modifications were made to its mission and staff. And, of course, it is insulting to suggest that we must transcend being Puerto Rican as though originating from Latin America was a higher stage of evolution. El Museo may try to transcend its Puerto Rican origins but its permanent collection remains about 75 percent Puerto Rican, a factor which makes it a Puerto Rican institution regardless of what the board now desires it to be. El Museo does not have a sizable Latin American collection at present and there is no acquisition plan or donation in the wings that I am aware of. The board will have to pony up a lot of money to buy enough pieces of Latin American art to make El Museo a "Latin American Museum" and so far, the board is doing nothing but fronting a Latin American façade via temporary exhibitions. We can and must insist that there be some Puerto Ricans or Latinos with demonstrable knowledge of Puerto Rican art and culture on the curatorial, education and public relations staff of El Museo del Barrio because the history and permanent collection of this institution demand people with such a background. If you have a collection from a certain region or ethnic group or artistic movement then you must hire curators and educators that are conversant with the subject matter. This is not ethnocentricity at work but just good museum practice and plain old common sense. At the same time, I have not met one person who has said El Museo should be exclusively Puerto Rican. Rather, the greater concern is that El Museo remain "community" based which in this case means that it be responsive and relevant to "working class NY Latinos" and their culture and lifestyle; that there be more programs for artists, community involvement and exhibitions that seriously deal with issues that affect Puerto Ricans and Latinos. This can and is being done at other institutions. The fact is that mainstream museums like MOMA/PS 1 and the Americas Society are putting on much more radical exhibitions dealing with Latin American and Latino culture than El Museo. Take a look at the Mexico City show at PS 1. It will blow you away with its display of artists who examine the way class affects how bodies (people) are valued and evaluated in contemporary Mexico. Meanwhile the Americas Society is sponsoring a vanguard gallery of artists that formed a space called La Panaderia in Mexico City. If El Museo were putting on shows like that I would have no problem with it going "Latin American" because it would be bringing artists and art to El Barrio that are relative to El Museo's socially conscious roots. I wish I had the ability to write a pithy sound-byte which conveys that critics of El Museo del Barrio's current policies are not opposed to Latin Americans per se. Rather what people are reacting to is that El Museo's new "expanded" board is bringing to our table old unwanted baggage related to nexus between race, class and privilege in Latin America that is absolutely contrary to the progressive values of this community based institution. There is good reason to protest the whitewashed composition of its board and staff and the condescending and sometimes outright false statements that the board has issued about the origins of the institution and the objectives of the Puerto Rican community. Lastly, it is justifiable under the circumstances to insist on community involvement in choosing a new director since it is clear that the board of directors is steering the institution in the wrong direction. —Yasmin Ramirez (Back to Top)