Meet Us
You have opened the second of thirteen QR codes located throughout the gallery.
To the right of the exhibit’s entrance, a digital multimedia wall called Meet Us.
Meet Us has three screens that reach to the ceiling: they preview the exhibit’s content. Meet Us features changing music and images that reflect the diversity of Latino experiences in the United States. It also includes an imagined plaza made up of photos of urban and rural Latino spaces throughout the U.S. and its territories. It is a prelude to the Gallery’s content.
If you walk to the right, parallel to the Meet Us screens, there is a bronze circle on the floor in front of the middle screen. If you stand on this medallion and face the screen, one of five digital Latino greeters approaches to welcome you. Then they invite you to return to the entrance and explore the exhibit. Continue here to learn the names of the greeters or you can opt to continue for a description of the exhibit’s introductory label.
List of Greeters
- Cesarina Pierre
- Jonathan Jayes Green
- Maria Hinojosa
- Brandon Molina
- Jonathan Fernandez
Introduction Label
At the entrance there is an intro label asking, “What do the experiences of Latinas and Latinos tell us about being American?” The label invites visitors to “examine the complexities and common threads of Latin American and Caribbean immigration” and to “discover the stories of communities and individuals who acted on the ideals of justice and inclusion for the nation.” You can choose to listen to the entire introductory label or opt to continue to a description of the entire gallery’s layout.
Section 1 Panel Text
What do the experiences of Latinas and Latinos tell us about being American?
Latino perspectives energize our understanding of U.S. history. In this gallery, you can reflect on the effects of colonization and slavery in the Americas and throughout the world. Make new connections between U.S. expansionism and the Mexican-American and Spanish-American Wars. Examine the complexities and common threads of Latin American and Caribbean immigration. Discover the stories of communities and individuals who acted on the ideals of justice and inclusion for the nation.
¡Presente! is U.S. history still in the making.
Donor Panel Text
Making History Together
The National Museum of the American Latino gratefully acknowledges the United States Congress, the American people and the following generous donors for their financial support of the Molina Family Latino Gallery.
LEAD DONORS
- THE MOLINA FAMILY
- J. Mario Molina and Therese Molina
- Martha Molina Bernadett and Faustino Bernadett
- John C. Molina
- Josephine Molina and Heather Rudy
- Janet Molina Watt and Laurence Watt
CORPORATE FOUNDERS
- General Motors
- Target Corporation
- Bank of America
- The Coca-Cola Company
- Wells Fargo
BENEFACTORS
- The Walt Disney Company
- The Ford Foundation
- Microsoft Corporation
- Henry R. Muñoz III and Kyle Ferari-Muñoz
The National Museum of the America Latino was established in December 2020 and is currently under development. The Molina Family Latino Gallery, opened in 2022, will enable visitors to envision the future museum.
Gallery Layout Description
The Gallery is a long rectangular room, approximately equal in size to a parking lot for fourteen city buses. An education lounge extends back from the rectangle in the far-right corner of the space.
The main room divides into four thematic sections: “Colonial Legacies”; “Wars of Expansion”; “Immigration Stories”; and “Shaping the Nation.” The four thematic sections are displayed inside curved glass cases that wrap around the perimeter of the gallery in a “U” shape. They measure 10-feet tall by 29-feet wide. A QR code is located in the center of each case. Next to the cases are four small defined spaces, called nooks, which highlight a multi-sensory experience of a single museum collection object in a glass case. A QR code for each nook is on the wall to the left of the object cases. Two more 19-foot-wide cases are located in close proximity to the center of the gallery.
Moving into the center of the room from the perimeter cases, there are two digital interactive tables, each around 6 feet wide. These offer historical content. One is on the left side, and one is on the right side of the room. The history interactives face the large cases and supply more information by QR code on a touchable experience attached to the interactive. There is also information available on a digital interface accessed through a keypad.
The center of the room is a Foro, or plaza, which features eleven interactive storytellers on eight-foot-tall monitors. You can access all the storytellers through any of the keypads in that area.
The north end of the Foro, near the entrance, presents the “Mapping the U.S. Latino Experience” digital multimedia wall.
The south end of the Foro has a long-curved bench with a flat wooden wall depicting Indigenous-inspired motifs above it. Behind the bench is the “Somos” theater where you can sit and experience a video. On the other side of the theater are two more digital interactive tables with historical content related to the large cases on the left and right walls and a nook with a QR code.
The exit is at the north end of the gallery.
Learn About Gallery Accessibility
Listen to how to use the Gallery’s accessibility features by plugging your headset into the keypad on the left wall of the entrance. If you prefer, you can skip this and continue into the gallery to the next QR code. It is located above a tactile floor marker to the left, just inside the entrance.
Directions to Next QR Code
QR code number 3 ahead is on your left about 12 feet away. QR Code 4 is on the case on your left.
