Thank you for bringing this subject up in Museum-L, as I deal with it at
work, and in talking to colleagues in California and across the Southwest.
The Latino Interests Network, affiliated with the AAM, has probably
responded to your questions by now.  They have kindly sent me their mailings
although I am not a member (since I can't afford to join AAM, an official
requirement).  Our two curators and one administrator are not Hispanic, but
we do have two Mexican-American women in the volunteer coordinator and
office manager's jobs.

We have no Latino curators in this local history museum, in a community that
is half Anglo and half Hispanic, because none applied for the jobs.  We look
for people with an M.A. in history or museum studies, and most qualified
applicants have been youngish Anglo women from somewhere else.  From this I
conclude that neither locals (of any cultural background), nor Hispanics
from around the Southwest, are particularly interested in getting advanced
degrees to pursue museum work. And as many of us Anglos know, it does not
pay very well.  We would accept student interns of any ethnic origins who
worked for free, whether representative of our regional cultures or not.

Schools can be blamed for not encouraging students from varied backgrounds
to consider work in the less common arts, science and humanities jobs.  But
our office manager, who is a Chicana, also believes that the cultural
climate in many Hispanic homes and communities is not one that highly
esteems, or even recognizes, museums as important.  Does it matter if kids
can tell frogs from toads, a Whistler from a Warhol, or the Mexican
Revolution from the Mexican War if their friends are pregnant and dropping
out of high school, struggling to get by working at fast-food jobs, or
simply more interested in watching major league sports on TV?

I don't believe in forcing museums upon others, even when our exhibits cover
"their" history.  I also object to tokenism in musuems, whether it is hiring
someone because of their cultural background in lieu of experience, or
installing slightly condescending shows extolling the virtues of some "cute"
cultural group-of-the-month. My best exhibits have been inclusive looks at
our community that treat all the participants according to a shared
experience (WWII veterans or ranch life), rather than cultural separations.

So Miguel (the initial posting's author), is El Paso similar, or am I
describing a totally different atmosphere here in New Mexico, 150 miles to
your west?  Is your local Mexican-American community more attuned to the
arts and humanities, science or natural history?  Thanks again for bringing
up the topic!

Robin Gilliam, Curator of History and Interpretation
The Silver City Museum