Fellow Museum-L's:

Thank you to everyone who's posted messages, kept up with this discussion
and kept it alive and filled with energy and enthusiasm.  No one got a
ticket this time. Bad news, the weekend is coming up and you have to turn
in your car keys.  But some of you won't, because after all, museum people
DO HAVE LIVES.

It's been an interesting several days.  The original message of "Latinos
in Museums" was posted to a handful of persons on Sunday and on Monday to
the general lis t.  Since then, there's been an outpouring of comments,
and opinions.  Remember, we all can learn from each other.  We all have
something to say and share and unl ike Sara Phinney Kelley said a few
posts back, the topic is IMPORTANT and merits everyone's ATTENTION.

As you know, or maybe you don't, with the Western states cracking down on
the historic migration of Mexicanos, many immigrants are now heading
towards the Eastern seaboard, changing the cultural landscape.  Yes,
Latinos are coming to your neighborhood soon.  Yes, even to small rural
communities.  Any place there is a need for unskilled or semi-skilled
WORK, migration, whether legal or not follows.  I think it's quite a
fallacy not to be aware of other people's heritages and cultures even
if those populations are not close at hand.  Sara, "...that of the 1400
people on Museum-L, we didn't all respond because we're not interested.
For some of us, our experience isn't relevant."

Excuse me?!  A great part of the Internet is that it has collapsed
geographical and cultural boundaries.  People who would have NEVER met or
had a face to face conversation now can do so over e-mail.  So even if
there aren't any Latinos or other people of color in your social strata,
you're reading this verbatim aren't you.  By my name, you can assume I'm
what you may call LATINO.  But I'm more than ju st Latino.  I'm a Chicano,
yeah, Mexican-American for some, so I ask you, do you know the difference
between a Chicano or a Puerto Rican or a Cuban or a Mexican national?  As
a Chicano and probably one of the few some of you will ever have e-mail
contact with in the near future, I have a specific culture, but I navigate
in what we call "American" culture.  So, there it is.  We're all immigrants
in cyber-space.

Communities which never saw a Latino presence are now seeing otherwise and
the changing demographics will AFFECT EVERYONE well into the next
CENTURY, so BRACE yourself for CHANGE.  Some of you may even want to
learn Spanish!  We here on the border (El Paso is on the U.S./Mexican
border) have been dealing with international trade, economic, immigration
longer than most states.  If you want to see the future, visit El Paso.
So for those of you in the profession who think this DISCUSSION can't
possibly affect you and your community or the profession, think again,
either you work with the flow, you step aside or let it run you down.
Museums have been stepping aside for far too long.

Everyone's comments have been very interesting and for the most part
supportive and proactive.  We've basically pointed to the need to attract
and introduce people of color in museums, so we've addressed a bit of
DIVERSITY or the need to train, recruit and retain multicultural persons
for the field.  We can all agree this need in the field is a NECESSITY.
Secondly, we've addressed the need to expose children to museums at AN
EARLY AGE.  And to present communities with POSITIVE ACCESS POINTS for
their participation in museums.  In her experience in museums and now as
director of the Women's Rape Crisis Center, Farar Elliott, succinctly
states, "I suggest to museums that want to be part of the life of the
communities they are surrounded by, try looking for funding as if you were
as important to the well-being of that community as another police officer
or an emergency foodbank or a rape crisis center.  Because, of course, you
are."  Well put Farrar!

I immensely enjoyed reading Lauri Hinksman's eloquent post about her
experiences at the Harlem Studio Museum (I was there in October, great
museum!), her work with inner-city youth, reaching out to community and
finding qualified and passionat e people who would otherwise be ignored
because they didn't fit the bill.  Which connects to Heleanor Feltham's
dilemma when she tried to find a museum job years ago.  I agree and hope
more people feel the same way, that, "If museums are the k eeping places
for our cultural icons, we need to be as inclusive of people as we
are of objects, to encourage staff and volunteers who really represent
our total community, even if it sometimes seems difficult."  Way to go
Heleanor!

In a dramatic chance of lanes, I think what Tongariki was talking about in
his post "if they had hung an I. M. Pei pyramid on the front of the
Smithsonian Castle building I am sure some reactionaries would have formed
death-squads to hunt down the perpetrators," he meant as he said, museums
are still quite conservative.  This isn't going to change any time soon.
The whole issue of museums providing ACCESS and OPPORTUNITIES is like
moving a mountain, done gradually by chipping away at it.  But we don't
want to completely destroy the mountain, we just want to build a road to
access it, so those who have the passion and the drive can climb it.

Next week's topic:  Diversifying Boards.  Let it ferment in your mind.
Gather your thoughts over the weekend.  See you on Monday.  Should
governing boards of museums, whether public or private reflect the
community?  You already know my answer to that puppy.  What do you think?
For those of you would can't wait and must post, do so, the highway is
open.

Miguel

P.S.  Genevieve LeMoine, I wouldn't move up to Maine, but living on the
desert, a trunk show of the Arctic and its people, would suit me fine.

Also Mr. Henry B. Crawford, sir, you never did get back to me as to how
the Texas Tech Museum reaches out to Raza.