The Mexican Museum (or El Museo Mexicano) is a museum created to exhibit the aesthetic expression of the
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
Mexican
Mexican may refer to:
Mexico and its culture
*Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America
** People
*** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants
*** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...
, and
Mexican-American
Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...
people, located in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, California, United States. As of 2022, their exhibition space was permanently closed at Fort Mason Center; and they are still in the process of moving to a new space at 706 Mission Street in Yerba Buena Gardens.
History
The Mexican Museum of San Francisco was founded by San Francisco artist
Peter Rodríguez
Peter Rodríguez (1926 – 2016) was an American artist, curator, and museum director. He was the founder, director and curator of the Mexican Museum in San Francisco, and a co-founder of the Galería de la Raza.
Early life
Peter Rodríguez w ...
in 1975. He was inspired to create this museum in order to fill a void in the public's access to Mexican and Chicano art. The museum was originally located in
San Francisco's Mission District
The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...
on Folsom Street in 1975.
The museum's new location was planned starting in 2015 to be built at 706
Mission Street
Mission Street is a north-south arterial thoroughfare in Daly City and San Francisco, California that runs from Daly City's southern border to San Francisco's northeast waterfront. The street and San Francisco's Mission District through which it r ...
across from Yerba Buena Gardens, as part the 53-story Yerba Buena Tower project, which will consist mostly of luxury condominiums. The entire relocation project was envisaged to cost $500 million ($30 million of which was for the museum), and was scheduled to open in 2020, however this was delayed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
and a lack of funds. The city of San Francisco has granted the Mexican Museum a 66-year lease for its future use of the site, renewable for 33 years.
About
The museum holds a permanent collection of over 16,000 objects including Pre-Hispanic, Colonial, Popular, Mexican and Latino Modern, and Mexican, Latino, and Chicano Contemporary art. It has one of the largest collection of Mexican, Chicano and Latino art in the United States.
Authenticity of artifacts
In 2017, archaeologist Dr. Eduardo Perez De Heredi wrote a report which stated that 96% of the museum's 2,000 pre-Columbian artifacts may not be authentic and could only be classed as "decorative"; thus only 83 pieces of 2,000, or just over four percent could be certified as “museum-quality.”
Perez De Heredia, said the rest of the pieces are still being studied, and may turn out to be real or not. “This is just the process . . . We have two years to finish examining the collection,” said Dr. Perez De Heredi. He points out that U.S. museums often receive high-end forgeries as donations and the authentication process is meant to sort those out.
See also
*
Acción Latina
Acción Latina is a Latino cultural nonprofit organization founded in 1970, and located in the Mission District at 2958-24th Street, San Francisco, California. They publish El Tecolote bilingual newspaper, lead the Paseo Artístico community art ...
*
Galería de la Raza
Galería de la Raza (GDLR) is a non-profit art gallery and artist collective founded in 1970, that serves the largely Chicano and Latino population of San Francisco's Mission District. GDLR mounts exhibitions, hosts poetry readings, workshops, a ...
*
Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) is an arts nonprofit that was founded in 1977, and is located at 2868 Mission Street in the Mission District in San Francisco, California. They provide art studio space, art classes, an art gallery, ...
*
Precita Eyes Precita Eyes Muralists Association is a community-based non-profit muralist and arts education group located in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1977 by Susan and Luis Cervantes.Self Help Graphics & Art