On Friday morning, August 22, illustrator Felipe Galindo Gómez opened his e mail to discover a observe from his pal. “Have you ever seen this?” the message learn, and linked to the White Home’s bullet-pointed list targeting Smithsonian artworks and exhibitions. There it was: a picture of his 1999 illustration “4th of July from the south border.”
Since 2022, Galindo’s work had been reproduced on a label about anti-immigrant prejudice as a part of ¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States within the Nationwide Museum of American Historical past’s (NMAH) Molina Household Latino Gallery. Over the past three years, the gallery area has served because the short-term location of the nascent Nationwide Museum of the American Latino, which is at the moment dealing with an unsure future beneath the Trump administration. Now, the Molina gallery has quietly closed for the subsequent 9 months, Hyperallergic confirmed.
After the White Home featured his work in its hit listing, Galindo, who additionally goes by the title “Feggo,” stated he traveled from New York Metropolis to Washington, DC, to see whether or not it was nonetheless up. When he arrived on the museum on Tuesday, he discovered the exhibition closed. An indication stated it could reopen in spring 2026. In keeping with the Smithsonian’s web site, ¡Presente! was scheduled to shut on the finish of November, in preparation for programming marking the US’s 250th birthday. However the exhibition was shuttered on July 20, 4 months ahead of anticipated. The choice notably follows Trump’s March executive order concentrating on the Smithsonian Establishment and the discharge of his Fiscal 12 months 2026 finances, which excluded funding for the NMAL.
The Molina Household Latino Gallery’s early closure means it can stay shuttered all through Hispanic Heritage Month this fall, and marks a prolonged interval of inactivity for the fledgling Nationwide Museum of the American Latino’s solely present bodily gallery, which the museum’s director, Jorge Zamanillo, has referred to because the establishment’s “first iteration.”
Reached by Hyperallergic, a spokesperson for the establishment cited preparations for the Smithsonian’s Our Shared Future: 250 programming as the rationale for the exhibition’s untimely closure.
“The Nationwide Museum of the American Latino is taking part within the Smithsonian’s celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary and needed to fulfill the spring 2026 deadline for opening the Puro Ritmo exhibition in help of the Smithsonian’s institution-wide plans,” the spokesperson stated, referring to the upcoming present ¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsa on the Molina gallery. “The Molina Household Latino Gallery is closed to guests as a result of museum workers want the area to securely de-install Presente after which transition the exhibition area right into a staging space to organize for the renovation and set up of Puro Ritmo.”
The establishment reportedly adopted the salsa-themed exhibition as a softer various to a deliberate exhibition on Latino youth actions that garnered vital conservative backlash. Earlier than Trump’s crackdown on the Smithsonian started, that exhibition was broadly criticized by conservatives who disagreed with its concentrate on colonization and threatened to withhold federal funding for the forthcoming museum in 2023.
The Smithsonian spokesperson didn’t immediately reply a query about whether or not Trump’s museum evaluations or government motion influenced the choice to shut the Molina Gallery in July. Trump has repeatedly pushed the Smithsonian to advertise “unity, progress, and enduring values” in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary subsequent 12 months. Earlier this month, the administration demanded that Smithsonian museums submit their 250th anniversary plans to “align messaging” with the White Home Salute to America 250 Activity Drive.
Three of the works named on final week’s White Home listing have been created by residing artists who have been born in Mexico, together with Galindo, elevating questions on how the establishment will shield its Latino artists beneath strain from the federal authorities.
When Galido discovered from a workers member that the museum was “rotating” the exhibition, he advised Hyperallergic he remembers pondering, “Is {that a} new phrase for censoring?”
The administration has already launched a evaluation of exhibitions deliberate for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence as a part of its bigger probe. Trump’s authorities referenced the US’s 250th anniversary 9 occasions in its letter to the Smithsonian asserting its evaluation and forthcoming “content material corrections.”
Galindo advised Hyperallergic his 1999 illustration appeared within the 2010 ebook Manhatitlan: An Intertwining of Mexican and American Cultures.
“It’s one thing that mirrored, in my case, how I noticed immigration at the moment,” Galindo stated. Within the Nineties, former President Invoice Clinton’s administration had cracked down on border crossings, together with by installing fences. Galindo’s work contended with the growing militarization of the border, that includes a boy peering over a crimson and white-striped fence at blue and white fireworks.
“I do know artwork could be very highly effective and makes individuals ponder. That’s the concept. It’s not threatening,” Galindo stated. “It’s very disheartening to see [this] from people who find themselves in energy.”
