On today's episode of attention, Oliver will be talking about the efforts to create a new National Museum of the American Latino in Washington DC. Stay tuned. You won't want to miss this episode.
Hello, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to attention. Alva, the podcast for the American Latino Veterans Association. We are so excited to have you join us for this very special episode. I'm your host, Danny Vargas, chairman and CEO of Alva. In addition to these podcasts where you get to hear from inspiring guests, we also have a webinar series.
Well, you'll learn great information on really important topics and keep an eye out for future events by visiting our website, alvavets.org and our social media channels at Alva Vets. We really want to thank our sponsors for these podcasts and webinars, JP Morgan Chase, PMI Wells Fargo, AT&T, T-Mobile and Accenture. Please like, share, comment and subscribe. It really helps us out very much if you can do those things for us. I'm very pleased to introduce our special guest for today, Lili Gil Valletta and Estuardo Rodriguez.
I'll introduce you both. Night, guys. Thanks for coming. Hello. All right, ladies first. We'll start with Lili. Lili Gil Valletta is a former corporate executive turned award winning entrepreneur, television business contributor and Ted Speaker. After a 10 year tenure as an executive at Johnson & Johnson, she's a co-founder and CEO of Culture Plus Group, a family of cultural intelligence companies offering market research, business growth strategies and inclusive marketing services to corporations and brands that once successfully tap into the market.
So cultural shifts and diverse market segments to drive business growth listed two times by Inc. 5000 as one of America's fastest growing independently owned companies. The group includes C1. Plus the Choice Plus, the Human Dot Plus and Lili is an independent board director for the global youth retailer Sumis.
Did I pronounce that right?
Yes, you did.
Sumis and RCN television.
She also serves as chairwoman with the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino,
investor and operating executive board member for AUA, private equity partners, and advisor
to the FinTech company, Threz.
Her impact works, I apologize, her impact work includes serving as a trustee and scholarship
provider at the Hispanic Service Institution Southwestern Adventist University, mentor
to the Stanford University Latino Business Action Network.
I did that program and member of the World Economic Forum and steering member for the
Health Equity Forum hosted at the United Nations.
Welcome, Lili.
Thank you so much.
Estuardo is a principal and co-founder at Raben focused on government affairs.
He specializes in direct lobbying on Capitol Hill, the White House and federal agencies
in the areas of financial services, technology and telecommunications.
Created by the Hill and the National Institute for Lobbying and Ethics as a top lobbyist,
Estuardo has also cultivated a powerful network of media relationships and serves in the dual
role as Raben's counsel and on media and communications.
Beginning in 2004, 20 years ago, Estuardo launched an effort to gain congressional and
White House authorization to build a Smithsonian museum that would exhibit more than 500 years
of contributions and sacrifices of Latinos in the United States.
He currently serves as president and CEO of the Friends of the National Museum of the
American Latino, a campaign to create a Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino on the
National Mall.
Estuardo also uses his influence and leadership on various nonprofits and industry boards.
Estuardo is a member of the Council on Formulations and also serves on the University of Virginia
at Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at Vajibord.
Estuardo and Lili both serve on the Alpha Advisory Council.
Thank you so much for joining us today, guys.
Thank you.
So just for clarification, say so everyone's level set, the Friends of the National Museum
of the American Latino is a National 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring
that we can make this museum a reality.
And in full disclosure, I was the previous chairman of the group and I'm now considered
the chairman of Meredith mostly because of all the gray hair.
And I had to inherit the big shoes that you left for us on the board, Danny.
Well, and I would follow that up, Danny, since you were doing the little disclosures there
that we are not affiliated with the Smithsonian American Latino Museum in any way.
Absolutely.
It's always an important highlight.
Very important point.
Yeah.
All right.
So we've gone through the bios.
So let's start by talking about how you each got involved with this important effort.
Estuardo as the senior among us, why don't you go ahead and start how you got involved
a hundred years ago?
Yeah.
I mean, you already started the dating.
So yeah, it's been a 20 year round, which I know I know both of you know this well.
It really was just a an opportunity that came upon me and the team during a CHCI, Congressional
Hispanic Caucus Institute, lead state of conference where we had our our mother in a Congresswoman
Eliana Ross Leighton, now retired from Congress and Congressman Javier Becerra, who is also
retired from Congress and now the secretary of health and human services.
Both those individuals sharing in the vision of what one day could be in the American Latino
Museum hosted a conversation where it just piqued my interest and my team's interest.
And we decided to, you know, no good deed goes unpunished.
We volunteered to help out.
And that took us down this road for 20 years, which of course, you played such an integral
part in that final stage in 2020, which we can talk about more later.
But really it was an opportunity to explore how do we talk about our US Latino history
and what role does our national mall have in all the iconic museums?
Because for me, growing up in Washington, I was born in the district.
Going to the National Mall was like a weekend activity.
We just went through different museums.
Never once that occurred to me that my story was missing.
You just go through these museums and are just amazed by all the storytelling.
Well, thankfully someone specifically, Raul Izaguirre, back in 1994, decided that there
was something missing and it was important to highlight that.
And I was just lucky enough to be there to pick up the baton and have been doing it ever
since with amazing people like both of you.
So you started when you were 10 years old, right?
Exactly.
Pretty much.
Don't do the math because nobody will believe it.
Exactly.
Time flies and when you're having fun, as they say, and we've been having a great time
and hopefully now nearing the end, right?
The last page here.
That's right.
How about you, Lili?
How'd you get involved?
Well, I have both of you to thank for that beautiful journey that started.
I was trying to look up the date.
My goodness.
I should know this, but it feels like it's now about six years since it started.
But you know, in the work that I do, working with big corporations, trying to influence
their budgets and their business plans as it relates to addressing the fast growing,
shifting demographics of our country, which Latinos, of course, are driving more than 50%
of the growth of all population.
It made sense to lean into an agenda like this one.
And you know, you get invited to a lot of events and I got invited to something that
was related to the friends.
And right away, I think as Eduardo jokes about this, you said, Danny, this was kind of like
chatting amongst amigos.
I'm going to go into the amigo kind of side of the introduction of how I ended up on the
board.
Apparently, I was very bold in asking people for money.
So as a businesswoman that unapologetically wants every corporation of every person to
really pour in their dollars into our communities, I got the pleasure of attending one of your
events when both of you, of course, were at the helm, you as the chair, Danny, Eduardo,
as the CEO of the organization.
And I, in my roundtable, just started volunteering for just asking people for money.
Because, of course, we need to get this great effort funded.
And maybe you both were auditioning me for a position on the board when it was like,
well, that lady seems quite interesting.
I'm very unapologetic about looking for supporters.
So long story short, you know, thank you and thank you both because I know you are my padrinos
in this process for considering my name as a member of the board initially.
And fast forward later, when Danny was terming out of his position as chair, which by the
way, he's still on the board as our chair emeritus, then I was given the great opportunity
to be voted in as the transitioning chair that took that role from Danny.
And here I am now.
And gosh, you guys talk about two decades.
Probably five years or more feel like a blink.
So I got the benefit of coming in into the stretch that felt like the last mile of a
marathon.
And I think we're still in that last mile, maybe not, maybe just a few meters, not a
full mile to the to the finish line.
But that's how it was.
I was at an event, loving the mission, giving my heart without expecting anything in return.
And here we are now.
Yeah, I see.
I know, right?
I seem to remember some of those casual conversations about you coming onto the board.
Yeah, you guys recruited me because I just ask people for money.
Money is the life's blood.
I was telling I was telling Danny, I remember that we had barely just met.
We sat down at dinner and then in the conversation piece, you stood up and made the pitch for
the whole museum.
Oh, yeah.
I was like, wow, I don't need to do anything here.
Just met her and she's doing an amazing job already.
Oh, I can't leave, no.
You know what?
It makes sense.
I guess we're back on, like, like, maybe myself together here.
We're back to recording, right?
Yes.
Let's be, well, I disconnected myself.
Hold on.
I disconnected myself.
All right.
So, yeah, it's like, maybe we can pick it up now.
It's like, you never know who's watching.
So everyone, be at your best at all times straight from the heart without expecting anything.
Something may come about.
And all of a sudden, I took the biggest shoes in the house with Danny transitioning that
chairmanship, which I'm enjoying greatly.
So here we are.
Well, everyone's doing a great job.
For me, I started, I got involved, I think, in 2007, not nearly as long as a stuardo,
but that's when I had heard about the bill that was being bandied about to create a commission
to study the feasibility of this museum.
So I talked to my member of Congress.
I said, well, if this passes, can you help get me appointed to this commission?
Because I would find it fascinating.
So that's how I got involved through the commission those days.
And we'll go through the history in a few minutes, but before we go through the timeline
of events, why don't we just take a moment to talk about, from your perspective, why
is this museum important?
Why is it vital?
Sure, sure.
I don't know.
Lily, do you want to go first?
Sure.
I think you kind of said it in the introduction, Danny, and is Duardo's bio.
There is over 500 years of contributions of American Latinos to every aspect of American
society, history.
And in fact, there's so many fun facts, many that I've learned through this process.
And from you, Danny, that we think history started with Plymouth Rock and the arrival
of the pilgrims and all that stuff, when St. Augustine, Florida really is the oldest
city settlement in the United States, and that is a Spanish city.
So we were speaking Spanish here as the first foreign language before English.
And a lot of people don't know that, and our kids need to know that complete telling of
American history.
And that matters a lot because as we continue to grow into a fast approaching majority minority
nation just with the sheer numbers of shifting demographics and birth rates and what we're
seeing, roughly by the year 2040, we will be at that new status of a new America.
And forget about ethnicity and labels.
We're American, and we love our country, and we want to be able to understand where we
come from, what has contributed to the ethos and the essence of who we are, and you cannot
tell American history without it including Latino history.
Because I just told you that fun fact about St. Augustine, and there's many more, by the
way.
And I think, you have a lot of fun facts with some of the members of our community that
have been crucial as early as the Revolutionary War, and fast forward to today.
So anyhow, I think it's important because as Americans and as the world, we need to continue
to protect and preserve the stories that shape history, to honor and elevate that, and also
for that new generation of majority minority Americans to see themselves in the history
books and in the whole ways of iconic institutions like the ones we have in Washington, D.C.,
that the world needs to feel, embrace, and continue to be proud of.
I think Lily has said it all, really.
I would just underscore, we don't know, we don't know.
The identity piece of the conversation that we have as a community, not just as a Latino
community, but as an American society, when we point a finger at each other with assumptions
or presumptions of what we believe that the other is about, it creates the divisions.
Even within our Latino community, not knowing what we don't know is part of the problem.
When you go through a museum and you spend the time going through a museum, whether it's
an elementary school or if it's a college age group, there's always going to be a moment
where you just look and stare and go, wow, I had no idea.
That spark is what ultimately leads to change because understanding more allows you to step
back and fully grasp.
I was just talking to somebody the other day.
So many times, we fill in the gaps with our own story of what we believe the other person
to be about because we don't know.
We do that with politics, we do that with entertainment, we do that with celebrity.
We don't know them, but we're like, oh, you know what?
Here's what I think they're about.
Here's what I, and that's part of also the cheese and my culture, but it's the truth.
It's you fill in gaps, and the museum allows us the opportunity to push pause on that, correct
the narrative, whether it's now attention or not, or good intention or not, correct
the narrative with actual facts.
One of the things Danny, you and I talked about for many years as we navigated the halls
of Congress on the Republican side of the Democratic side is that the museum was not
a civil rights issue.
The museum was not a left issue or right issue.
It was an American issue, and you rightly underscored the patriotic role of 500 years
of history.
That's part of correcting the narrative.
That's part of filling the gaps with facts, replacing the, you know, filling the blank
thing that many people do when they don't understand a specific community or when we
don't even understand each other, because as you know, even within our own community,
we paint each other in a certain way because we don't know.
So we make assumptions.
So this to me is more than four walls and a ceiling.
It's about course correcting so that we can better be inclusive and celebrate what makes
us truly strong.
You know, I totally agree.
And you talked about narrative.
I think that's super important.
The other thing that I think is important is as you step back a little bit, I've always
said that you can't know where you're going unless you have a better sense of where you
came from.
You can't shape your future unless you understand your past.
And I think it's really important that we make sure that we fill in not only the gaps,
but also the, you know, the data points and the information, you know, Latinos have been
vital to the building, shaping and defending of this nation from the very beginning.
I talk about our military contributions quite a bit, you know, from, you've mentioned it
lately from Spanish general Galvez and over 10,000 Spanish troops that came from the new
world, from the Caribbean, from Central America to help stem the advance of the British from
the South allowing China, Washington to win the war of independence, you know, to the
first full Admin land States Navy, David Farragut during the Civil War, who said, damn the torpedoes,
full speed ahead to the 200,000 Latino troops in World War I to the half million in World
War II, to the 65th Infantry Regiment during Korea, the Burin caneers of Puerto Rico setting
the gold standard for the bravery of a combat unit to the thousands of Hispanic surnames
on the Vietnam, Fenris, Morrill, Wall and the young Latinos and Latinos who served in
sacrifice on our behalf in the battlefields of Afghanistan, Iraq or the 60 plus Hispanic
Medal of Honor recipients or the current 25% of the United States Marine Corps active duty.
Latinos take a back seat to no one in the defense of liberty.
All these stories need to be told and they need to be embraced and we need to be proud
of them, you know, so this museum is going to be super important because and I think
it's important that we share the fulsome story, the good, the bad and the ugly, because it
really is part of our identity as a nation.
So kudos to you guys for continuing the effort and we'll get it done.
I know.
But it's probably important for us to go through a little bit for our audience who doesn't
know about the museum effort to go through the timeline, you know, starting, I guess
1994 story, do you want to take a crack at them?
Maybe Lily fill us in on some of the details as well.
Great.
So yeah, as I hinted at in the beginning of my remarks, you know, Raul and Saguirre,
central to the creation of National Council of La Raza now Unidos US, he was the one who
organized a group of Latino Latino leaders to question the Smithsonian about why there
was nothing within the Smithsonian that truly highlighted the diversity, not just even Latino
history, but just broader diversity.
The Smithsonian took it upon themselves to conduct their own research and presented that
report willful neglect that highlighted a lack of diversity across the Smithsonian.
And through that report, several recommendations came from it again, 1994, where they first
suggested the possibility of creating a Latino center to conduct studies around exhibits,
the recommendation to create natural museum at some point.
And then a number of other recommendations focused on hiring and diversity within the
Smithsonian itself.
So 10 recommendations in total.
It was sad that 10 years later, you had barely begun to chip away at those actions that were
suggested or recommended, and finally, in 2004, 10 years later, when Congress and the
Senate and the other states later introduced that bill.
And even with that 2004, to not even get the first piece of legislation through until 2008
to create the commission where Danny Vargas steps in with so many of our allies and friends
to study around the support that a future Latino museum would have.
And then you're moving on from there to present that commission report, which you should obviously
talk more about since you were on the commission.
But this is a longer process.
When people talk about creating a museum, it is not something that, oh, let's just pass
the bill.
It took the African-American Museum almost 80 years, 80.
They went through four different commissions.
So going in their eyes wide open, it really wasn't this exciting thing like, oh, we're
going to get it done tomorrow.
It's like, let's hope.
We don't end up in a long slog the way the African-American Museum had.
We had amazing support, bipartisan from the very start.
And that's really the energy we've been trying to prove out.
And then the 501C3 was founded when?
So the 501C3 actually came along at the same time when the 2008 National Museum of American
Latino Commission bill went through.
That's when the Friends organization went from being an informal advisory group made
up of 2040 Latino organizations to an official 501C3 with a board structure and fundraising
operation because for those four years, we had no idea what was going to happen.
We had no idea if this was going to be something we just pushed through within the four, within
two Congresses.
And then realized quickly in 2008, we needed to formalize all of the work so that we could
see the marathon to the end.
Right?
And it's been an exciting time ever since.
But hopefully, hopefully, we'll get this done.
So I'll talk about the commission just briefly.
I was fortunate enough to be appointed to the commission by Congress, but we came together
for the first time in September of 2009.
And it was 23 of us from very different backgrounds, people like Eva Longoria, Milo Estefan, et
cetera, Republicans, Democrats, and business people, arts people, et cetera.
But we came together as a family pretty quickly and traveled around the country getting input
from citizens and experts.
And we finally came up with our report that we delivered to President Obama in May of
2011.
And unlike, so the Wolf of Neglect report, that was its title, the title we chose for
our report was to illuminate the American story for the benefit of everyone, Latinos,
non-Latinos, Americans, and those visiting our country to get a better sense of who we
are as a nation.
And we had three basic findings.
One was a clear and pressing need for the museum.
Two, it really should be part of the Sonia institution because we had an option to make
it a very private museum.
And three really ought to be on the National Mall, America's backyard.
And then in the fall of that year of 2011 was the first time that an authorization bill
was introduced in Congress, and that's when I joined the Friends Group Board.
And then that effort continued to try to get that bill passed, to try to get cosponsors.
We can get into the machinations of how to get a bill passed in Congress, all the sausage
making in a little bit.
But I didn't become chairman of that 5.163 until December 2016, when it became clear
that we needed to diversify the board in terms of political makeup.
We created the Chairman's Advisory Council.
We built this national coalition of partners, over 100 organizations, to be able to help
us.
And we got the bill passed in December of 2020.
We'll talk about the details in a little bit.
But then we handed the baton off to Lili, and Lili, you take it from here.
Yes, I did.
You know, I want to underscore something, because I didn't get to appreciate the power
of coalitions and the work that you do as Duardo and Reuben does on advocating and lobbying.
You know, I have been always the corporate type, and yes, I still have to influence and
lobby for projects in front of a board or executives.
But my goodness, the effort that it takes to get stuff passed and done and the consensus
and the sponsorship for a bill, and let's think about it, it's been multiple iterations
of bills and approvals in the 20-year tenure of this project.
It is, first of all, a remarkable effort that I pay homage to all of you that have been
there from ground zero day one.
But it also reminds me that the work is never truly, truly done until it's done.
And I know there's been questions about, and thanks for the clarification, as Duardo
was like, but the Friends is not associated with the Smithsonian organization.
And in a way, that is the very reason why it needs to exist, because it is an entity
parallel to the efforts that allows for that independent voice, that, you know, shaking
up of the trees that sometimes you need to do to get people's attention, to engage Republicans
and Democrats and community organizations and advocacy groups so that we can all sink
to the same tune and create a sense of urgency.
Because otherwise, out of sight, out of mind.
So even if a commission is done with its work, even if a bill is drafted by a few sponsors
that are there right behind it, without the work of the Friends for advocacy, we couldn't
get the milestones passed beyond that one first move in the next step and the next step
and the next step.
So sure enough, I come in and we got what, which was very, you know, it was like a birthday
gift for Danny.
We got the signature for the, for the bill that finally makes all of this effort and
all of these assessments and all of these feasibility studies and it declares that yes, indeed,
we will have a museum because we need it and it's important for American history period.
And we thought we were done.
And here we are still in existence and sometimes we're asked, we're like, what do the Friends
do?
It's like, well, we're not done until we're done.
So even though you may have a bill, that is really where officially the work of this
Smithsonian as the entity, the agency, the curator of the work starts.
So we may be handing a baton, but we still don't know where the work starts.
If we don't know where the museum is going to be.
So this is where we're at and people ask over and over all the time, where are we?
We need to make sure we have the location, the best location and this Smithsonian has
already recommended a few and Eduardo can give us details around those.
But yes, has to be on the National Mall.
And we also need to get back to the powers of being in DC to bless the location as the
location.
Hence why the work of the Friends continues.
And by the way, not to just not to make it more complicated as maybe those of you listening
are trying to track the time was like, oh my goodness, it's a lot of pieces.
But there's also a women's museum in parallel happening as our effort is undergoing all these
milestones.
So we're not just talking about making sure we have the right location for our Latino
museum, but also for the women's museum because that gets approved.
And it's already been deemed as such by the Smithsonian.
It's a bundle project with twins.
We're birthing twins.
So that adds another layer of complexity, if I may call it that, because there's even
more parties involved and not one, but two locations to be vetted and to be approved.
So where are we at?
Yes, we have a bill.
Yay.
Yes, the Smithsonian has its efforts and we have a director for all these efforts and
a board of trustees and all that's wonderful.
But we cannot start formally fundraising a daydreaming of a location on daydreaming of
a render if we don't know where that's going to be.
So in layman's terms, that's where we're at and the work that continues until it's done.
So as Eduardo can give more technicalities about what it takes, but hey, it has to be
bipartisan and it needs to be on the national ball.
Plain and simple.
Danny, I would just kind of quickly push in here, follow your lead on it, but I think
it's important to highlight that the Smithsonian does have approval for the museum.
It just doesn't have approval to build on the national ball where our history is told.
Where the 26 million tourists go every year.
It does have an executive director in Jorge San Manillo, who is an amazing director for
that museum and has spent three decades of his life in the world of museum and arts.
He's already fundraising, but as we all know, it's hard to fundraise when you can't just
point a finger and say that's where it's going to be, right?
That's the charge that he has right now to get this museum going, even if he doesn't
have the official location yet, which is truly commendable.
So maybe we take a minute to sort of double click on some of the inside baseball, if you
will, to give the audience a little bit of color on how we all got to where we are.
So I'll go to 2020 when after lots and lots of effort, we had worked to try to get as
many co-sponsors on the bill as possible.
Iliana Ross Layton had retired.
She had been our champion in the house.
And once she retired, we needed to find a new champion on the Republican side.
And I remember when we went to meet with Will Hurd in his office, who was a Republican Congress
from Texas, and who's about six foot five, by the way.
I remember when we asked him to be our champion and he finally, after a long conversation,
said yes, and he stood up and I looked up and I said, you know, Padre Fili Spiridusanti,
you're now a champion of the Republican side.
But that began a long effort to get as many Republicans and Democrats as co-sponsors and
the inside baseball pieces, you know, you need to get to two thirds of the house to
be able to do what they call suspension bill.
We got to 295 co-sponsors in the house.
And in July of 2020, that bill passed unanimously in the house and we turned our attention to
the Senate, where we had worked hard to try to get as many co-sponsors on the Senate side.
I remember we had three AM phone calls with, you know, fundraisers for Senator Cruz and
things like that.
And we went to testify in the Senate Rules Committee, thanks to Senator Roy Blunt.
And we in November of 2020, we were able to get the bill on the floor for unanimous consent
vote in the Senate and it was killed by one U.S. Senator.
We'll say the name, Mike Lee of Utah.
So we had to go to plan B. Plan B was to get it included in an omnibus bill.
Well, that took some horse trading.
That horse trading included the fact that we needed to not only include language to
make sure that the museum would have the political perspectives of both sides, but also keep
a portion of the National Mall reserved and restricted from building new museums.
That was the only way we were able to get that, our bill included in the omnibus.
And yes, it did pass in the Congress on my birthday, December 21st, signed into law by
President Trump six days later.
But that's why we are where we are now because yes, we have an authorization bill, but that
portion of the National Mall that would be ideal for both our museum and the women's
museum has been reserved and restricted for both.
So we've got to remove that restriction now.
And that's the challenge.
So maybe it's to talk us through how where we are now, how can we get that restriction
removed so we can actually move forward?
Well, two things.
One, I want to go back to Mike Lee for a hot second just to say, could it was to Mike
Lee for doing what he did and that it was a pain in the butt that he did it?
But he elevated the visibility and the importance of the museum just by blocking it.
He created the opportunity and springboard for so many people to become more aware of
what was happening, become outraged, right?
And it affected not just the Latin Museum, it affected the women's history museum too.
So it was double the pressure to respond to Mike Lee and say, look, we're going to push
through on this and let you shut this down.
Ultimately, no, we did not want that language that was added in also very bipartisan fashion.
We have to acknowledge.
We'll name them as you started naming people.
Senator Manton, Senator Mikowski added that language and that restriction, right?
Right now, we're looking at that same playbook from 2020.
Looking at the vehicles that exist before the end of this Congress.
As you mentioned, President Trump signed the bill into law, but President Trump had no
idea he was signing that bill into law.
There were 600 sub-pieces of legislation in the nominous.
He did not read any one of them that I'm aware of because most presidents don't.
At the end of the year, they want to wrap it up.
And so they just signed it.
The Congress has approved it in both chambers.
So absolutely was done in the last year of the Trump administration.
Now the work is to make sure that the House and the Senate introduce their bills again
to push through that restriction to build on the law, which they have done already.
The House has done theirs, introduced their bill, and the Senate has introduced their
bill.
They're not identical, so we'll have to word Smith and have these bills match.
But it will be an effort to get the House to pass that this year, likely after the elections,
because there's not enough time simply to do anything else before the elections, and
then get that over to the Senate from the House.
And that's an effort pushed that through, and hopefully we'll have one over by the staff
and the operations on the Senate that have concerns about building on the mall, which
I think we will.
I think we're in a very good space.
We're in a stronger bipartisan space than we were before.
Yes, exactly.
And Danny, also to add, there is precedent.
We're not the first to have to kind of convince the right bodies and entities about lifting
a restriction because the African American Museum had to go through a similar effort.
And by the way, because I want to put this out there, some people think it's like, whose
agenda is it that want to like block this or that?
Well, there are environmental reasons and some big perspectives about like, let's leave
it alone, let's not do anything else.
So it's nothing against the women's and Latino Museum per se.
It's more of a broader philosophical and principle of like, the mall is already built as it needs
to be period and put anything else on it.
So there's a lot of that that I've learned as well through this process of the mastery
and need for narrative massaging and messaging.
Because anything that could appear sadly in today's society and rapid, you know, social
media reaction of people, anything that may appear as a counter to the museum could be
misinterpreted as anti-Latino.
And many times is not at all.
It's just rules that have been there for many, many years that nobody ever questioned or
timing of things.
However, as Eduardo mentioned, sometimes it happens the other way around that we happen
to get things approved by just bundling them into a bigger, you know, grouping of legislation
that happens to go through when we need to and let it run.
So anyway, it's there's a lot of moving pieces.
But so we don't get overly complicated what it is.
We got the right support.
It is beautifully bipartisan.
And there is the language that we need to restrict it, lift the restriction so we can
get the location and move forward.
So it becomes a Christmas gift again.
Danny, as it happened with you, that would be awesome.
December 21st, get it passed.
That's right.
I would I would be remiss though, if I if I didn't underline and highlight the fact
that we could not have gotten the bill passed.
We could not have made the progress that we made without lots and lots and lots of people.
You know, the the elected officials, the staffers on Capitol Hill, all of the members of the
National Coalition of Partners that I described earlier, the tens of thousands, if not millions
of people that supported this effort, you know, we had lots and lots of people engaged
with us in social media, call the members of Congress, you know, sending emails and
letters and so forth, you know, all of that over an extended period of time, over 26 years
from the idea to the bill passage and now beyond that.
So this has been such a huge undertaking with so many people to thank.
There's not enough time or bandwidth to thank everybody that needs to be thanked.
But I'm convinced that there are lots of people that want to be able to help now.
So let's take a minute to talk about how people can help now with making sure that we
can make this happen and reality.
We want to start by pointing where all information is received and reviewed and that is the internet.
American Latino Museum.org, that's where a lot of our information is around the current
legislation, how people can sign up and get involved.
We will get to the point post-election where we will be calling on the community to weigh
in, to reach out to Capitol Hill and let folks know this needs to get done this year.
We also have opportunities with broader coalitions by industry, whether it's the private sector
or corporate America sending in their letters, whether it's military and veterans sending
in their letter as assigned on the opportunity to gather people and build out a huge base
of supporters that are focused on their sector of our society is also just very important.
So that people on Capitol Hill realize it's not just about this one small Latino community,
it's about a universe that has contributed across the 500 years and the opportunity for
them to get engaged in lobbying Congress to have their voice heard.
That's what we're going to be focused on right after the elections to make sure people are
ready to go and we'll get this across the finish line.
So AmericanLatinoMuseum.org and of course all the social media handles that are Latino
Museum at Latino Museum on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
And Danny maybe one more thing, anybody that is watching that is affiliated with a company
or a big corporation or happens to have power and influence in a corporation.
While we may not have the beautiful render to point to the location yet, the fundraising
has started.
So just bringing that up to the awareness of the executives of corporations and making
sure that they know that this is one of those critical legacy initiatives and capital campaigns
to be put on corporations.
Raiders is critical.
And maybe you watching me think, oh yeah, I work for, I don't know, Corporation ABC
and I don't know the CEO, it doesn't matter.
You can, I'm sure try to get to either achieve diversity officer somewhere, government affairs
person somewhere.
There's ways and there's the power of LinkedIn as well, but we do want that corporate support
sooner than later because then when the time comes for fundraising and the appropriations
face of this entire effort, which will be 50-50 paid by the people's monies and by private
sector, the more of those corporations that we have already made aware and committed,
the better it will be for us to shortcut, God willing, the timeline until we get to
the breakdown.
Yes, yes, and all that, just to go back to the Smithsonian distinction, all of that fundraising
capital campaign wise, we as you will know, Devin, we turn all that over to the Smithsonian.
Exactly.
We don't handle capital campaign.
So if you are interested, as Lily said, more than happy to connect folks directly with
the Smithsonian so they can have that conversation.
Well I appreciate that.
And as both of you know, as members of the Alva Advisory Council, you know that our
mission is to help Latino veterans thrive and recognize their indispensable contributions.
We do our best to make sure that we're sharing the stories of Latino contributions to the
military, but this national museum on the National Mall, as well as its virtual presence,
so it won't just be four walls and a building in Washington, D.C., it will be expansive
throughout the internet, throughout the rest of the world.
It will serve an important role in making sure that we can tell the stories of Latino
contributions to our national defense and security throughout the last 248 years and
into the future.
So that's from a veteran perspective.
That's why it's important to us to make sure that we can support this effort and make sure
that it's a reality so that we can not only walk in the doors of this building one day,
but also see those stories spread virtually throughout the rest of the world.
Absolutely.
I can't wait.
I'm going to talk to you, Danny.
I learned a new fun fact about military.
By the way, sorry, shameless plug to something I learned because you never stop learning.
We went to Spain with a friend's delegation and I learned a really fun fact, Danny.
You got to add it into your bag of stories that I had no idea that to help our own revolutionary
were here in general Washington and everybody else fighting for our freedom here.
The criollos, so many of our own ancestors from Peru, Colombia, Mexico, the wealthy Spaniards
that were now settled in the Americas were sending money and also smuggling the weapons
in cod crates to help North America in their fight.
I found that fascinating.
So there you go.
We were the angel investors to some extent of the many wars that were fought.
I had no idea.
Maybe you knew that already, but it was just so fun to learn all these little things that
I want our kids to know, our American kids to know that there are those Hispanic American
contributions from way back from the very beginning that allowed us to fight for our
own freedom from day one.
So that was kind of a fun fact.
I'm Talent and Treasure and as we know we are a diverse community and our veins is the
blood of codillos and casiquets and guerreros and that was instrumental in our fight and
our continued service to our nation.
All right, let's wrap it up one more time.
Working people go to find out more and help.
AmericanLatinomuseum.org.
Please join us there and get involved so we can get this over to finish life.
Thank you so much, Lili and Estuardo.
We really appreciate your time.
Lili Gil Valletta, Estuardo Rodriguez.
Thank you so much and we're going to make this thing a reality.
And thank you all so much for joining us on behalf of the American Latino Veterans Association.
I appreciate you joining us today.
We hope you enjoy the content.
Please join us for future webinars and podcasts and please keep an eye out for information
on our upcoming events by visiting our website alvavets.org.
Thank you once again to Lili and Estuardo for being our guest today.
Thank you again to our sponsors for the podcast and webinars, JP Morgan Chase, PMI Wells
Fargo, AT&T, T-Mobile and Accenture.
Thank you again for joining us and as always, be safe, aim high and thrive.
We'll see you next time.
Thanks again.
Thank you.