Smithsonian Gets $1M Gift From Bank Of America For Latino Gallery

WASHINGTON, DC — The Smithsonian Latino Center received a $1 million gift from Bank of America to support the opening of the Molina Family Latino Gallery at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

The 4,500-square-foot Molina Family Latino Gallery is scheduled to open in 2022, coinciding with the Smithsonian Latino Center’s 25th anniversary.

With the gift, Bank of America becomes one of the first corporate benefactors to support the Latino Gallery.

“The Latino Center and Bank of America both value the preservation of culture,” Eduardo Díaz, director of the Smithsonian Latino Center, said Wednesday in a statement. “This is why we’re honored to have Bank of America as a grand-opening sponsor.”

The Molina Family Latino Gallery will present stories of discovery, identity, migration, innovation, entrepreneurship and success.

“America’s history has been written in part by the many contributions of Latinos and their heritage,” said Larry Di Rita, Washington, D.C. market president for Bank of America. “The Molina Family Latino Gallery will help tell that story for the first time on America’s town square, at the Smithsonian Institution on the National Mall.”

Bank of America has supported other Smithsonian museums and cultural initiatives, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian.

Since opening in 1997, the Smithsonian Latino Center works to preserve Latino history and culture.