(gentle music) - What does it take to build a museum?

We don't know until we do know.

If you don't have culture, you don't have humanity, and if you cannot express yourself how you feel, then you do not have power.

(motor whirring) (gentle music) In the United States, there's 35,000 museums.

We estimate that there's only around 30 museums focused on the Latino community in the entire country.

There are none in the Upper Midwest.

- You know who you are: Chilanga, norteña, chicana.

You can trace your spirit to ancient cultures, to living music, to rhythmic dance.

Your identity, our identity does not fit in a square box in a government form.

- In Minnesota, there is approximately 400,000 people of Latin American descent.

Contrary to popular belief, our community has been here for easily a century and a half and possibly more.

I see people in the community being told they don't belong, that they're not part of the body politic, that their history and their culture is not connected to who we are as a nation, who we are as Minnesotans, and, for me, the historical narrative provides evidence to the contrary.

(casters rolling) (gentle music) For us, when we tell about history, we want to tell it through the arts: poetry, dance, music, old codices, murals.

These are the ways of telling our history in all of its different forms.

These are from an artist from Guanajuato, Mexico.

Her name is Ali Villanueva, and this is all cartonería, Mexican paper-mache, and even though it's all cardboard and paper, they have moving parts, a little bit of wire.

- [Observer] That is really cool.

- We talk about our museum as being part of who we are.

We're not creating a space where we're talking about other people but rather where we're inviting community members to tell their own stories.

When we do that, we're engaging in a very different kind of museum storytelling.

(paper ripping) (attendees speaking indistinctly) (gentle music) (Listo?)

LO QUE VAMOS A HACER ES... SUS COMPAÑEROS VAN A CORTAR PAPEL, NOS LO VAN A PASAR Y LO VAMOS A METER EN EL GEL, ¿DE ACUERDO?

- Right now we have two international visiting artists.

The artists created these giant paper mache sculptures called alebrijes.

(gentle music) ¿QUÉ OPINAS?

PARA ESTA OBRA LA CABEZA ESTÁ HECHA CON EL CRÁNEO DE UN PERRO Y EL CUERPO ES DEL CUERNO DE UN TORO.

- The characters are called alebrijes.

It's an art form created by a Mexican cartonero.

His name was Pedro Linares, and he fell ill.

In his illness, he had a feverish dream and, in this dream, he walked through this forest and saw all these very strange creatures.

There was a fox with a head of a fish and geese wings, and there was a ajolote, and it had horns of a deer.

And these creatures were in all kinds of crazy colors, patterns, bright green, red, purple, pink.

And all of them looked at him and cried in unison and said, "Alebrijes, alebrijes, alebrijes."

(VEN AQUÍ) ¿QUÉ TE PARECE TODO ESTO?

ES DIVERTIDO ESTAR AQUÍ.

¿CUÁNTOS AÑOS TIENES?

15 AÑOS.

¿NACISTE EN MINNESOTA?

SÍ, NACÍ AQUÍ.

ERES MINNESOTANO.

¿TE GUSTA EL ARTE O NO?

SÍ.

¿ERES UN ARTISTA?

LA VERDAD NO.

NO SÉ DIBUJAR.

PERO AQUÍ TODOS SON ARTISTAS.

TODOS ESTÁN HACIENDO ARTE.

(gentle music) - This is the future of our country.

This is the future of our state.

A lot of times, Latino kids just feel like they maybe don't belong here.

We get a lot of messages, negative messages from the government or from the media, and so, for us, it's very important to create spaces where kids, youth, adults, everyone in our community, feels welcome and included.

(gentle music) We are gonna install 16 of these giant alebrijes at Raspberry Island.

So we've been working on this project for about five years.

This exhibit is essentially an outdoor museum quality exhibit without the building.

It's important to note that Raspberry Island is part of Harriet Island Regional Park.

This is the location where we want to build the Minnesota Latino Museum, and so, effectively what we're doing is planting the seed in the community's imagination of what a museum could look like and then inviting people to come enjoy the art and also co-create the art with us.

(gentle music) - Are you thinking about any drinks or a drink station?

Would we like that in there?

Or... - We ordered food, but I didn't order any drinks, so we had to figure out the drink situation.

I mean, the actual presentation is just about an hour.

There's a lot of challenges.

Yeah, I mean, everybody loves art, and everybody hates paying for art.

(gentle music) There is a history of trauma and a history of disappointment and regrets and a history of disinvestment that comes from failure.

A lot of times, foundations, donors don't want to give money if they see a community ask for money, develop resources, and then fail to launch the promise.

(gentle music) - It's a cold morning.

If it were here, Aquí estamos, Aquí estamos.

I think, in our community, there's things that we have to overcome.

One of them is there isn't as much of a history of philanthropy.

We need millions of dollars.

That's the truth.

And if business owners, Latinos in, you know, more wealthy positions are not willing to give, we are not gonna have this museum.

The same thing is true with artists.

We need artists to share their work, to create the work, to feel a sense of co-ownership with the project.

If artists don't feel connected, represented by this project, there's not gonna be any museum.

- We're doing the installation of the alebrijes monumentales, the giant alebrijes, right here on Raspberry Island on the Mississippi River between Downtown Saint Paul on this side of the river and the West Side of Saint Paul on the other side.

The West Side is the only officially designated Latino cultural district in Minnesota, and it's also the first location where there was a Latino barrio here in our state.

There's a lot of people that want to see this happen, a lot of people who are very excited, and my job is to tell them, "I'm not doing this.

You're doing this."

(gentle music) (people speaking indistinctly) - Hi, Alex.

- Hey!

how's it going?

- Good.

How are you doing?

- Good.

Good to see you.

- Welcome.

Welcome.

Let's kind of chit-chat for like another 10, 15 minutes, and then we're gonna start at 3:25.

- Perfect.

- Did you sign in?

You know your table and everything?

- [Alex] Yeah, I know my table.

I got it.

- Okay.

- All good.

- I'm okay, I hope I'm not gonna crash 'cause like I'm very good right now, but I have to go at the end, and I didn't really sleep last night, so I'm gonna (moans).

- Oh, yeah.

- My heart is filled with a deep sense of gratitude for all of you who are here, and welcome you to the West Side community.

Syrian, Mexican, Lebanese, Jewish and immigrants settled in West Side Flats, and in the fifties and the sixties, the devastating floods occurred on the Flats.

It was deemed uninhabitable.

Eminent domain came into play with the city of Saint Paul, and the families were massively displaced and removed, and that set the stage for an industrial park to be built.

- We lived at 237 State Street on the corner of State and Florida.

The Flats were a great place to live.

In October of 1961, I came home from school, and I quickly noticed my mom was crying at the kitchen table.

I asked her, "What's wrong?"

She says, "We have to go.

We have to leave the West Side."

(gentle music) It is my hopes and dreams that the Latino Museum will help to inform our young people, but most importantly and significantly, that it will continue the legacy of the West Side Mexican American community.

(gentle music) - You know, when you talk about culturally-grounded institutions, people are always saying, you know that the powers that be, here, "Oh, they want to rewrite the history books."

We're not rewriting the history books.

We're telling history correctly for the first time.

That's a big difference.

(audience applauding) That's a very, very big difference.

(audience applauding) Tourism is the number one industry of the world, and with the largest component of tourism, cultural thing.

You know, in New York, when 911 happened, you know, and all of the theaters closed, the restaurants were screwed.

People go to the theater and go eat.

People come to museums and go eat.

Spend money, I mean, tourism is a vital, it is the number one industry in the world, and it's growing.

So no, we contribute.

We are an economical engine.

There's no ifs and buts about it, the arts.

(gentle music) - I've said it before.

You show me a great city, I'll show you great art.

You show me an international city, I'll show you great international art.

Art is how we make space more than just a place.

Art is how we turn places into homes.

- I have the privilege and the honor to represent the district that we're sitting here in our great capital city of Saint Paul.

The arts is healing.

The arts is medicine.

The arts is what keeps our mantiene nuestro.

(audience applauding) (people speaking indistinctly) - [Mayor] Five, four.

- Three.

- Tres.

- [Crowd] Dos, uno.

(crowd cheering) - I think this process is gonna take years.

I know there are some people in the community who, you know, (clicks fingers) want to get it, want to see it tomorrow.

They want, (laughs) they want it.

They're like, "Where's this museum?"

I think it's gonna take a lot longer than people think.

And even when we have our opening, which I do believe will happen, that'll just be the beginning.

So, for me, it's like I wake up in the morning, we work hard, we bring people together, and we see what happens.

(gentle music)