TEN Arquitectos: 2006 Rendering for the Future Mexican Museum in Downtown San Francisco. Image from the Architects’ website.
San Francisco will be home to a new world-class institution — The Mexican Museum — a project that was once a dream by Mexican American artist Peter Rodriguez. Back in 1975 Rodriguez managed to start his project with a grant from the San Francisco Foundation and other small contributors. His first efforts, towards what is now going to be the largest Mexican-Latino collection in the United States, consisted of a two-gallery space at Folsom and 14th streets, where he intended to present and preserve the arts and crafts he fell in love with while living and travelling through Mexico.
In 2001, the self-taught abstract artist Peter Rodriguez, decided to move the museum to its current quarters at Fort Mason Centre for Arts & Culture. However, as the collection grew he recognised the need for a cultural space dedicated to the vast Latino and Mexican culture, and that development became his life-long goal. His niece Irene Christopher, once said in an interview: “My uncle worked tirelessly, and with passion and drive, to personally demonstrate that, as a Mexican American, we can achieve any dream by ourselves”.
With 39% of San Francisco’s population identifying as latino, the museum’s board hopes to help educate second- and third-generation Chicano and Latino children about their heritage. Now more than ever, projects like the Mexican Museum are vital for the existing Latino communities in the United States, ensuring that culture diversity thrives and lives on.
The new Mexican Museum, designed by Enrique Norten (Ten Arquitectos), will open its doors with a Frida Kahlo exhibition in spring 2019