Sí for Yourself

The Smithsonian has been trying to build a National Museum of the American Latino since Congress approved it in 2020, and this month it finally got an address. The museum will move into the Arts and Industries Building on the National Mall, a 145-year-old landmark that has sat mostly empty since a renovation began in 2004. Even so, the Smithsonian says construction is probably still a decade away.

Sixty million people in the United States are Latino, and a museum only has so many rooms, so people are already debating what belongs inside. Every museum settles that debate one object at a time. A curator picks a thing, writes a few lines to hang beside it, and lets people decide what it means. The first object a visitor sees matters most, because it tells them what kind of museum this is going to be.

Your Task: Imagine you are the curator, and the first object in the first room is yours to choose.

1. The Object
Pick one real thing that could stand for Latino life in America. It could come from your own family, your street, a job someone you know does, or from history, and it does not have to be food. A grandmother's cooking stone, a cassette from a singer who died too young, or a pair of work boots would all count. Say what it is and where it came from. (2 to 3 sentences.)

2. The Label
Write the label that hangs beside it, the way a museum would. Museum labels are short because people read them standing up, so you get 50 words. Say what the object is, whose it was, and why it is here, without telling the visitor what to feel. (50 words or fewer, about 3 sentences.)

3. The Argument
Construction is a decade away and people will debate your choice. Explain why this object should be the first thing anyone sees, then describe one kind of visitor who might not get it and what you would say to them. (3 to 4 sentences.)

Optional: add a drawing of your object (link to it) if you want to. It is not required, and your writing has to make sense without it.

This Skillbuilder is in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Ready to try to win the big bucks? Try our newest KnoPro Challenge: Aerospace Engineering: Next-Gen Flight.