In this episode of the “Collage” podcast, Rev. F. Willis Johnson and Rev. Gregory Kendrick explore the profound intersections of faith, history and preservation. They delve into the power of sacred spaces and how maintaining and honoring these place can be a form of advocacy.
PRESENTE! A Latino History of the United States
The American Museum of the Latino faces more hurdles after over two decades of advocacy.
Congress passed legislation to allow for the creation of the Museum, along with the American Women’s History Museum, as part of the Smithsonian Institution in an online format. Five years later, new legislation introduced by Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) wants to build a physical museum for both the Latino and women’s museums but might face pushback due to a new executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
Advocacy for the National Museum of the American Latino began in 2003, with former Reps. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) introduced a bipartisan bill to create the museum. A report titled “To Illuminate the American Story for All” authored by a presidential commission created by former President George W. Bush’s administration in 2011 stated the creation of the museum is necessary.
“The Smithsonian American Latino Museum not only as a monument for Latinos, but as a 21st Century learning laboratory rooted in the mission that every American should have access to the stories of all Americans,” the report stated.
But legislation to officially create the museum did not pass until 2020. The National Museum of the American Latino Act of 2020 was passed in Congress and signed by President Donald Trump. The legislation was included under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which includes a subsection authorizing the museum's creation.
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However, the National Museum of the American Latino is only online but has occasional in-person exhibits at its Molina Family Latino Gallery at the National Museum of American History. In February 2025, Malliotakis introduced the Smithsonian History of American Women and Latino (SHAWL) Act to build both Latino and women’s Smithsonian museums.
Malliotakis originally introduced the same legislation in August 2024 during the 117th Congress but reintroduced it for the 118th.
“The introduction of this critical bill brings us one step closer to fulfilling the dream of having both museums right where they belong — on the National Mall,” Rep. Tony Cárdenas, who joined Malliotakis in introducing the bill, stated in a press release.
According to documents from the National Museum of the American Latino, a physical museum would either be built on undeveloped land across from the National Museum of African American History and Culture or right northeast of the tidal basin.
The National Museum of the American Latino also stated that they do not comment on pending legislation.
Over at the White House on March 27, President Donald Trump recently endorsed the physical creation of the American Women’s History Museum. Still, he did not show support for the National Museum of the American Latino.
Trump endorsed building the women’s museum at an event associated with the Republican Women’s Caucus. He stated he would back Malliotakis’ legislation “100 percent.”
"The Republican Party today is the party of opportunity, security, and freedom,” Malliotakis stated in a press release.
But recently, the status of the American Museum of the Latino is uncertain as President Donald Trump signed a new executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
The executive order stated that the Smithsonian Institution is “under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.
“Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” the executive order states.
President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) Thomas A. Saenz called the executive order “troubling” as in the past museums have been kept out of political debate.
“It seeks to introduce current political disputes into policy surrounding long-term preservation of history through museums and similar institutions,” Saenz said in reference to the executive order.
During his second administration, Trump has signed other executive orders seeking to eliminate “woke” initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion within government agencies.
Saenz said MALDEF, which supports the civil rights of all Latinos, wants the museum to have a permanent location on the National Mall. He also added that Latino advocacy organizations and historians should decide what exhibits go in the museum. Saenz said he hopes the museum’s exhibits show the full history and story of the community rather than playing along with stereotypes, like only showing American Latinos as immigrants.
“I hope that there will be consultation with such groups, which often have an understanding of the contemporary repercussions of exclusion patterns in our history and the way that history is taught and passed on in our country,” Saenz said.
Maggie Rhoads is a student journalist attending George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. At The Fulcrum, she covers how legislation and policy are impacting communities.
People running.
President Trump’s campaign and allies spent $21 million of campaign spending on attack ads against transgender people. With that level of spending, I was shocked to find out it was not a top concern for voters of either party, but it continued to prevail as a campaign priority.
Opponents of transgender participation in sports continue to voice their opinions, three months into the Trump presidency. Just last month, the Trump administration suspended $175 million in federal funding to Penn State over a transgender swimmer. $175 million is a bit dramatic over one swimmer, or in the case of the entire NCAA, fewer than 10 athletes. Even Governor Gavin Newsom was recently under fire for sharing his views on his podcast. Others, like Rep. Nancy Mace, have also caught on to the mediagenic nature of transphobia right now. “You want penises in women's bathrooms, and I'm not going to have it,” she said in a U.S. House hearing last month. I had no clue who Nancy Mace was prior to her notorious views on LGBTQ+ rights. Frankly, her flip from being a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights to shouting “Tr**ny” in a hearing seems less like a change of opinion and more of a cry for attention.
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Just this week, Representative Zooey Zephyr spoke to her colleagues in the State Legislature about a bill that would ban drag performances and pride parades in Montana. Her simple cry for humanity flipped 29 Republicans, ultimately killing the bill. To me, this proves that even the most polarizing topics are not that polarizing when you tune out the noise and look at what is right in front of you for what it is.
Recently, at my cousin’s 12-and-under flag football game, it became clear which team was going to win. Their bigger, bulkier builds gave them a clear advantage. “That kid is huge, he looks fourteen,” I heard a parent say to the person next to her.
Besides the off-handed comment, it seemed that the parents took no issue with the size difference. I even turned to my aunt and asked her about it. Her response, “This league is based on age, not size,” warranted a head tilt.
I was confused that there wasn’t more outrage among the parents about the size discrepancy. This response contradicts the sentiment I see online each morning when reading the news. Whether a public figure, politician, or journalist, people seem to be getting worked up about “fairness” in sports, citing a variety of physical characteristics.
In professional sports, there are strict eligibility guidelines set forth by each sport’s governing body. Some sports, often less physically consequential, use simple means like an athlete’s passport. In other sports, like swimming, eligibility is based on testosterone levels. Setting the morality of these types of tests aside, there are a myriad of ways to keep sports fair for all competitive athletes that are already in place.
Hormone panels, drug testing, and weight classes are all within the norm of competitive sports at the professional and Olympic levels. So, I sit here wondering why the media and politicians are so obsessed with an outright ban on transgender athletes when there are all sorts of other ways to ensure fairness.
So, next time you hear people complain about fairness when discussing transgender inclusion in sports, remind them that sports associations already have measures in place to ensure credible competition. And if they are truly concerned with fairness, they should be advocating for stronger protections for all athletes, not the outright banning of an entire group of people.
There is a day in the future when the transgender identity won’t be used as a mask to disguise people’s ignorance and hate. There is a better future where the small subset of people who overtly hate transgender people are not given a platform to keep ruining the lives of kids everywhere who are just trying to play sports with their friends.
Lennon Torres is a Public Voices Fellow on Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse with The OpEd Project. She is an LGBTQ+ advocate who grew up in the public eye, gaining national recognition as a young dancer on television shows. With a deep passion for storytelling, advocacy, and politics, Lennon now works to center the lived experience of herself and others as she crafts her professional career in online child safety at Heat Initiative.
Two children reading in school.
April 2nd is International Children's Book Day. It is time to celebrate the transformative power of children's literature and mourn the spaces where stories once lived. The numbers are staggering: there were over 10,000 book bans in U.S. public schools during the 2023-2024 school year alone, affecting more than 4,000 unique titles. Each banned book represents a mirror taken away from a child who might have seen themselves in those pages or a window closed to a child who might have glimpsed a world beyond their own.
I'm a child of the 80s and 90s, back when PBS was basically raising us all. Man, LeVar Burton's voice on Reading Rainbow was like that cool uncle who always knew exactly what book you needed. Remember him saying, "But you don't have to take my word for it"? And Sesame Street—that show was living proof that a kid from the Bronx could learn alongside a kid from rural Kansas, no questions asked. These and other such programs convinced an entire generation that we could "go anywhere" and "be anything.” Also, they were declarations that every child deserves to see themselves in stories, to dream in technicolor, and to imagine futures unlimited by the accidents of birth or circumstance.
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Let me tell you something I've learned from years of working with kids, both as a parent and a pastor: magic happens when children find "their" book. You can literally see it. When my students discover characters who share their experiences—their joys, struggles, family structures, and cultural celebrations—their demeanor changes. Their backs and shoulders straighten. Their voices grow more vigorous. They begin to understand that their stories matter and that they belong in the grand narrative of human experience.
Hans Christian Andersen, whose birthday we honor on International Children's Book Day, once wrote, "Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale." But here's the million-dollar question: whose fairy tales are we determining worthy of shelf space? The answer to that isn't just about books—it's about who we want to be as a society.
This year's theme, "The Freedom of Imagination," feels less like a party and more like a battle cry. And honestly? It should. We're standing at a crossroads, and the path we choose now is going to echo for generations.
To those who defend banning books under the guise of "protection," I ask: what are we protecting our children from? Is it from the knowledge that their classmate has two moms? Do they understand that some of their friends celebrate different holidays? The realization that courage and kindness come in all colors? Give me a break. Real protection means giving kids the tools to understand their world—all of it.
International Children's Book Day reminds us that literacy is more than the ability to decode words on a page. True literacy is the capacity to read the world in all its complex beauty, to recognize oneself in stories, and to develop empathy for experiences unlike our own. That's what really scares the book banners—not that children will be corrupted but that they'll start thinking for themselves.
As our son grows, I reflect on the legacy we're leaving him and all children and youth who are just beginning their journey. Will they find themselves in the pages of their school libraries? Will they see their experiences, their joy, and their unlimited potential reflected in the books they encounter? Children deserve to see themselves as heroes, scientists, artists, leaders, and dreamers. They deserve to know that their stories, their lives, and their futures matter. It must be celebrated, protected, and expanded.
Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson is a spiritual entrepreneur, author, and scholar-practitioner whose leadership and strategies around social and racial justice issues are nationally recognized and applied.
Stephanie R. Toliver is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction focusing on English Education and Adolescent/Secondary Literacy.
In her research, Toliver employs creativity and imagination to confront systemic inequities and promote more equitable education environments.
I spoke with Stephanie on a recent episode of Fulcrum Democracy Forum (FDF). The program engages citizens in evolving government to better meet all people's needs. Consistent with the Fulcrum's mission, FDF strives to share many perspectives to widen our readers' viewpoints.
She shared that her work focuses on three main areas, including investigating Black storytelling as a social critique and transformation mechanism. "My aim in that is to really underscore the role of narrative," Stephanie said. "Showcasing how storytelling as this culturally and critically informed literacy practices can help to expose injustices, but also inspire new paradigms for equity and liberation."
Stephanie wrote a column published on the Fulcrum titled "No Going Backwards: Cannot Take Down DOE." She wrote about the White House declaration to shut down the U.S. Department of Education, coupled with the executive order banning diversity initiatives, which threaten to undo the progress so many Americans have fought to achieve in advancing educational equity. "There's been a history of stories that argue for a more efficient government. Some folks may see this efficiency as a streamlining, getting rid of the bloat, of unnecessary things. But, so many people consider those who are economically disadvantaged, elderly, disabled, people of color as those unnecessary things," Stephanie said.
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Stephanie is from New Castle, Pennsylvania. She told me about how her upbringing influenced and inspired the work she leads today. "Everybody I knew was Black, everybody in my school bus was Black, there were a lot of Black students in that school, but only two of us in the honors classes." When Stephanie was in 11th grade, she moved with her family to Sanford, Florida. She said that was the first time a guidance counselor or teacher brought up college to her. "I had a 4.0 GPA, I had good attendance, I had community service hours. I had done all the things, and no one had ever brought up college. Why not?" she asked as she compared her time as a student in New Castle. "Who might I have been if I was encouraged earlier?" she wonders.
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If you have a suggestion for a change leader I should profile in an upcoming episode of the Fulcrum Democracy Forum, please email me at Hugo@thefulcrum.us.
I am the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum. I am also the publisher of the Latino News Network and an accredited solutions journalism trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network.
