A national Latino museum project gets caught in the culture wars

<p>The National Museum of the American Latino may be years away from officially opening, but it's already caught in America's culture wars. The attack has been led in part by Latino Republican <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/national-latino-museum-funding-republicans-rcna99343" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart,</a> having proposed legislation to pull funding for the museum. </p> <p><strong>"</strong>I'm okay with you criticizing how you view history. But do you have to vote to defund it?" said, Julio Ricardo Varela, president of Futuro Media Group. "Seriously, like, you can't even stand up for our community? You have to go down the 'woke politics' side?"</p> <p>Diaz-Balart has since said <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article278196032.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">funding would not be pulled</a>, but only after a meeting with Smithsonian leadership: “What we did is we cut the funding, and immediately [the Smithsonian] responded, and then we had a very positive meeting."</p> <p>Gov. Maura Healey <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/politics/2023-08-08/healey-declares-state-of-emergency-over-skyrocketing-migrant-arrivals-shelter-demand" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">announced</a> a state of emergency this August due to the surge in migrant families arriving in the state and in need of shelter. A total of 20,000 people, made up of over 5,000 families with children, are currently living in state-funded shelters.</p> <p>And last month the long debated driver's license law for undocumented immigrants went into effect. The state saw roughly <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/31/opinion/marcela-garcia-drivers-license-undocumented/?p1=StaffPage" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">100,000 requests</a> for learner's permit appointments in the first three weeks of July.</p> <p>"They don't want to be in the shadows. They don't want to work under the shadows. They don't want to have to drive without a license," Marcela García, an