The Museo Alameda

In 1949, Tano Lucchese, the legendary San Antonio businessman, built the largest movie palace in the United States dedicated to Spanish language entertainment. At the opening on March 9, 1949, Luchesse said, "The Alameda will be a permanent symbol of good faith and understanding between the Latin American and Anglo American where they might share and recognize two different cultures."

By 1991, the theater had fallen into disrepair. A group of San Antonio visionaries promoted the rebirth of the Alameda as an important national icon symbolizing the contributions of Latinos to the cultural heritage of our country. The City of San Antonio supported this vision by donating the landmark properties and by contributing capital dollars to the redevelopment campaign. This moved inspired the AT&T Foundation, the Ford Motor Company, and the Ford Motor Company Fund to underwrite important elements of the Alameda's redevelopment.

In 1996, Secretary I. Michael Heyman of the Smithsonian Institution announced a physical presence of the Smithsonian in San Antonio. This announcement designated the Museo Alameda as the first formal affiliate of the Smithsonian outside of Washington D.C. and gave birth to the Smithsonian's affiliations program. In May of the same year, Governor George W. Bush signed a joint resolution of the Texas legislature establishing the Museo Alameda as the official State Latino Museum. Soon thereafter, Michael Kaiser of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced a groundbreaking partnership with the Alameda Theater.

These alliances breathed life into the idea proposed by founding chairman Henry R. Muñoz III: that the Alameda would become a national center for Latino arts and culture, fulfilling Tano Lucchese's dream of a place that tells the story of the Latino experience in America.

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