Harris County approves $800K for the construction of Houston’s first Latino Museum

Harris County has committed $800,000 to a museum dedicated to showcasing Latino art and culture in Houston.

The Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts & Archive Complex, or ALMAAHH for short, plans to build a 181,000-square-foot campus on 5.5 acres of land in east Houston by 2030. The museum is estimated to cost at least $155 million to complete.

“It’s a vote of confidence,” said ALMAAHH President Carlos Duarte in an interview. “This very important support on part of the county inspires other supporters. It tells them that the City of Houston and Harris County are committed to this project and are not leaving the load to philanthropy alone.”

An exact location has not been determined yet, but Duarte said the East End was identified as the likely area. This money helps them move forward with a search for land, and to begin the assessment process once a potential space is identified.

The goal is to find land and begin a financial feasibility study in 2025.

This one-time $800,000 allocation comes from the county’s local hotel occupancy tax, known as HOT taxes, which support and stimulate local economic development and create attractions that could draw tourism.

“I am proud of Harris County’s assistance to help move this important endeavor closer to reality,” said county commissioner Adrian Garcia in a written statement. “Latinos play a major role in how our local and state economies and the communities successes, so it’s long past time that we honor our Latino history and culture.”

‘A space where all of us feel welcomed’

ALMAAHH aims to celebrate, showcase and foster the creation of Latino arts and culture in Houston, where nearly 45 percent of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino , according to 2020 census data. The mission of the organization is to create a museum that is accessible to the community at large, as well as ensure equitable and authentic representation of the diverse Latino cultures in Houston.

The Latino Museum will be Houston’s only museum dedicated to Latino arts, with a focus on  U.S. Latino artists, rather than art from Latin America.

“We have not been able to create a space where all of us feel welcomed,” Carlos Duarte said. “That is what ALMAAHH is going to do, and that is why it is very relevant, not only from an art perspective but more from who we are as a country.”

Duarte was named president of ALMAAHH in November of 2023. He previously served as chief development officer of Mi Familia Vota, where he led efforts to register and mobilize voters in Texas, Arizona and Florida.

ALMAAHH was founded by prominent Houston Latino leaders, including Dorothy Caram, a retired University of Houston professor and community leader; David Contreras, LULAC historian; Nelly Fraga, executive director of Ambassadors International Ballet Folklorico ; and Norma Torres Mendoza, cofounder of the Young Owls Leadership Program at Rice University.

Since its creation, ALMAAHH has raised about $2 million, starting with the City of Houston through former city councilmembers Karla Cisneros and Robert Gallegos, who collectively secured $150,000.

Other donors include the Houston Endowment, which provided $1 million, 100 individual donors, coined the “Cien Latinos,” and most recently, The Brown Foundation, which granted $100,000.

Pledges and donations from individuals have totaled about $200,000.

Houston has the unique opportunity to become the first city in the U.S. to have a museum that centers around the arts and culture of Latinos living in the U.S., said Geraldina Interiano Wise, ALMAAHH board chair and a local artist who migrated to the U.S. from El Salvador at a young age.

“This is not a one-person dream. This is not a one-group’s dream. This is a community dream,” Interiano Wise said. “We are thinking differently about a museum complex, we are thinking about an experiential museum complex.”

The need for Latino cultural spaces

Across Houston, the call for spaces dedicated to the history, art and culture of Latinos and Hispanics has intensified over the years. According to U.S. Census data, more than 1 million Houston residents identify as Latino or Hispanic yet there isn’t a building or space solely dedicated to this demographic.

Earlier this year, the City of Houston moved forward with plans to build a Hispanic History Research Center that will be dedicated to collecting, archiving and preserving culturally relevant items, documents, photographs, and more.

During a town hall meeting about the research center this spring, community members were vocal about the need for a Latino cultural spaces, confusing at times the role of the research center with that of a museum.

ALMAAHH is still in the early stages of planning. Over the last three years and with the help of the seed funds, the organization conducted a dozen community sessions attended by more than 300 people to identify the needs and wants of a space like this, Duarte said.

At the top of the community’s list were open gathering spaces, a connection to nature, an open plaza or zocalo, spaces dedicated to the creation and showcasing of visual and performing arts and family-friendly spaces and programming, Duarte said.

ALMAAHH officials hired New York-based AEA Consulting for a project definition study that took into consideration the community’s feedback. ALMAAHH officials said they paid AEA Consulting about $100,000 for the study.

The study identified Houston’s East End as the best location out of several areas surveyed, which included the Astrodome, the Gulfton/ Sharpstown area, Midtown, and the Museum District.

The idea is to have a central location for accessibility while fostering Latino-centered culture and arts throughout Houston communities.

“We are going to have these tentaculos de pulpo (octopus tentacles) throughout the city,” Duarte said. “We are activating the whole city with Latino artists so that people don’t need to take too much of their time to go. We are taking the art to them.”

The survey breaks down the $155 million effort into two phases with Phase 1 calling for about $71 million in initial costs to build performance spaces, a gallery, a studio, a culinary arts area, workshop spaces, a plaza and more.

The second phase would add square footage to existing spaces, while also building a rehearsal studio, a commercial incubator and a market. Phase 2 is expected to cost about $84 million.

For now, Duarte said ALMAAHH’s focus is to continue fundraising and promoting arts and cultural events that could bring donors to the door as they realize the potential of Houston’s Latinos.

“It is important that we are seeing more and more Latinos claiming their rightful place in this society, including getting the financial support from crucial institutions to help us build something more permanent,” Duarte said.

The Houston Endowment is a financial supporter of the Houston Landing. The Houston Endowment had no influence on decisions related to the reporting and publishing of this article. The Landing’s ethics policy and list of financial supporters are available online.