Latino Community Identity and Development: The Case of a Community Museum in Langley Park, Maryland

Abstract

This article uses the ideas of New Museology as a model to discuss a planning phase of the Community Museum Project in Langley Park, Maryland. It considers that a community museum is an agent for managing change that links education, culture, and power. The methodology is based on educational and psychological concepts of lifelong learning and life-stage development, which seeks to establish conditions to enable communities to learn about themselves and their needs, and to act upon that knowledge. The community museum concept establishes a role for the museum as a mediator in the process of cultural transition . The signifi cant Latin American immigrant population of Langley Park, Maryland embodies a unique set of challenges and strengths, obstacles and tools as their members establish their lives in a different country and culture. A number of community-based organizations address the social, economic, political, and cultural needs of this community through a variety of means. In support of and collaboration with these ongoing efforts, the Community Museum Project team proposed to establish an institution to develop and maintain the cultures of the area's Latino and Latin American populations. In this paper, we will explain the theoretical basis of a community museum, the steps we took to initiate such a museum in Langley Park, and the results of our work.