Another site presenting a similarly misleading story is american museum (Museum of the Americas) Located in Madrid, Spain. The American Museum’s mission statement serves a similar role. “Protecting what we know and knowing what we know is the purpose of museums, where research and social functions work together in practical ways to help us understand the challenges of contemporary society.” The society we serve. ”
Indigenous peoples, on the other hand, are represented as monsters throughout the museum. The reason I say this is because when I entered the first area of the museum, the first thing I read was the name “El Conosimiento” (“Discovery”). One of his explanatory texts that I found in a museum (pictured below) refers to the indigenous people as “ceres monstrusos” (“monstrous beings”).
Indigenous peoples were considered monsters in the past, as was customary at the time, but today this expression is disrespectful and intentionally misleading. The negative impact that Spanish colonization continues to have on indigenous peoples to this day cannot be challenged. Similarly, there is an area in the museum called “American Reality,” in which nothing is mentioned about Latin America, leaving out any significant importance.
Later, as I walked around the museum, I realized that the layout of the rooms itself told a troubling story. The selection and placement of objects are all aimed at continuing a particular, often nationalist, narrative. Even without taking a formal guided tour, the key messages are still clear.
The value of a critical approach
I’m not trying to prevent people from going to famous tourist spots or museums. But I think it’s important to be a culturally informed consumer. Understanding the context and significance of particular sites and objects, especially their relevance today, allows consumers to identify and read past nationalist messages in these spaces.
When traveling to these types of locations, think about the layout of the rooms and the placement of objects in the rooms and objects in the basement. Read the nameplate or brochure and read a few paragraphs about the organization’s purpose. Think of museums as edited documents that tell only a particular version of a more complex story.