Frank Cruz, Caretaker of the Latino Culture Museum Dream

Los Angeles’ nascent Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture has no building, program, collection, staff or members. But it has $500,000 in seed money, an ambitious dream and a brand-new leader who is determined to propel that dream into reality. Frank H. Cruz, a former television reporter and general manager of KVEA Channel 52, a Spanish-language station, has been appointed president and executive director of the planned museum.

An announcement of Cruz’s appointment is scheduled at a Thursday morning press conference, to be attended by state Sen. Charles M. Calderon (D-Whittier), Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre and recently elected Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina.

Armed with support from these Latino politicians and other community leaders, Cruz hopes the museum will be nothing less than the United States’ major repository of Latino culture. Although there are about a dozen small, under-funded Latino museums across the country, no single institution functions as the premier showcase for Latinos’ heritage and their contributions to America. Los Angeles is the perfect place for such a showcase because of the city’s history and its enormous Latino population, Cruz said during an interview in his downtown office.

A formal “mission statement” in a planning document says that the museum “is to celebrate the heritage of Latinos and to promote the continuing development of Latino artistic and cultural expression in America.” The document, outlining the museum’s goals and priorities, was developed over the last year by museum consultant David de la Torre, a former director of the Mexican Museum in San Francisco.

Cruz hopes the new museum will be “a vehicle of great pride” in the Latino community but also will inform non-Latinos about “the great legacy of Hispanic artistic and cultural traditions” and celebrate Latino contributions to North America. “There are far too many negative associations with Hispanics. We would like to show Hispanics and non-Hispanics what we have done,” he said.

According to the planning document, the museum will fulfill its mission by collecting and conserving significant examples of Latino cultural heritage; exhibiting and interpreting these materials; publishing, analyzing and disseminating information about Latino artistic and cultural contributions, and sponsoring educational programs and special events to promote the rich diversity of Latino expression.

The museum’s primary focus will be on exhibitions and collections. Programs are expected to reflect relationships between all of Latin America and the United States, but the museum will emphasize artistic contributions of Latinos in California. Collections and exhibitions will concentrate on the 20th Century. The fine arts collections will emphasize contemporary paintings, works on paper and photography by American Latino artists.

In taking charge of the Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture, Cruz, 51, has tackled a project that has been talked about for 30 years and more actively planned during the past five years.

The Legislature in 1989 voted to grant the museum $300,000 in seed money through a bill authored by Calderon. The previous year the Los Angeles City Council allocated $50,000 for the museum. Kaiser-Permanente has pledged $150,000 and many individuals have made donations in the range of $1,000 to $5,000, Cruz said.

With this backing secured, it’s time to move forward, he said. “The immediate task is to find a temporary and/or permanent site. I say temporary and/or permanent because if the heavens opened tomorrow and some great benefactor said: ‘Here’s $50 million,’ we would construct the ideal building.” A more likely scenario is that the museum will secure temporary, donated space to give the project visibility while carrying out a fund-raising drive, he said. “You can’t raise money for a concept. We need a domicile, a venue where we can have small exhibitions and hold discussions,” Cruz said.

Although the bulk of seed money has come from public funds, the remainder will be raised from private sources, he said, and the museum will be a privately operated nonprofit facility. About $15 million to $20 million is needed for land and a building. Additional funds will be required for an endowment to cover operating and programming expenses.

The site appears to be a wide open question. Using part of the Terminal Annex complex was considered a few years ago, but that has been ruled out by complex federal regulations, Cruz said. Lawry’s downtown restaurant facility also has been under discussion, but that property has been put on the market, he said. Indulging in pipe dreams, Cruz said a spot near the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Griffith Park would be ideal, because the site is familiar to Latinos who already use the park, zoo and existing museum. Another appealing notion is Exposition Park, though it seems likely that any remaining space will be saved for additions to existing museums. The site search will also consider historic structures such as the former Herald-Examiner building on Broadway.

The museum’s planning document projects that a 53,500-square-foot building, including 20,000 square feet of exhibition space, will be required for the permanent facility. A gift shop, cafe, auditorium and outdoor plaza are recommended, in addition to offices, a library, storage areas, workshops and classrooms. The plan also calls for a future expansion of 16,500 square feet.

Cruz has arrived at his new job with a high profile in the Latino community and a substantial track record in business and academia--if not the museum world. Born in Tucson to Mexican-American parents who came to the United States in the ‘30s, he earned a BA in history and an MA in Latin American history at USC.

He taught history at Lincoln High School, then moved on to college-level education, teaching history and chairing the department of ethnic studies at Sonoma State College from 1969 to 1970. Cruz transferred to Cal State Long Beach, where he taught history from 1970 to 1972. He was invited to go into television on the strength of an educational TV series that he and several other history professors had developed.

His face became familiar to Los Angeles audiences on KABC Channel 7, where he worked as a general-assignment reporter from 1972 to 1975. He moved to KNBC Channel 4 in 1975 and stayed for a decade, becoming an anchorman.

Cruz helped to launch KVEA Channel 52 in 1985, working with sales, programming and setting up the news department--and eventually taking over as general manager. He also played a major role in establishing Telemundo, a Spanish-language network.

He left KVEA in 1989 to establish what he hoped would be the country’s first Latino-owned life insurance company, but he wasn’t able to secure financing. When a telephone conversation led to an inquiry about his interest in leading a drive for the Latino Museum, Cruz jumped at the invitation.

“It hit me as a challenge and an opportunity. It was a chance to do good in a variety of ways--setting up the groundwork for a museum that would benefit both Hispanics and non-Hispanics,” he said. “It will be a lot of work, but I have rolled up my sleeves before. And I kind of relish firsts. It was great to succeed with KVEA when some people said we were crazy and that a second Spanish-language station wouldn’t be supported.” By his standards, the museum is just another chance to incorporate Latinos into the fabric of Los Angeles.

The museum project isn’t Cruz’s only job, however. He is also honorary chairman of a fund-raising drive for the massive Artes de Mexico festival that will complement a historic exhibition, “Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries,” opening on Oct. 6 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Cruz believes the two efforts will dovetail in an unprecedented celebration of Latino culture in Los Angeles. And if all goes well, some of the festival’s exhibitions will find a home in the new museum’s temporary quarters.