Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Professor Silvio Torres-Saillant Helps Advance Latino History and Culture in the United States

Friday, April 1, 2022, By Dan Bernardi
Share
College of Arts and Sciencesfaculty
Silvio Torres-Saillant headshot

Silvio Torres-Saillant

Silvio Torres-Saillant, professor of English and Dean’s Professor of the Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences, is one of 18 members selected for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Latino (NMAL) Scholarly Advisory Committee. The committee, which includes leaders from across various academic disciplines, will guide the museum on important matters and provide input on the museum’s comprehensive plan to preserve, document, display and promote knowledge of U.S. Latino history, art and culture.

“There is no way to overstate the significance of the National Museum of the American Latino given the longevity of the Hispanic presence in the territory that is now the United States,” says Torres-Saillant. “Just consider that Juan Ponce de León arrived in Florida in 1513, nearly 100 years before the 1607 arrival of John Smith in Jamestown, Virginia. The museum has the opportunity to interrupt the image that for too long has represented Latinos exclusively as newcomers while driving home the point that Latino history is American history.”

The framework for NMAL was established through a bill passed in 2020 calling for the Smithsonian to construct a new museum to advance the representation, understanding and appreciation of Latino history and culture in the United States. The committee will work with recently announced founding director Jorge Zamanillo, who is executive director and CEO of HistoryMiami, to lay the groundwork for the museum’s collections, research and publishing vision. In addition to the advisory committee, a board of trustees including award-winning actor and producer Eva Longoria, Emmy-nominated actress Sofía Vergara, Grammy Award-winning musician Emilio Estefan and 16 other representatives will assist with key decisions relating to the museum’s development, outreach and fundraising efforts. NMAL is currently in the planning and design phase and will be located in Washington, D.C.

Torres-Saillant has collaborated on Latino initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution since 2016. He was part of an advisory group that counseled a Smithsonian-based team charged with creating the Smithsonian Latino Gallery, a 4,500-square-foot exhibition space being constructed in the Arts and Industries Building on the National Mall. The Smithsonian Latino Gallery, now named the Molina Family Latino Gallery thanks to a significant gift, is slated to open later this year. Torres-Saillant and other committee members offered recommendations on matters of chronology, content, graphics and ways of displaying the complexity of a segment of the U.S. population that consists of over 62 million people with multiple national origins. His work on that initiative led to an invitation to be on NMAL’s Scholarly Advisory Committee in 2021.

According to Torres-Saillant, having the opportunity to help showcase the longevity and rich history of the Hispanic presence in the United States is both an honor and a privilege.

“I am in a position to make a difference on a project of momentous significance with great social potential, but it is not an easy privilege,” he says. “It’s one that will bring satisfaction only in the extent to which you take it seriously and invest the effort that the undertaking demands so that it can make a difference.”

Torres-Saillant has taught in the Department of English at Syracuse University since 1999. Among his extensive administrative experience, he has served as director of Syracuse’s Latino-Latin American Studies Program (1999-2009), was founding director of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (1992-2001), co-director of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (1996-2001) and coordinator of the Literature Program at the Ollantay Center for the Arts (1988-92). Torres-Saillant’s academic honors include an appointment as the William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences (2009-11) and an appointment as the 2005-06 Wilbur Marvin Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (2005).

Read more about the National Museum of the American Latino and the Molina Family Latino Gallery.

  • Author
  • Faculty Experts

Dan Bernardi

  • Silvio Torres-Saillant

  • Recent
  • Graduate Students Bring Physics to Local Classrooms With Outreach Program
    Friday, May 27, 2022, By Dan Bernardi
  • COVID-19 Update: Effective Wednesday, June 1, Masking Level Returns to Yellow
    Friday, May 27, 2022, By News Staff
  • Preparing Students for a Life of Success
    Friday, May 27, 2022, By Caroline K. Reff
  • Alumni Draw on Their Military Experience in Their Roles as Teachers
    Thursday, May 26, 2022, By Martin Walls
  • Bringing ‘CSI’ Into the Classroom
    Thursday, May 26, 2022, By Dan Bernardi

More In Arts & Culture

Syracuse University Art Museum Piloting Object-Based Teaching and Research Faculty Fellows Program

Faculty from all disciplines are invited to apply for a pilot Faculty Fellows Program being hosted this summer by the Syracuse University Art Museum. The program focuses on object-based teaching and research. It is both a way for the art…

Innovator Lorrie Vogel ’88 to Deliver 2022 VPA Convocation Address

Innovator Lorrie Vogel ’88 will deliver the 2022 convocation address to bachelor’s and master’s degree candidates of the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) at the college’s convocation ceremony on Saturday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the stadium….

M.F.A. Exhibition ‘Steady/Retcon’ to be Exhibited on New York City’s Governors Island

  Master of fine arts (M.F.A.) candidates in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) are presenting the thesis exhibition “Steady/Retcon” over two weekends in May at the Syracuse University Governors Island House, 407A Colonels Row, Governors Island, New…

Department of Drama Presents ‘As You Like It’

The Department of Drama presents the final show of the 2021/2022 season with “As You Like It,” a ravishing new musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic story by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery. The production, directed by Rodney Hudson, will perform…

Movie Based on SU Press Book ‘Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano’ Debuts

“The Survivor,” a movie based on the Alan Scott Haft book, “Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano,” debuted on HBO and HBO Max on Wednesday, April 27. It is being released on Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2022 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.