The Mexican Museum of San Francisco was founded in 1975 by the artist Peter Rodriguez, who conceived of the idea during a visit to Mexico, his parents homeland. He wanted to make available in the United States the great art and culture of Mexico and to "foster the exhibition, conservation, and dissemination of Mexican and Chicano art and culture for all peoples." However, Rodriguez and subsequent directors of the museum did not use the public museum as their model. First, the museum did not limit its scope to the geopolitical border. Second, the Mexican Museum uses the lens of Mexican, Chicana and Chicano, and, as of the 1990s, Latina and Latino cultures. Third, its original mission emerged from the Chicano/a movement, which challenged U.S. nationalism, assimilationist politics, and cultural amnesia. The museum's philosophy articulated the experiences and histories of Chicanas and Chicanos and their descendants. The legacy of the museum is its creation of an archive of Mexican, Chicana, Chicano, Latina and Latino art and culture.



Biography by Dr. Karen Mary Davalos