El museo de América: modelo para armar

Abstract

The role of museums in transforming culture into nature, interpretation into truth, is illustrated in a particularly interesting way in the case of the Museo de América. It is a museum that was started up twice during the Civil War (1936-39). The first time was in 1937, under a decree of the republican government, and the second time in 1939, this time under one of Franco’s decrees. Despite these inauspicious beginnings, the museum really came into being in 1941, although its effective inauguration took much longer in coming: It opened its doors to the public in 1965. During the eighties it was shut down again, this time for renovation, to bring the old-fashioned museum in line with the new democratic times in Spain, and in particular to modulate its messages to the tone being used to commemorate the Fifth Centenary of the Encounter between Two Worlds. The new museum was reopened in 1994. The main aim of the article is to denaturalise the vision offered by one of the most powerful ideological and visual apparatus of the State.