This article was published in the May/June issue of Omaha Magazine.
As executive director of El Museo Latino, Magdalena Garcia pours her heart into the museum she founded. She canโt help it; art isnโt just her work, itโs her life.
โItโs always about the art,โ she says. โThis isnโt something I just go do for eight hours, itโs a way of life.โ
Garciaโs family moved to Omaha when she was nine, but returned to visit her artist aunt and grandmother each summer in Mexico City, providing her lots of cultural inspiration.
โArt was always part of our lives,โ she says. โWeโd go to the museum, ballet, theaterโI remember grandmother cleaning on Saturday mornings with opera music blasting. None of it was ever foreign to me. Thatโs why I believe itโs so important to expose children to different art forms.โ
Garcia frequents the symphony, opera, and museums in Omaha, and when she travels sheโs always investigating local museums and culture.
โI love research. I love to learn new things, and one thing takes you 50 other places and then you come back around,โ says Garcia, motioning in a circle.
Skeptical she could make a living as an artist, Garcia pursued related interests to situate herself in the museum field. She volunteered at the Joslyn Art Museum while earning an art history degree from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and working full time in human resources for Northern Natural Gas. She relocated to Houston when the companyโs headquarters moved there and later used severance pay as a springboard for graduate school.
โI liked what I was doing,โ Garcia says, โbut over time I realized I just really wanted to work in a museum. It could be human resourcesโbut in a museum.โ
While seeking an internship, Garcia noted there were only three Latino museums in the country. Despite that early โ90s stat, she found a common, burgeoning interest in serving a growing Latino demographic.
โWhy not Omaha?โ she asked herself. And with that, the seed was planted for El Museo Latino, which Garcia opened in 1993 on a shoestring budget anchored by her own elbow grease.
Today El Museo Latino is one of 12 U.S. Latino museums, including one in Puerto Rico.
โNone of us really know when that last moment of our lives will come, but I didnโt want to wonder: โCould I have tried it? Should I have tried it?โโ says Garcia.
Garcia did traditional Mexican folk dancing for years, and continues to teach it at the museum. She also enjoys gastronomy, with a love for Italian, Chinese, Thai, and Mexican cuisines, and says she loves to โcook, experiment, taste.
โMy other love is tennis,โ she says. Garcia also adores swimming, and has been playing racquetball and weightliftingโโjust for variety.โ
โIโm always inventing new stuff to do, but making time for the things I love is important,โ she says. โI think you have to find something that you really enjoy. When it comes to being active, I just want to get out there and have some fun. I want to go play.โ