National Hispanic Cultural Center

National Hispanic Cultural Center Review

A showpiece for the city, and a showcase for Latino culture and genealogy in Albuquerque's old Barelas neighborhood, this exciting contemporary space contains a museum and art galleries, multiple performance venues, a 10,000-volume genealogical research center and library, a restaurant, and an education center. Exhibits include dynamic displays of photography and paintings by local artists as well as by internationally known names. The center mounts performances of flamenco dancing, bilingual theater, traditional Spanish and New Mexican music, world music, the symphony, and more. This is the largest Latino cultural center in the country, and with a $10 million programming endowment (Rita Moreno and Edward James Olmos are among the notables on the national board), the center provides top-notch entertainment in its stunning and acoustically superb Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts and smaller Albuquerque Journal Theatre, and hosts major traveling art exhibits in its first-rate museum, which also houses an esteemed permanent collection. Architecturally, the center borrows from a variety of Spanish cultures, from Moorish Spain (including a re-creation of a defensive tower, or Torreón; the finely detailed fresco that embellishes the interior's 45-foot-tall walls and ceiling depicts Hispanic cultural heritage through time) to Mexico and the American Southwest. There's a vintage WPA-era school that now contains the research library and del Bosque restaurant ($$, no dinner), which serves solid New Mexican fare indoors and out on the patio; Sunday brunch, live music included, draws a big family crowd. The gift shop, La Tiendita, has a well-chosen and impeccably sourced selection of books, pottery, and artwork.