With Latinx sites making up less than 1% of the National Register, a new campaign highlights 13 endangered landmarks threatened by development, neglect, and funding cuts.

Latinx contributions to society are in peril without conservation efforts. In May, President Trump proposed a $158-million cut to the federal Historic Preservation Fund. Despite Latinx communities representing nearly 20% of the U.S. population, fewer than 1% of sites on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) reflect Latinx history. The NRHP is an official list administered by the National Park Service of historic buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts in need of conservation due to their contribution to U.S. architecture, archaeology, culture, or engineering.

“While many landmarks are preserved, Latinx history is often overlooked and undervalued in the national conversation. Latinx historic places are erased in the name of development and fast-paced growth,” says Sehila Mota Casper, executive director of Latinos in Heritage Conservation (LHC). “We’re at a critical moment where we must act quickly to save these landmarks before they’re lost forever.”

There has never been a national inventory or effort to preserve Latinx landmarks. Due to a lack of conservation, Latinx landmarks are disappearing across the country. The Endangered Latinx Landmarks campaign by LHC is the first national effort to identify, name, and advocate for these sites. The sites are organized into six threat categories—demolition, gentrification, displacement, climate disasters, abandonment, and physical deterioration.

Due to a lack of conservation, Latino landmarks are disappearing across the country. For instance, Circus Disco, which opened in 1975 in Los Angeles, California, was an LGBTQ+ and Latino cultural venue but was demolished in 2016 for mixed-use development. Univision Studios Headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, was built in 1961 and was one of the earliest Spanish-language media productions. It was demolished in 2013. The Palladium Ballroom in New York City was known as the “Home of the Mambo” and was demolished in 1966.

To help resolve this challenge, LHC launched the Endangered Latinx Landmarks campaign to create the first-ever national inventory of at-risk historic sites that capture the broader contributions of these communities to society. “By identifying and advocating for these endangered landmarks, we can galvanize support from local communities, elected officials, preservation organizations, and philanthropists to help save them,” says Casper.

The inaugural list features 13 sites across 10 states, reflecting the depth of Latino history throughout the country. The landmarks face urgent threats because most haven’t received public funding. The idea for this list emerged from a critical need to address the lack of recognition for threatened and endangered Latinx historical sites.

LHC received 26 nominations of threatened and endangered sites in the U.S. and Puerto Rico from community members nationwide who highlighted each site’s significance, outlined the specific threats it faces, and proposed preservation solutions to ensure its protection for future generations. The nonprofit collaborated with a committee of experts on Latino heritage, including preservationists, historians, and community activists, to select the 13 on the list. “We focused on sites that are under imminent threat and represent the breadth and geographic diversity of the Latinx experience,” Casper says.

1. Silver Platter in Los Angeles. 2. Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Chicago. 3. Anita Street Market in Tucson, Arizona.Flickr; Cragin Spring/Flickr; Flickr

From a historic carriage house to an LGBTQ+ bar, the sites showcase the diaspora that defines Latinx identity. “Latinxs are narrated as newcomers stealing someone else’s birthright. Maintaining landmarks gives lie to these stereotypes: some landmarks speak to Latinxs who didn’t cross the border because the border crossed them, other landmarks highlight histories of us who positively transformed new communities through our presence, but all landmarks show how we’re part of and not foreign to this land,” says Carlos Alonso Nugent, a historian at Columbia University focusing on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. “Like many-sided prisms, Latinx heritage sites refract all the stories of the Americas—stories of colonization and resistance, enslavement and freedom, migration and homecoming.”

Each site reflects Latino cultural contributions across the U.S., such as Barrio Chihuahuita, the oldest neighborhood in El Paso, Texas, known as “Ellis Island of the West” as it’s been a vital passageway for Mexican immigrants for generations. The debut list also includes the Grand Performance Mural, which was painted in 1984 and depicts portraits of cultural figures, including Ray Patlán, a Latinx muralist known for art that addressed issues of labor, social justice, and Central American stories. In New Mexico, the list highlights Plaza del Cerro in Chimay, which was founded around 1730 and is the best remaining example of a Spanish Colonial plaza in the Southwest.

Many of these places are threatened by ongoing gentrification and deferred maintenance. “The goal is to highlight these sites as powerful markers of the Latinx community’s enduring resilience in the U.S. We’re refusing to let these important places fade from public memory,” Casper says.

In 1990, the Our Lady of Guadalupe Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Mural was painted in Chicago, Illinois, outside of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which has been serving predominantly Mexican families since 1923; it was the first house of worship in Chicago to offer services in Spanish. The church lost more parishioners in the Vietnam War than any parish in the country.

The public art honors the 12 fallen soldiers, including brothers Alfred Urdiales, Jr., and Charles Urdiales, Jr., with individual portraits. “War is decided and run by people who never see the frontlines. When the U.S. government called on its countrymen to serve, 12 Mexican-American men not only answered the call, but gave their lives for it. This is a rare piece of history that preserves the memory of that moment,” says Ximena N. Beltran Quan Kiu, a Mexico City-born writer who is now based in Chicago.

Environmental exposure over the decades has severely damaged the mural that memorializes the contributions of Latinx veterans and serves as a community space for remembrance. The street art needs to be restored after the wall it’s painted on is tuckpointed, an improvement that’s estimated to cost $100,000.

Also on the list in Tucson, Arizona, is a culinary cornerstone of Barrio Anita — theAnita Street Market. It’s beloved for its family recipes, including award-winning burritos, red chili sauce, and handmade flour tortillas. The tortilla shop opened in the 1980s by Grace and Mario Soto, who remain the owners today. Serious structural issues, including roof leaks and a broken HVAC system, place the site at risk.

“Anita Street Market represents many of the beloved food spaces that are vital to Latinx neighborhoods. Like food, they nourish both spiritually and physically,” says Estella González, a Tucson-based Latina author. “Barrio Anita is a Mexicano barrio—preservation of historical communities before they’re uprooted and completely excised from cultural memory is essential.”

Meanwhile, about 25 miles east of Austin, Texas, the Elgin Mexican Cemetery, renowned for its handmade markers adorned with traditional Mexican folk motifs, is at risk due to decades of neglect, exacerbated by natural disasters and climate change, including flooding. The historic burial ground, which dates to 1904, an era of racial segregation, contains more than 100 graves, many of which are unmarked. Mexican-American veterans from World War I and presumably from the Spanish-American War are laid to rest here.

Local community members do their best to preserve the cemetery, but broader support is needed to protect this heritage site, warranting it a spot on the list. “It was hidden by brush and tree limbs that had broken some markers. Half of the crosses were covered by overgrown poison ivy vines. Then, one descendant hacked and pruned the vegetation away. The irises began to flower again,” says local Deb Wahrmund.

Then there’s California, which is home to so many of the country’s Latino landmarks. Since 1963, the historic gay bar, The Silver Platter, has been a safe haven for cultural expression and activism for immigrant, queer, and trans Latinx communities in Los Angeles. “The Silver Platter is where I felt our community’s power and joy shine through hardship,” says Maria Roman, vice president of the TransLatin@ Coalition. “It was a sanctuary for migrant trans women who faced criminalization, poverty, and violence outside its doors. It offered a sense of belonging, where our language, culture, and identities were not only visible, but celebrated.”

Now, the gay bar is in danger of being demolished because the Los Angeles City Planning Department approved a development project to turn the site into new apartments. “Preserving The Silver Platter isn’t just about saving a building; it’s about honoring the lives, legacies, and memories of those who passed through its doors. Protecting it is an act against erasure,” Roman says.

LHC’s 2025 Endangered Latinx Landmarks list also includes Las Barracas, an agricultural labor house for Mexican migrant farmworkers in Longmont, Colorado; Unity Mural is one of Washington, D.C.’s oldest street murals as it was painted in 1982 by youth from the Latin American Youth Center and El Centro de Arte with motifs that reflects Latinx cultural heritage; San Felipe de Neri Carriage House, a deteriorating adobe structure on the National Register of Historic Places in Albuquerque, New Mexico; El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus in Ruidosa, Texas, a historic adobe church built by local Mexican laborers dating back to 1915; The MACSA Youth Center, built in 1995 in East San José for Latinx youth in San José, California; and Murales de la Calle 24 in San Francisco, California’s Mission District which is known for its rich Latinx heritage.

The Endangered Latinx Landmarks campaign is more than just a list of places; it’s a testament to the ongoing contributions of Latino people in this country. “These sites prove that Latinxs have both deep roots and far-reaching impacts, and that just as we’ve shaped this country’s past, we’ll continue to shape its future,” says Nugent.