SAN BENITO — After nearly two years, darkness still shrouds many of the city’s most treasured artifacts.
After the coronavirus outbreak hit the area in March 2020, city officials closed the Freddy Fender Museum, the Texas Conjunto Hall of Fame and Museum and the San Benito Historical Museum.
Then about a year later, officials kept the museums shuttered as they planned to move their artifacts from their long-time home in the city’s Community Building to the historic Aztec Building.
“We’ve been getting a lot of calls from the community wondering when the museum’s going to open and why we’re not in the new building,” Sandra Tumberlinson, the historical museum’s treasurer, said Tuesday.
But for her and the museums’ organizers, the long, hard struggle to move the museums into the new $1.7 million San Benito Cultural Heritage Museum is dead.
Now, they’re trying to revive the Aztec Building’s first floor into the museums’ new home.
“Getting the museum open for the people is the big thing,” Pete Avila, vice president of the Conjunto Hall of Fame and Museum, said Tuesday.
Remodeling Aztec Building
Last year, Avila, the son of the late Rey Avila, who died in 2019 dreaming of moving his conjunto artifacts into the new Cultural Heritage Museum, found three companies offering to renovate the Aztec Building’s first floor for $300,000 to $350,000.
But the price tag was too steep for the city, he said.
So he’s counting on downscaling the Aztec Building’s renovation project.
“We’re going to do some slight remodeling and work with the space we have and make it work,” Avila said. “The building is iconic and historical for the museum.”
But city officials haven’t set a timetable, Tumberlinson said.
Now, city officials want organizers to present a proposal before moving into the building.
“The city awaits a formal written proposal to start negotiations,” city spokesman David Favila stated.
Artifacts face damage
Meanwhile, the museums’ organizers are concerned two years of neglect are damaging their artifacts.
“I think there’d be some damage,” Wayne Powell, president of the San Benito Historical Society, said.
Powell said high humidity could damage some the artifacts.
“A very stable environment with low humidity is where you want a museum to be,” he said.
About a month ago, Tumberlinson said, officials let her into the museums’ room for the first time since early 2020.
“There were places were there was mildew, especially on Freddy Fender’s things. There was an odor after being closed so long,” she said. “Of course, we’re concerned about the materials, especially fabrics and leather items. We also can’t check for varmints.”
The artifacts’ security is a big concern.
After officials closed the Community Building, organizers canceled their contract with a security company because they couldn’t get into the museum to check it after its alarm was set off, Tumberlinson said.
Meanwhile, she said, organizers canceled their insurance policy after the museums, which charged a $3 admission fee, were closed off to visitors whose numbers averaged about 100 a month between Thursdays and Saturdays.
“We’re concerned about some security issues,” Powell said.
Background
For years, organizers worked with city officials to negotiate a contract to display their exhibits in the new 7,000-square-foot Cultural Heritage Museum.
Then about a year ago, officials proposed moving the museums to the Aztec Building, Tumberlinson said.
“It’s frustrating,” she said.
About 25 years ago, organizers began pushing city officials to build a museum to showcase San Benito’s rich cultural history.
Despite years of setbacks, they helped the city qualify for a $1.2 million federal grant to fund one of its biggest projects in decades.
After the Cultural Heritage Museum opened about five years ago, the timeless artifacts that tell the tales of the city’s storied past still have no home.
“We have no place to go,” Tumberlinson said. ” We have no place to showcase San Benito’s treasures.”
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to correct the amount of the grant for which the city qualified.
