As Colombian superstar Juanes thundered his latest smash hit to an enraptured audience of more than 20,000 screaming fans, one of them was on her Blackberry with a museum director while her Manolo Blahniks kept perfect time to the beat of La Camisa Negra. That fan was Pilar Frank O’Leary, who has made a life out of combining her passion for Latino culture and her talent for business.

As the new director for the Smithsonian Latino Center (succeeding U.S. Treasurer Ana Cabral), O’Leary is responsible for fulfilling the Center’s mission of fostering understanding and appreciation of Latino contributions to society and culture by leveraging the vast resources of the Smithsonian Institution. The Center works with all the Institution’s museums and affiliates to develop exhibits and educational programs that underscore the best of Latin culture. The Center also serves as a point of contact for the Smithsonian Institution to the Latino community.
As a citizen of both the U.S. and Colombia, O’Leary proudly walks with one foot, and all of her heart, in both countries – truly a Latina American. Walking that line hasn’t always been easy.
“As a little girl growing up in Washington and battling negative stereotypes, I remember asking my mother if it was a bad thing to be Colombian, to be a Latina,” said Pilar, her penetrating brown eyes softening at the powerful memory, “To that she responded—and for this, I will always be grateful—“Pilar, you are an American but you are also a Colombian and Latina. Your cultural heritage is one that includes Fernando Botero and Gabriel Garcia Marquez as much as the Wright Brothers and apple pie. To be a Latina means that you share in the amazing cultural heritage of Frida Kahlo, Isabel Allende and Ruben Dario as well as that of Ernest Hemmingway and Jasper Johns. No one should be prouder than you!”
With her mother’s poignant consejos echoing in her soul like a Pablo Neruda poem, O’Leary made a personal commitment to making sure that Latinos and non-Latinos learn about the remarkable cultural contributions of Hispanics over the course of history. Even her husband Bill, who is of Irish descent but is now “Colombian by marriage,” has learned Spanish and become well-versed in the riches of Latino culture.
By accepting the leadership role at the Smithsonian, O’Leary’s personal commitment to promote Latino culture has serendipitously turned into her full-time job.
Prior to joining the Smithsonian, O’Leary served in a number of different roles in the private sector. As a Latina, she believes that with individual success comes weighty responsibility to help others succeed.
Immediately prior to her current job, O’Leary served as special assistant to the Daniel Mudd, president and CEO of Fannie Mae. While in that role, she undertook a number of projects to help Hispanics succeed in the homeownership realm, including the development of a companywide strategic plan to increase Hispanic homeownership opportunities.
In her last year at the company, she developed and personally led the American Dream Team Program™, a successful internship program to diversify the mortgage-lending industry. O’Leary’s vision was to ensure that minority college students would not simply be placed, but would also be prepared for a management career with mortgage lenders and community-based organizations across the country. O’Leary also led an internal diversity effort at Fannie Mae aimed at increasing representation of Hispanics in management positions and across the company, and she frequently served as a spokesperson for the company on Hispanic issues.
Before joining Fannie Mae, O’Leary worked at two prestigious Wall Street firms. At the New York and Buenos Aires offices of J.P. Morgan, she served as derivatives and banking counsel for the company’s Latin American offices and subsidiaries. At Goldman Sachs, she worked as a Latin American equities analyst.

After achieving success in the business world, her mother’s inspirational words about cultural pride and heritage called out to her. And in August of 2005, so did Henry Muñoz, a member of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Board and the chairman of the Smithsonian Latino Center, when he offered O’Leary the position of director.
“Inspiration gives no warnings,” writes Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his latest book. And with that quote in mind, Pilar took over the Smithsonian Latino Center with élan and vision.
“In truth, I never thought I would end up working in the museum community. But now, looking at the opportunity with the Center, it is something I believe I was meant to do all my life,” she says. “And it’s something that I believe I can use my business and advocacy skills to move forward.”
O’Leary believes that through the Center’s efforts in providing an insight into Latino culture, it can actually improve the negative stereotypes many Americans have of Hispanics. “The little [that] Americans know about Latino culture is highly commercialized, narrow and often inaccurate. By allowing people to experience everything from the Mayan ruins to the vibrant murals of Diego Rivera, from vallenato to salsa, we can provide Americans the opportunity to get a unique perspective into and understanding of the Latino community. This is not just culture for culture’s sake,” says O’Leary. “It is a powerful symbol for who we are.”
Fashionable, anchor-woman attractive, and disarmingly charming, the entrepreneurial director’s hurried gait and steely determination are nonetheless more in line with a bullfighter anxious to get into the ring. She plans to accomplish four primary objectives for the Center in the short to medium term.
First, she will increase public outreach efforts through the dissemination of information and collaboration with outside groups, including educators and community organizations to make the Center a more accessible resource to the general public, especially young Latinos. Second, she plans to expand educational programs for Latinos at the high school, college, graduate and professional level that emphasize the importance of preserving Hispanic cultural heritage.
Next, she will continue to work with Smithsonian museums and affiliates to produce high-quality exhibits that highlight the diversity and very best contributions of Latino culture. Finally, she hopes to increase the Center’s private funding base.
Since O’Leary assumed leadership, the Smithsonian Latino Center has awarded more than $1.2 million in federal funding to more than 20 Latino projects across the Smithsonian, including two highly successful exhibitions at the Smithsonian: ¡Azucar! The Life and Music of Celia Cruz and Retratos: 2000 Years of Latino American Portraits and the Spirit of Ancient Colombian Gold.
In addition, O’Leary has launched ¡Viva Cultura!, an ambitious national educational program for Latino high school students in collaboration with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. From tens of thousands of applications, 24 Latino high school seniors with an interest in the arts and culture will be selected and then celebrated at 12 regional events in the spring and provided with a total of $75,000 in educational grants for college.

With the need for more Latinos to carry the cultural torch, O’Leary has added a paid internship for all of the winning students at Smithsonian-affiliated museums. She also plans on exposing students to special behind-the-scenes tours of the Smithsonian’s museums and Latino collections, gaining them access to important Latino artists, writers, musicians and curators.
O’Leary is also ramping up a public awareness effort through a media campaign and on-line resources, such as the Center’s Latino Virtual Gallery. Finally, in spring of this year the Center will be releasing Hispanic Heritage at the Smithsonian: A Decade of Latino Initiatives, an illustrated record of ten years of projects developed and funded by the Center.
With Hispanics now constituting the largest minority in America, O’Leary believes it is crucial to deepen the appreciation and recognition of Latino culture on at the national level. Is a national Latino museum in her sights? O’Leary smiles broadly. “A Latino museum on the National Mall is indeed a sueño dorado. I do believe that it is not a question of if but when this happens,” she says. “However, Congress will need to determine when that is a priority.” One can only hope that someone with O’Leary’s business skills and cultural passion would lead such an effort.
In the meantime, O’Leary has her hands full. “Right now we are focused on building a solid base around the Institution, so that no matter what museum on the Mall or museum affiliate across the country Americans walk into, they will be exposed to Latino achievements and cultural contributions.”
And of course, O’Leary has an even more important mission. She needs to look her two beautiful daughters, Carolina and Paloma Isabel, in the eye and repeat her own mother’s powerful words about being proud to be Colombian, Latina and American. ¡Que viva nuestra cultura!