El Museo del Barrio, located in Spanish Harlem, New York City, is actually older than 15 years old, but I’m able to stay quiet about an institution’s age. Founded in 1969, by a group of artists and community activists, tonight el Museo, a Latino institution in the city, celebrates it’s 15th Annual Gala. From the press release:

As it is the Latin American tradition, El Museo Gala’s fifteenth birthday will be celebrated in the style of a quinceañero; this is a coming-of-age party for a daughter turning fifteen. For this gala, guests are invited to wear white or black (with long gloves and tiaras optional).
El Museo will honor Dr. Mario Vargas Llosa, Ambassador Paul L. Cejas and Mrs. Trudy Cejas, and Mr. Angel Collado-Schwarz of Fundación Voz del Centro. Special guests will include Miss Universe, Riyo Mori; Miss Teen USA, Hilary Cruz; and the newly crowned Miss USA, and they will be wearing their tiaras.

Yours truly, La Mala, will also be wearing her tiara and long black gloves (seriously) as I will be attending the event and hopefully will be able to steal a moment of Mario Vargas Llosa’s time.

Tonight promises to be New York’s most prestigious evening of philanthropy for the Latin community, with el Museo’s fundrasing goal of the evening set at one million dollars. This will no doubt help to pay for a $22 million-dollar facelift, which will be completed in fall 2009.

While an event of this type, with honorary committee members including Carolina Herrera, Donatella Versace, Narciso Rodriguez, and Diane von Furstenberg (among others), probably strays a little from the grassroots start of the museum. How else to raise a cool million in one night?

See you at Cipriani’s tonight. I’ll be wearing the silver shoes to match my tiara (seriously).