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El Museo 15th Annual Gala
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The El Museo 15th Annual Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street.
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Narciso
Rodriguez, Francisco Costa, Angel Sanchez, and Nicole
Miller were among the 540 guests who danced the night
away at Cipriani 42nd Street for El Museo's 15th
Annual Gala on May 22. Gala chairmen Ruben and Isabel
Toledo and Yaz and Valentín
Hernández received the evening's honorees,
novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, Angel Collado-Schwarz,
and former Ambassador Paul Cejas in the candlelit
lobby. Junior chairs Jana Pasquel, Samantha
Thompson, and Luisana Mendoza wore white
and tiaras in honor of the gala's quinceañero theme.
The gala had already raised over $850,000 when the museum board
president Carmen Ana Unanue announced that she and
the Unanue family were contributing an additional $3 million to El
Museo's expansion campaign. El Museo director Julian
Zugazagoitia and chairman Tony Bechara were
the first to rise from their seats to applaud her generous donation,
and the entire room followed suit with a standing ovation as her
son, Andy Unanue, spoke on her behalf.
Guests included designers Maria Cornejo, Christian Cota,
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, and Fabiola Bercasa,
as well as Ambassador John Loeb, Assemblyman Adam
C. Powell, Jackie Weld, Candy Pratts Price, Sylvana
Soto-Ward, Sarah Wolfe, Whitney Wolfe and more.
El Museo del Barrio was founded in 1969, and is New York's
leading Latino cultural institution, representing the diversity of
art and culture in all of the Caribbean and Latin America. El Museo
has had a significant impact on New York's culture, and is
a major stop on Manhattan's Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue. Currently
El Museo is undergoing a $22 million-dollar facelift, which will
be completed in fall 2009.
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Gala co-chairs Valentín and Yaz Hernández, Tony Bechara, Gala co-chairs Isabel and Ruben Toledo.
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Honorees Ambassador Paul and Trudy Cejas, Angel Collado-Schwarz, and Mario
Vargas Llosa.
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El Museo director Julian Zugazagoitia, Tasha Zugazagoitia.
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Jose Unanue and El Museo Board president Carmen Ana Unanue.
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Gala Junior chair Jana Pasquel and Christian Cota.
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Gala Junior chair Luisana Mendoza.
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Jorge Plasencia, Nicole Miller, Romero Britto, Frances Sevilla-Sacasa.
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Francisco Costa and John De Stefano.
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Angel Sanchez.
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Ambassador John Loeb and Sharon Handler.
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Gillian Miniter.
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Maria Cornejo, Narciso Rodriguez.
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Fabiola Bercasa and Carlos Mota.
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Sarah and Whitney Wolfe.
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Vilma Vale Brennan.
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Hillary Cruz, Miss Teen USA.
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Crystle Stewart, Miss USA.
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Agatha Ruiz de la Prada.
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Alicia Rodriguez.
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Patricia and Mario Vargas Llosa.
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Sylvana Soto-Ward.
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Simon Doonan.
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Gustavo Arango, Christine Cachot.
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Yaz Hernandez, Rose Marie Brout,
Don Brout.
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Paul Cavaco, Candy Pratts Price.
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Francisco Costa, Dora Beatriz Cortes Stoudemire.
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| Photos:
Patrick McMullan |
