The northern terminus of Manhattan's "museum mile," El Museo is a quirky, approachable museum dedicated to Latin American and Caribbean art and culture. (The name is taken for the generic Spanish word for neighborhood, El Barrio, which has become the common term for Spanish-speaking East Harlem.) El Museo was founded in 1969 by a collection of local artists and activists determine to secure a dignified museum space worthy of their own contributions to culture, and, as it's evolved over the past decades, they could not have hoped for a better result. El Museo can't match the deep holdings of some of New York's more well-established museums, but it manages to turn out intriguing exhibitions seasonally (a program occasionally aided by a relationship with MoMA).