WBC PRESENTS WORLD CHAMPION BELT FOR THE NEW MEXICAN MUSEUM IN SAN FRANCISCO

SAN FRANCISCO – The World Boxing Council presented its official world champion green belt for The Mexican Museum new home in San Francisco. The Mexican Museum is a San Francisco Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution that now have a new site at 706 Mission Street in the Yerba Buena Gardens Art District. The museum partnered up with Millennium Partners, who will be building the new site.

Former WBC world champions, Erik Morales, Israel Vasquez, Gabriel Ruelas, Mia St. John and Martha Salazar were all in attendance for the ground breaking ceremony of the museum. The belt was signed by the champions and presented in the ceremony. It will be placed in the new facility that is expected to be opened to the public in 2019. In addition, the champions signed 100 Reyes boxing gloves for fans that attended the event.

“It’s an amazing honor. This is Mexican and Latino museum, but it’s art of the world, and we are a global organization,” said Jill Diamond, International Chairperson for WBC Cares. “The idea that we can help bring culture to people, to be part of a movement in a time when things are so difficult, so violent, so unloving. To be part of a beautiful and loving event, embracing the best of who we are as human beings means everything.”

The first Mexican Museum was inaugurated on November 20, 1975 by founder, Peter Rodriguez. According to the museum’s history, Rodriguez founded the museum “to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret the artistic expression of the Mexican, Mexican-American, and Chicano people.” In 2012, the museum became the Smithsonian Institution Affiliate – the first and only museum in San Francisco to hold this honor.