Alejandro A. Riera: Publicity and Programming Manager

Alejandro A. Riera has been named Publicity and Programming Manager, expanding a role he has held for close to 15 years as the Festival’s Media Relations and Communications Manager. The new title reflects an addition to his existing duties rather than a change in direction: Riera will now be directly involved in the feature film selection process and will work alongside Sandra Bernal A. in scheduling the Festival’s selected lineup, while continuing to manage all communications and content for CLFF, including its social media team.

“Programming a film festival like ours is a year-round effort. It involves monitoring what films are playing in the festival circuit as well as what’s playing theatrically all over Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal and the United States. It also involves striking that delicate balance between genres and filmmaking styles that makes attending a film festival an experience like no other.” Riera said.

“I am truly excited about my new, expanded role as Programming Manager. Iberoamerican cinema is having another great year and I am looking forward to working hand in hand with Sandra and Mateo in bringing as many of these great films to Chicago as possible.”

Riera’s ties to Chicago’s Latino media landscape date back to 1988, when he and a group of independent producers launched “Orgullo Latino,” a weekly newsmagazine series on the Chicago Access Network. He spent a decade as the arts and entertainment reporter for ¡Exito!, the Chicago Tribune’s Spanish-language weekly, covering theater, music, film, and television, and contributed regularly to the Tribune’s Tempo and Arts & Entertainment sections, including capsule reviews of past Chicago Latino Film Festival selections. He later served as A&E Senior Editor for Hoy, the Tribune’s national Spanish-language daily, and as Editor-in-Chief of Café Media. His writing currently appears in Third Coast Review, the Chicago Reader, and his own , along with a monthly film column for Cinelandia. Riera has spent close to 15 years as CLFF’s Media Relations and Communications Manager and previously worked for 10 years as publicity manager for the Chicago International Film Festival.

Sandra Bernal Aristizabal: Artistic and Operations Director

Sandra Bernal A. has been named Artistic and Operations Director for the Festival. In this role, she will cultivate relationships with film festivals and other film-related organizations, leaders, and community stakeholders; serve as the primary point of contact between filmmakers and the Festival; and oversee the Features and Shorts Programming Committees along with the Hospitality and Ticketing teams.

“For the last 4 years, I have had the honor of working very closely with Pepe Vargas to understand the festival’s inner workings and potential opportunities. Now, as I step into this new journey as the Festival’s Artistic and Operations Director, I aim to build bridges with other Festivals, open pathways with the city’s Pan-Latino community and find new allies that want to create partnerships with the CLFF, the longest continuously running Latino Film Festival in the USA. I am thrilled to keep learning and working as part of an incredible team that embraces our Festival’s motto: to make the next festival edition better than the last one.” Said Bernal.

Bernal joined the Festival four years ago as its Hospitality Manager and has spent the past two years as Programming Manager. She is a cultural manager, brand developer, and mass media and communications professional with a background in public diplomacy, having worked with the British and Swedish embassies in Colombia on cultural exchange initiatives. She has also been part of organizing large-scale events, including the Prince of Wales’s 2014 visit to Colombia, Pope Francis’s 2017 visit, and the 32nd International Book Fair of Bogotá, held with Sweden as country guest of honor in 2021. She holds a Master’s degree in Arts and Culture Management.

A Reorganization Within an Established Structure

Both new titles sit within a reporting structure that remains unchanged at the top: Mulcahy continues to hold ultimate responsibility for the ILCC and the Festival’s operations, staffing, finances, sponsorship, and marketing. The expanded roles for Riera and Bernal are described by the organization as a response to the day-to-day realities of running an event of CLFF’s scale — now heading into its 43rd edition as the largest and longest continuously-running Latino film festival in the United States, with more than 4,500 films screened since its founding in 1985.

The organization is also changing office spaces at 11 E. Adams Suite 1605, Chicago, IL 60603 only a few blocks from their present location. The current building where the ILCC is headquartered is slated to become residential apartments and all business tenants are required to vacate after lease end. 

More on the ILCC and the Chicago Latino Film Festival is available at 

The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago (ILCC) will open submissions Aug. 1 for the 43rd Chicago Latino Film Festival, scheduled for April 15-26, 2027. Entries will be accepted through FilmFreeway, with an early submission period offering discounted fees before the standard and late deadlines.

“We are glad to announce that for the first time our regular submission dates are moving up by one month. This early submission window aims to incentivize Latino members of Chicago’s film-making community to share their stories,” said newly appointed CLFF Artistic and Operations Director Sandra Bernal A.

The 2027 submission calendar includes three entry windows:

• Early Bird: Aug. 1-31, 2026
• Regular: Sept. 1-Oct. 31, 2026
• Late: Nov. 1-Dec. 4, 2026

“We are also actively looking for features and short films directed, produced, or featuring a strong Latino Cast to be included in our 43rd edition. We want the Chicago Latino Film Festival to be a point of reference and community network for the Pan-Latino Film Industry in Chicago and the Midwest.” Bernal added.

Fees for early deadline submissions will be $50 for features and $30 for shorts; for regular deadline submissions, $60 for features and $40 for shorts; and for late deadline submissions, $70 for features and $50 for shorts. Each entry must be accompanied by the appropriate entry fee.

For more than four decades, the Chicago Latino Film Festival has introduced audiences to emerging and established voices in Latino filmmaking, presenting narrative features, documentaries, shorts, animation, horror, science fiction and other genres. The Festival has become a destination for filmmakers looking to reach audiences interested in stories from across the Latino diaspora.

To be eligible, films must have their Chicago premiere during the Festival. Projects that have already screened publicly in the Chicago area, are currently streaming, have aired on U.S. television or are otherwise publicly available before or during the Festival dates are not eligible for consideration.

Unlike many festivals, the Chicago Latino Film Festival remains noncompetitive, instead recognizing audience favorites through Audience Choice Awards for narrative features, documentaries and short films.

The Festival also continues to emphasize programming for younger audiences, encouraging filmmakers to submit family-friendly works for inclusion in daytime student screenings.

“The submissions period is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting aspects of running a film festival,” says Alejandro Riera CLFF’s newly appointed Publicity and Programming Manager.

“This is when the Festival’s programming team discovers tomorrow’s visionaries and storytellers from the hundreds of entries—for both shorts and features—submitted from across the globe.“

Founded more than 40 years ago, the Chicago Latino Film Festival has screened thousands of films while serving as a cultural bridge between filmmakers and audiences. Its programming reflects the diversity of Latino experiences and continues to introduce Chicago audiences to stories from across Latin America, Spain, Portugal and Latino communities throughout the United States.

For two weeks in April, the City of Chicago becomes a converging point for filmmakers, actors and producers presenting some of the world’s latest films. This is an amazing time of community building and cultural exchange for all attendees.

Filmmakers interested in submitting can do so beginning Aug. 1 through the Festival’s FilmFreeway portal.

Starting now through the rest of the season, Sofrito Rico will be parked and serving up authentic island flavor every Saturday night, right alongside the free, live music that’s already made this summer’s series a can’t-miss neighborhood tradition. Bring your appetite along with your blanket — because from here on out, the vibes and the food are both free.

📍 Riis Park · In Front of the Field House (Pool) · 6100 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago
🕕 Saturdays, 6:00–8:00 PM

🍽️ What’s Cooking at the Truck

Sofrito Rico brings the authentic taste of Puerto Rico straight to the park. Expect a menu built on family recipes and island tradition, including:

• Tripleta Sandwich — a classic street sandwich loaded with steak, roast pork, chicken, mayo-ketchup, lettuce, and potato stix, typically served with fries.
• Mofongo Con Camarón — savory mashed fried green plantains with garlic and pork cracklings (chicharrones), topped with flavorful shrimp.
• Pastelón — the beloved Puerto Rican “lasagna,” made with layers of sweet plantains and seasoned ground meat.
• Empanadillas & Frituras — traditional stuffed turnovers (beef, chicken, or cheese) alongside fried snacks like alcapurrias (stuffed taro root).
• Arroz con Gandules & Tostones — the essential yellow rice with pigeon peas, plus crispy fried plantains, often paired with house mojito or garlic sauce.
• Tembleque — a creamy coconut custard for the perfect sweet finish.

Menu items are subject to change based on availability, so keep an open mind — and an open appetite — for whatever’s on the truck that Saturday.

Follow Sofrito Rico on Instagram @sofritoricochicago to see what’s cooking each week, catch behind-the-scenes truck content, and stay in the loop. Give them a follow, drop a like, and help us welcome them to the ILCC family!

🎶 The Lineup Keeps Getting Better

Sofrito Rico is joining the series at the perfect time — because the back half of the summer is stacked. Levitt VIBE Chicago continues July 18 with Las Guaracheras, followed by Venezuelan Night on July 25. August brings Casa Triana Flamenco on August 1, Making Movies on August 8, and Plenazo Tribe on August 15 — the group that carried Puerto Rican plena to the Super Bowl LX halftime stage alongside Bad Bunny in February 2026. Then it all builds to the Grand Finale on August 22 — the biggest night of the summer.

Every single show is free, outdoors, and open to every single person who wants to be there — no tickets, no cover, just community. Presented by the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago in partnership with the Chicago Park District’s Riis Park and the Northwest Community Development Corporation, Levitt VIBE Chicago continues to turn Belmont Cragin into the place to be on a summer Saturday night.

So grab a blanket, bring the whole family, and come hungry. Sofrito Rico and Levitt VIBE Chicago are ready for you — every Saturday, 6 to 8 PM, right here at Riis Park.

Honoring a Legacy

Before looking forward, the ILCC paused to look back. On June 30, the organization celebrated Vargas’s legacy — and his 78th birthday — with a special tribute event at Facets Film Forum on West Fullerton Avenue. A full recap of that evening is available on the ILCC’s website for anyone who wants to revisit the celebration.

Mulcahy’s Vision: Seven Pillars, One Mission

At the center of Mulcahy’s plan is a restructuring of the ILCC’s programming around seven equal pillars: film, music, dance, theater, visual arts, literary arts, and culinary arts. He’s also focused on building what he describes as more substantive partnerships with government agencies, community organizations, and universities, alongside new strategies for drawing younger and more diverse audiences into the ILCC’s roughly 150 annual events.

A Career Rooted in Latino Arts Advocacy

Mulcahy’s path to this role stretches back more than four decades. A bilingual, bicultural Chicago native of Mexican and Irish descent, he began his advocacy work in St. Louis after earning a B.A. in Spanish and International Development from Washington University. There, he helped build the city’s Latino cultural scene from the ground up — performing as a musician and vocalist with El Caribe Tropical, hosting Spanish-language radio for more than 20 years, and co-founding three Latino and international live music venues (Club Viva!, La Onda, and Candela), two of which are still open today. He also helped launch Radio Cucui, at WEW 770 AM, St. Louis’s first fully professional Spanish-language station at the oldest AM station west of the Mississippi. As a music event producer, Mulcahy is credited with bringing world-renowned artists — including Oscar D’Leon and Los Tigres del Norte — to St. Louis venues, opening a whole new path for artists in the region.

After returning to Chicago in 2006, Mulcahy spent 16 years as Director of Community Projects and Events at the Old Town School of Folk Music. As the only Latino director during his tenure, he helped turn the institution into the Midwest’s leading presenter of international music and dance, leading grant-funded festivals, residencies, and international exchange programs.

Since joining the ILCC in 2022, Mulcahy has already doubled the organization’s programming, with a particular focus on music and dance — launching the Chicago Latino Dance Festival in 2023 and the Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series in 2024.

About the ILCC

The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago is a pan-Latino, nonprofit, multidisciplinary arts organization dedicated to promoting Latino cultures through film, music, dance, visual arts, theater, and the literary and culinary arts. Originally founded as Chicago Latino Cinema, the organization earned nonprofit status in 1987, anchored by its flagship event: the Chicago Latino Film Festival, now in its 42nd year and recognized as the longest continuously-running Latino film festival in the United States, having screened more than 4,500 films from across Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the U.S.

In 1999, the organization was renamed the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago and expanded into music, theater, dance, comedy, and art exhibitions. Today, its programming includes the Chicago Latino Music Series (20th edition this year), Films in the Parks (also in its 20th season), the monthly Reel Film Club (18th year), and the Chicago Latino Dance Festival (now in its fourth year), among others.

At its core, the ILCC is guided by the belief that the arts are one of the most powerful ways to break down stereotypes and build bridges across communities — and that Latino identity spans more than 20 nationalities and every social and racial background. The organization is committed to reaching all of Chicago, not just one neighborhood or cultural tradition.

Learn more at latinoculturalcenter.org.

Additional Coverage:

Chicago Sun Times

The founder and longtime Executive Director of the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago (ILCC) and the Chicago Latino Film Festival (CLFF) officially stepped down on his 78th birthday, in a celebration held at Facets Multimedia — a venue woven into the very fabric of the institution he built. It’s the space where CLFF screened for a number of its editions, and where the Reel Film Club he helped cultivate still gathers on the last Tuesday of every month, February through November. There was no more appropriate room in the city to close this chapter.

Vargas’s decision to retire didn’t come lightly. A series of recent health scares served as what he has publicly called a wake-up call — a reminder that time with his family, and simply time, had become more valuable than one more festival, one more grant cycle, one more year at the helm. It’s a decision 42 years in the making, and one he arrived at only after making sure the organization he founded was ready to stand without him.

That readiness has a name: Mateo Mulcahy. For four years, Mulcahy has served as Vargas’s Deputy Executive Director and, in Vargas’s own words, his right-hand man — a cultural force in his own right within Chicago’s Latino music and performance scene, now stepping fully into the role of Executive Director. The transition reflects not a void being filled, but a torch being passed with intention: Vargas spent years making sure Mulcahy was ready for this, and the ILCC’s board and community showed up on June 30th confident that he is.

The evening had the texture of a family reunion as much as a gala. Pepe’s children, nieces, and granddaughters were among those present, alongside his closest friends and allies from four decades of Latino cultural life in Chicago — filling the room with the kind of warmth that no press release can manufacture. On the occasion of his birthday, he was presented with a statue from the Audience Choice Awards, named Director Emeritus for Life, and given a custom film poster commemorating his tenure — tangible symbols for a man whose real legacy has always lived in relationships, mentorship, and the films themselves.

A short tribute video, produced by journalist and digital content creator James Klein, distilled what amounted to a citywide, and frankly international, outpouring of respect for Vargas — a trusted and singular figure who didn’t just build the longest continuously running Latino film festival in the Northern Hemisphere, but who made a habit of lifting others as he went. Vargas was among the founding members of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), alongside arts executive Myrna Salazar, National Museum of Mexican Art founder Carlos Tortolero, and former Puerto Rican Arts Alliance executive director Carlos Hernández. Years later, he was one of the co-founders of the Chicago Latino Arts and Culture Summit, alongside those same organizational leaders, uniting the city’s Latino arts groups under a common advocacy voice. These weren’t side projects — they were Vargas practicing what he preached: that Latino culture in Chicago is stronger as an ecosystem than as isolated institutions.

Fittingly, the night unfolded ahead of a screening of La Suprema, the Colombian film that premiered to strong acclaim at the 40th edition of CLFF and was welcomed just as warmly by the audience this time around — a quiet nod to Vargas’s own Colombian roots and to a festival built, from day one, on the belief that film could be a bridge between countries and communities.

Throughout his 42 years leading the ILCC and CLFF, Vargas held fast to a simple conviction: that art matters. That culture can be an antidote to ignorance, a vessel for shared values and tradition, and a force that fortifies understanding across lines that too often divide. It’s a philosophy that shaped not just a festival, but a generation of Chicago’s Latino cultural infrastructure — from CLATA to the Arts and Culture Summit to the thousands of filmmakers, musicians, and audiences who passed through ILCC’s doors.

Vargas plans to return to his native Colombia once his doctors clear him to travel. He leaves behind an organization in capable hands, a city that owes him an enormous cultural debt, and a room full of people on June 30th who made sure he knew it.

Pepe was named Director Emeritus For Life of the ILCC and CLFF

After 42 years at the helm, Vargas made the difficult decision to step down as Executive Director, effective June 30, 2026, due to health reasons. Mateo Mulcahy, who has served alongside him since 2022, took over as Executive Director on July 1.

The date and venue Pepe chose was not accidental or coincidental, it was his birthday and the venue was Facets one of the Festival’s longest running allies and once the home of the Chicago Latino Film Festival. Pepe celebrated surrounded by his friends and colleagues in both of the most personal moments of his life.

Below, in his own words, is Pepe Vargas’s message to the community he built this organization for.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER June 8, 2026

As the chorus of a classic salsa song goes, “Todo tiene su final.“

But endings always pave the way for new, promising, and exciting beginnings.

I am retiring and stepping down as Executive Director of the organization effective June 30, 2026 due to health reasons. Mateo Mulcahy will act as Interim Executive Director until July 1st when he will fully take over as the ILCC’s new Executive Director.

As my right-hand man, Mateo has single-handedly elevated our music, dance and theater programming while establishing strong relationships with local arts and community organizations. He has also played a pivotal role in the post-pandemic success of the Chicago Latino Film Festival. I leave behind a hard-working team that is as committed and passionate about the organization’s mission as I have been. I am truly excited about this new chapter in the ILCC’s long history of service and Latino arts advocacy and programming. I ask you that you support Mateo and his team in the same way that you have supported me all these years.

I have long believed that the arts are a weapon against racism, discrimination and misconceptions. That they can tear down the walls that divide us. That through them we can create a community of equals. I have devoted body and soul to this mission for 42 years. And even though it hasn’t been easy at times, I take great satisfaction in our many successes. I take great comfort in the knowledge that our work touched several generations of Chicagoans and that our events served as a platform for thousands of local, national and international artists, some of whom today are our worldwide ambassadors. Nothing filled my heart more these past 42 years than seeing venues packed with people in communion with these artists. It was all worth it.

The Dream Lives On

The arts are now more important than ever given our current political climate. Which is why I haven’t given up on my dream of a venue that would serve as a multi-arts complex and the headquarters for the International Latino Cultural Center. The idea has evolved throughout the years but the need has not. Chicago deserves a space where the Pan-Latino diaspora sees itself represented through the arts. Mateo will play an active role in making sure this dream becomes a reality.

I leave the organization in a good place. We have already announced the line-up for this year’s edition of the Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series; the Reel Film Club is back at Facets; our annual Films in the Parks program begins on Wednesday, July 8 and will play at different city parks for the following five Wednesdays; and plans are already being made for the next Chicago Latino Dance Festival in the fall. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

I may be retiring but I will still be around. I will be prioritizing my health above all things; I do want to spend more time with my children, grandchildren and relatives. And, yes, enjoy the fruits of my labor…and even attend some of the events produced by the ILCC but now as a member of the audience.

As always, I remain eternally grateful to each and every one of you who joined me in this journey: from all the board members and staff who have served the ILCC for more than four decades, to the foundations and sponsors who have financially supported our mission, and the thousands of volunteers who willingly gave of their time because they believed in our cause. But, most importantly, I thank you, our audience. Our work would have been impossible without your support.

Pepe Vargas Executive Director and Founder International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago

There are people who change a room when they walk in. And then there are people who build the room itself — and invite an entire community inside.

Pepe Vargas is one of those people.

After more than 40 years of tireless dedication to Latino arts and culture in Chicago, our Founder and Executive Director is stepping down on June 30, 2026. His departure marks the end of a remarkable chapter — and the beginning of a legacy that will continue to shape this city for generations to come.

We want to take a moment to celebrate him, to thank him, and to wish him the very best in this new and well-deserved season of his life.

From humble beginnings to cultural icon

The story of the ILCC is, in many ways, the story of one man’s stubborn belief in the power of Latino culture to move, inspire, and unite.

It started in 1985 at St. Augustine College — 14 films projected against a wall, an audience of 500, and a young Pepe Vargas who saw not just a film festival, but a possibility. A possibility that Latino culture deserved a permanent, thriving, and celebrated place in Chicago’s artistic identity.

He seized that possibility with both hands and never let go.

What began as the Hispanic Film Festival grew into the Chicago Latino Film Festival, then into Chicago Latino Cinema, and ultimately into the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago — a year-round, multidisciplinary arts organization that today reaches close to tens of thousands of people annually. The Chicago Latino Film Festival is now the longest continuously running Latino film festival in the country, having screened more than 5,000 films from across Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the United States. Most of those films might never have been seen in Chicago without Pepe’s vision and persistence.

But he didn’t stop at film. Convinced that a community hungry for Latino cinema must also be hungry for other forms of expression, Pepe expanded the ILCC’s reach into music, theater, dance, visual arts, comedy, and culinary arts. He launched the Chicago Latino Music Series. He helped found the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance. He created spaces where Latin American and Iberian musicians could perform classical and experimental compositions that had rarely been heard in this city. He opened doors — and then walked through them alongside the artists and communities he served.

A Life That Earned Its Stories

Pepe Vargas did not arrive at this moment easily. Born in rural Colombia and shaped by a life of hard work and hardship, he traveled across a continent, survived political persecution in Argentina under military rule, crossed Central America and Mexico, and ultimately made his way to Chicago — where he earned a degree in Broadcast Journalism and Television/Film Production from Columbia College Chicago, worked as a busboy and a taxi driver, and contributed columns to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Spanish-language insert.

His story is not just the story of an immigrant who succeeded. It is the story of a man who took everything life threw at him and transformed it into fuel for something bigger than himself. He understood — deeply, personally — what it meant to feel unseen. And he spent the rest of his life making sure the Latino community in Chicago never had to feel that way.

What the People Who Know Him Best Have to Say

The tributes from those who have worked alongside Pepe say everything about the kind of leader — and the kind of human being — he is.

Board Chair Nancy Alonso, who has watched Pepe’s work firsthand for fifteen years, put it beautifully: he created spaces where Latin American filmmakers could proudly share their work, where musicians could fill a room with the sounds of their homelands, and where the traditions of an entire continent could be savored and celebrated. In doing so, she said, he shattered narrow stereotypes of Latino culture and replaced them with truth, artistry, and pride.

Board Treasurer Jonathan López called him an institution within Chicago’s arts community — a leader who has elevated countless voices, strengthened organizations, and enriched the life of this city.

Board Secretary Michael Angell described him simply as one of the great cultural leaders of Chicago: a dignified gentleman of the old school, passionate for his mission, welcoming to all partners, and a model for everyone who follows.

We could not agree more.

The Work Goes On

Pepe himself said it best: “I step down with the full confidence that I have assembled a team that is as committed and passionate about the ILCC’s mission as I still am.”

That confidence is well-placed. Deputy Executive Director Mateo Mulcahy — Pepe’s right-hand man, who has elevated the ILCC’s music, dance, and theater programming and played a pivotal role in the post-pandemic resurgence of the Chicago Latino Film Festival — has been appointed Acting Executive Director and will assume the Executive Director position effective June 30. A transition that won’t skip a beat.

The work Pepe built will continue. The 2026 Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series is underway at Riis Park. Films in the Park and the Fourth Annual Chicago Latino Dance Festival are on the horizon. The CLFF just finished its best post-pandemic run ever — a 51% increase in sales and a 30% increase in attendance. The organization Pepe built is stronger than ever.

That is his final gift to us.

Thank You, Pepe

We celebrate you not just for what you built, but for why you built it — because you believed that Latino culture was not a niche, not a footnote, but a living, breathing, essential part of what makes Chicago great.

You proved it. You proved it with 42 film festivals, 25 years of music programming, four years of dance festivals, and more than five thousand films screened for audiences who came away knowing something true about the world.

You published your memoirs — Soy la vida que he vivido — and the title says it all. You are, indeed, the life you have lived. And what a life it has been.

From every filmmaker, musician, dancer, audience member, volunteer, board member, and community partner whose life you have touched: thank you, Pepe. We love you. We honor you. And we wish you all the health, peace, and joy you so richly deserve.

Que viva la cultura. Que viva Pepe Vargas.

The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago continues its mission year-round. For more information on upcoming programming, visit latinoculturalcenter.org.

There’s a park in Belmont Cragin where, every summer since 2024, something extraordinary happens. As the sun fades over the horizon the sounds of Latin America fill the air behind the Riis Park Pool House. People gather and magic happens. Blankets are laid on the grass, lawn chairs set and coolers brought set the tone. And then the music starts — and for two hours, you receive a passport to Latin America’s international flair. You are in the mountains of Puerto Rico. You are in the streets of Cali. You are in a flamenco tablaos in Sevilla. You are on the shores of Lake Maracaibo at dusk.

Welcome! You are at Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series — and admission is forever FREE.

Now in its 2026 edition, the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago (ILCC) and the Levitt Family Foundation are bringing back the series that has quietly become one of the great summer music events in Belmont Cragin. Ten consecutive Saturdays. Ten distinct worlds of Latin music. One beautiful park at 6100 W. Fullerton Ave. in the heart of Belmont Cragin.

This isn’t a festival. It’s a neighborhood connecting to something different, or perhaps something familiar.

THE STAGE IS SET — AND THE LINEUP IS A JOURNEY

The 2026 Levitt VIBE season opens June 13 with the warmth and accordion-driven poetry of Arpa Café & Vallenato Deluxe, bringing Chicago a taste of Colombian vallenato — the music Gabriel García Márquez called the soul of that country’s Caribbean coast. In a beautiful convergence of cultural celebration. This event is supported by Gran Festival Colombiano Chicago. Expect color, emotion, and cumbia hips from the very first note.

From there, the series moves like a musical passport through the breadth of the Latin world.

June 20 belongs to Cepillao Band, serving high-octane urban Latin rhythms built for one purpose: to make the entire park dance. Then June 27 brings a powerful double bill — Cuevo Perez & Almafuerte — a pairing that promises passion, depth, and the kind of musical conversation you only get when two strong acts share a stage.

After our own national Independence Day break on July 4th, July 11 delivers what may be the season’s most musically rare evening: Prodigio y su Rumba Jíbara. The jíbaro tradition — the mountain folk music of Puerto Rico — is one of the most soul-stirring sounds in the Caribbean, often overshadowed by reggaeton and salsa in American concert venues. Not here. Not on this stage. A night of ensueño boricua like no other awaits you.

On July 18, we celebrate Colombian Independence Day with Las Guaracheras, an all female salsa group from Cali. Their repertoire spans Afro-Caribbean rhythms such as salsa, as well as music from Colombia’s Pacific region. Their performance  promises to bring joy, movement, and the spirit of the Caribbean to Chicago’s northwest side. Don’t leave home without your dancing shoes.

Then comes July 25, the night that may be the biggest night of the series: an all-out Venezuelan music spectacular featuring Tamanaco Tambor, Sol Five Band, MOXI VZ, Andrés Correa, and JV Ninety — five acts drawing on Venezuela’s staggering musical diversity, from Afro-Venezuelan percussion to contemporary pop. The evening is supported by Panas en Chicago, the Chicago-based nonprofit founded by Venezuelans to support their community and honor the culture that shaped them. This is not a concert. This is a homecoming.

August 1 brings the dramatic shift in temperature that only flamenco can deliver. Casa Triana carries the fire of Andalusia — the stomp of the zapateado, the cry of the cante jondo, the arc of the braceo — to a Chicago park. Flamenco live, outdoors, under the summer sky is something you do not forget. Bring your vino tinto and abanico and let’s witness el duende together!

If August 8’s headliner Making Movies doesn’t already have a permanent spot in your music rotation, consider this your intervention. The Kansas City-born quartet has been making critics and fans lose their minds for years with a sound that refuses to be boxed in — cumbia, rock, soul, norteño, and activist energy fused into something that hits harder than it has any right to. Making Movies’ catalog includes collaborations with Rubén Blades, Asdru Sierra (Ozomatli), Mireya Ramos (Flor de Toloache), and David Hidalgo (Los Lobos). This is the show you’ll talk about at work on Monday.

August 15 turns the percussion up to eleven as Plenazo Tribe brings the plena — Puerto Rico’s Afro-Caribbean drum-driven tradition of communal storytelling — to the northwest side. Plenazo Tribe recently performed on the NFL Halftime Show with Bad Bunny. Bodies will move. It’s not optional.

And on August 22, the 2026 Levitt VIBE season closes with the full spectacle of Mexican banda music: Banda La Enkantadora & Los Gallos bring the brass, the energy, and the sheer joy of a tradition that fills stadiums in Mexico and is finally getting its flowers in Chicago. The series finale promises to send the summer out not with a whimper, but with a wall of sound.

WHY THIS MATTERS MORE THAN EVER

In a summer when so many live music experiences come with a cover charge, a wristband, and a $20 parking fee, Levitt VIBE Chicago is a radical act of generosity. No tickets. No VIP section. No barrier between the music and the people who need it most.

“When you bring together artists rooted in traditions from across Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Brazil—all on one stage, in one neighborhood—you create something truly special,” said Mateo Mulcahy, Acting Executive Director of the ILCC and Series Producer. “Riis Park becomes an active space of the Latino world music and neighbors of Belmont Cragin and beyond have a chance to experience it live, in person and absolutely free.”

YOUR SUMMER PLANS JUST CHANGED

Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series 2026  Riis Park | 6100 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL 60639 

Every Saturday, June 13 – August 22, 2026 (no concert July 4) 

Music 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM | Rain or shine  FREE. No tickets required.

Bring a blanket. Bring a lawn chair. Bring the whole crew. Coolers welcome.

This is what summer in Chicago is supposed to sound like.

Visit our front page to get all the deets.

The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago is a Pan-Latino nonprofit arts organization dedicated to developing, promoting, and increasing awareness of Latino cultures. The Levitt Family Foundation supports nonprofits across the country in activating underused public spaces through free, live music.

Visit our front page to get all the deets.

There is a particular kind of power that does not announce itself with fanfare or press releases. It does not wait for applause. It rises before the sun does, moves quietly through a kitchen that smells of café de olla, arepas or huevos con chorizo, or something familiar simmering on the back burner, and holds an entire universe together with hands that are simultaneously the softest and the most formidable things you have ever known.

It is the power of madre

In Latino families across generations and across borders, from the colonias of Pilsen to the barrios of East Los Angeles, from the sugar cane fields of Puerto Rico to the high-rises of Miami’s Little Havana, it is the Latina mother who has served not merely as the center of the household, but as its architect, its moral compass, its emergency room, its court of law — and yes, if you were foolish enough to test her, its enforcement arm. The chancleta, after all, has been maintaining order in Latino homes since long before any government agency thought to try.

The Original Multitasker

Long before the word “multitasking” entered the corporate lexicon, Latina mothers had already mastered the art. They worked double shifts and still made sure the frijoles or arroz con pollo were on the table at dinner time. They learned English in their forties, against the odds, so they could navigate school systems, immigration offices, and hospital waiting rooms on behalf of their children, parents, siblings or spouses. They stretch a $7.00 chicken into three meals, making each one taste like an occasion. They attend every school play, every quinceañera committee meeting, every Sunday Mass — and somehow manage to run informal financial networks of tandas and cundinas that put more than one small business on its feet.

They don’t call it resilience. They call it Martes.

The Latina mother’s role in sustaining family and culture is not incidental — it is foundational. Sociological research consistently finds that Latino family cohesion, educational aspiration, and cultural identity are transmitted overwhelmingly through the mother. She is the keeper of language, of recipes, of stories, of saints’ days and family altars. She is the one who makes sure the children know where they come from — which, in the Latino experience, is the most important thing a person can know. Culture, heritage, and tradition are all mostly transmitted by mothers.

When the Chancleta Speaks, You Listen

Let’s pause here to give proper respect to the chancleta — that humble rubber sandal that has served as the primary diplomatic instrument of Latina motherhood for at least three generations.

Do not be fooled by its modest appearance. In the hands of an experienced Latina mother, the chancleta was less a footwear item and more a precision guidance and policy administrator. It could arc across a living room with the accuracy of a heat-seeking missile, navigate around furniture, clear a doorframe, and arrive at its destination before the recipient had fully processed the decision that prompted its deployment. There are grown men in their fifties — respected professionals, pillars of their communities — who will still flinch involuntarily at the sound of a sandal being removed from a foot. This is not trauma. This is respect with institutional memory.

And the look. Every child of a Latina mother knows the look — that quiet, unblinking, thousand-yard stare delivered across a crowded room that communicates, without a single syllable, the precise latitude and longitude of the line you are about to cross and the consequences awaiting you on the other side. The chancleta was dramatic. The look was surgical. Together, they constituted a complete system of behavioral governance that child psychologists are still trying to fully document.

But here is what made it all work: the same woman who could bring an entire dinner table to silence with one raised eyebrow was the same woman who stayed up past midnight sewing your costume for the school festival, who memorized your friends’ names and always asked about them, who put the best piece of chicken on your plate and told everyone else she wasn’t hungry. The discipline and the love were never in contradiction. They were the same thing, expressed in different registers.

Grandes Mujeres: Latina Mothers Who Shaped Arts and Culture

Latina mothers have not only sustained families — they have shaped the culture that the entire world now celebrates. Some of the most towering figures in Latino arts, letters, and public life have been mothers whose creative genius and personal sacrifice run in inseparable currents.

Our most recent Chicago Latino Film Festival celebrated the fact that women filmmaker where the ones that brought forth the most popular films by audience choice. We wrote an article about it and you defenitely check it out here when you’re done with this one.

Gloria Estefan rebuilt herself from near-total paralysis after a devastating tour bus accident in 1990 — and she did it, she has said, for her son Nayib. The Cuban-American icon, who would go on to have a daughter, Emily, as well, returned to stages around the world not just as a performer but as a living testament to what a mother is willing to endure and overcome. Her music — from Conga to Get On Your Feet — carries that same unbreakable energy.

Rita Moreno, the incomparable Puerto Rican legend who became the first Latina to win an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy, raised her daughter Fernanda while navigating an entertainment industry that was, to put it gently, not designed with women like her in mind. She fought for dignity on screen at a time when Latina actresses were offered stereotypes or nothing, and she created, through sheer force of talent and will, a space for every Latina performer who came after her. She is now in her nineties and still working. Mamá does not retire.

Salma Hayek Pinault, the Mexican actress and producer who fought Harvey Weinstein’s coercion and harassment for years to bring Frida to the screen — a film about another iconic Mexican woman — has spoken at length about how becoming a mother to her daughter Valentina transformed not just her personal life but her professional sense of purpose. She became a fierce advocate for paid family leave and maternal health care on the international stage. She did not soften when she became a mother. She sharpened.

Isabel Allende, the Chilean literary giant whose novels — La casa de los espíritus, Eva Luna, Paula — have been read in dozens of languages by tens of millions of people, wrote her most devastating and most beautiful book, Paula, as a letter to her daughter who lay in a coma from which she would never return. It is arguably the most profound meditation on mother-and-child love in all of Latin American literature. She has said that she begins every new book on January 8th — the day she began that letter. Even in grief, mamá keeps writing.

America Ferrera, the Honduran-American actress, director, and activist best known for Ugly Betty and her recent turn in Barbie, became a mother in 2018 and has since made maternal advocacy — for working mothers, for immigrant mothers, for mothers navigating systemic inequity — central to her public identity. She has been as eloquent about the exhaustion and the wonder of motherhood as she has been about the roles that made her famous.

We know there are many more examples and you may know women of equal resilience without a title or a fame. We share these stories as examples, not as the complete picture. 

The Culture She Carries

The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago exists because culture does not preserve itself. It requires people who believe, with the kind of conviction that doesn’t need an argument, that art matters, that story matters, that the Spanish language matters, that nuestra historia matters — and that someone must fight to keep it alive and visible.

That conviction? Many of us first encountered it at home. In a mother who sang along to Como una Flor while washing dishes. In a grandmother who recited poetry by Neruda or Sor Juana from memory. In a tía who dragged the whole family to a community theater production and cried through the whole second act and then told everyone it was muy bueno through a voice still thick with tears.

The ILCC’s mission — to celebrate, elevate, and sustain Latino arts and culture — is, at its deepest level, continuous with what Latina mothers have always done: hold the culture in their hands, make sure it is fed and warm, and pass it, intact and alive, to the next generation.

A Letter We Can Never Finish Writing

There is no article long enough, no tribute eloquent enough, no bouquet fragrant enough to fully account for what Latina mothers have given. The calculus is simply too large. It includes the sleepless nights and the school lunches and the prayers whispered over sleeping children and the money secretly set aside and the dreams quietly deferred and the pride — el orgullo — worn like a second skin whenever their child accomplishes something that once seemed impossible.

On this Mother’s Day, the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago honors every Latina mother — the famous and the unsung, the ones still here and the ones we carry with us always, the ones who crossed borders and the ones who held the border of the family together when everything else was uncertain.

To the mother who made the mole from scratch because the jarred kind was, simply, not an option.

To the mother who worked the overnight shift and still showed up to the school play in the front row.

To the mother who told you in the clearest possible terms exactly who you were and where you came from, because she knew that a child who knows those things is a child who cannot be lost.

To the mother who never said I love you in those words but said it in every bowl of caldo she set in front of you when you were sick, in every button she sewed back on, in every worry she carried so you wouldn’t have to.

To all of them: Feliz Día de las Madres.

Gracias, Mamá. Por todo. Por siempre.

The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago proudly celebrates Latina mothers and the living culture they sustain. Learn more about our programs, film festivals, and community events at latinoculturalcenter.org.

© 2026 International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago. All rights reserved. Reproduction with attribution only.

The Chicago Latino Film Festival, managed and produced by the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago announced the results on Monday, 4th of May, 2026. This capped a festival run that by any honest measure was the organization’s strongest since the pandemic turned the world of cinema into a waiting room.

Venezuela on Everyone’s Mind

If there was a thematic heartbeat to this year’s audience votes, it was Venezuela — and the particular kind of dread that comes from watching a country consume itself.

It Would Be Night in Caracas, the searing co-direction of Mariana Rondón and Marité Ugás, took the top prize for Best Fiction Feature. The film — which opened the festival and returned for a second screening alongside the duo’s earlier collaboration Zafari — drops its protagonist Adelaida into Caracas during the violent 2017 anti-Maduro protests, alone after her mother’s death, hiding in a dead neighbor’s apartment with a corpse for company and an identity she can no longer afford to keep. It is the kind of film that doesn’t ask for your sympathy — it simply refuses to let you look away.

The Best Short Film award went to Beyond (Más Allá), Bettina López Mendoza’s gut-punch of a short following a young Venezuelan girl separated from her mother in the treacherous Darién jungle — one of the most dangerous migration corridors on the planet. In under twenty minutes, López Mendoza accomplishes what some features can’t in two hours: she makes the global migration crisis feel like one child’s face.

Two films. Two Venezuelan stories. One unmistakable signal from an audience that is paying attention to the world outside the multiplex.

Guatemala’s Wound, Turned Into Art

The Best Documentary prize went somewhere equally uncompromising. Comparsa, directed by Vickie Curtis and Doug Anderson and executive produced by acclaimed Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante — who was on hand to present his latest feature Cordillera de Fuego — centers on two sisters in Ciudad Peronia, Guatemala, responding to one of Central America’s most devastating and under-reported tragedies: the 2017 fire at the Virgen de la Asunción Safe Home that killed 41 girls locked inside a state-run facility.

Lesli and Lupe’s response is not a petition or a protest sign. It’s a comparsa — a thundering street procession of towering puppets, fire-breathing stilt walkers, and drums that refuse to be ignored. Curtis and Anderson don’t just document a community’s grief; they document what happens when art becomes the only language powerful enough to hold it.

The Format Shift That Actually Worked

Here’s something festivals rarely admit: the gala model is broken. Elaborate opening night productions, $75 tickets, and red carpet theatrics that have more to do with optics than cinema have been quietly hollowing out festival culture for years. The ILCC did something radical for the 42nd edition — they scrapped it.

Opening and Closing Night events moved directly into the cinema. Ticket prices dropped from $75 to $35. Receptions featured food and drinks, yes, but more importantly they featured filmmakers — real, accessible, in-the-room human beings who made the work and wanted to talk about it. Both nights sold out well in advance. Something to keep in mind for next year’s 43rd edition.

The festival’s overall numbers backed up the instinct: a 51% increase in sales and a 30% jump in attendance over the previous year. All 51 features and 31 shorts from Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the United States screened exclusively at the Landmark Century Centre Cinemas on Clark Street — one location, no logistical sprawl, total focus.

Pepe Vargas, ILCC’s Executive Director and founder, makes the same promise every year: this edition will be better than the last. For 42 years, he has delivered.

What Came Close

The runners-up deserve more than a footnote. Colombian director Flora Martínez’s ¡Basta Mamá! (Enough Mom!) — a sharp domestic comedy about a 45-year-old man still living with his mother when his girlfriend and boss comes to dinner — finished second in fiction, which suggests Chicago’s Latino audiences have a sophisticated taste for farce alongside tragedy. Bolivian-UK co-production Cielo, about an eight-year-old girl hauling her mother’s body across the altiplano after swallowing a fish whole, finished third. That sentence alone should tell you something about the range of storytelling on offer.

In documentary, Diego Lajst’s A Shabbat on the Other Side of the River — a quietly extraordinary portrait of Moroccan Jewish descendants who have preserved their traditions in the Brazilian Amazon for two centuries — took second place. Third went to José María Cabral’s 42nd Street, a kinetic dive into Santo Domingo’s Capotillo neighborhood where dembow, dance, police harassment, and raw humanity collide in something that blurs the line between documentary and fever dream.

Among the shorts, Chicago’s own Pilsen neighborhood showed up in Erick Juárez’s Cake — a mother, a son, a birthday, and the weight of financial reality — and finished second. Third went to Argentina’s La Cerrillana, a quiet, precise story about a mother finding her way toward her son’s gender transition through an unexpected mirror.

The Festival Doesn’t Stop Here

With the awards behind it, the ILCC moves into a full calendar that reflects the breadth of what a genuinely multidisciplinary cultural organization looks like in practice. The monthly Reel Film Club at Facets continues on the last Tuesday of each month. Films in the Park — now in its 20th season — returns every Wednesday in July across Chicago’s parks. The third annual Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series kicks off June 13 at Riis Park with ten consecutive Saturdays of free concerts through August 22.

Cumbia-punk outfit Son Rompe Pera hits Thalia Hall on June 19. East L.A. roots collective Las Cafeteras bring Hasta La Muerte — a two-act exploration of grief, loss, and the celebration of life — to the Copernicus Center on October 30. Peru’s Compañía de Teatro Físico arrives June 4–6 at the Dance Center at Columbia College. And the Fourth Annual Chicago Latino Dance Festival lands in the fall at multiple locations.

Forty-two years in, the Chicago Latino Film Festival is not coasting on legacy. It’s building one — film by film, seat by seat, vote by vote. And this year, more often than not, the votes went to women telling stories the rest of the world hasn’t caught up to yet.

Pay attention.

The 42nd Chicago Latino Film Festival was presented by the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago at the Landmark Century Centre Cinemas, April 16–27, 2026. For upcoming ILCC programming, visit the main page of latinoculturalcenter.org.