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.

There is an art form that refuses to be tamed. It lives in the stomp of a heel on a wooden stage, in the ache of a voice reaching for something beyond language, in the precise tension of a guitarist’s fingers coaxing fire from six strings. Flamenco is not something you simply watch — it is something that finds you, grabs you, and doesn’t let go. It transmits the anguish, the pain, the joy and the passions of life, all expressed thorough fiber and sinew and an ancient calling from the past.

The 24th Chicago Flamenco Festival, presented by the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago in collaboration with the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, brings an extraordinary international lineup to the city from March 1 through March 17, 2026. All performances take place at the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago, 31 West Ohio Street in the River North neighborhood. Tickets range from $20 to $35, and the full schedule with ticketing is available at chicago.cervantes.es.

This year as in years past, the festival in Chicago coincides with the World Flamenco Congress (Congreso Mundial de Flamenco), a global initiative founded in 2021 by the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes in Spain. Chicago is one of the principal host cities in 2026, placing our city squarely at the center of an international conversation about flamenco’s past, present, and future. That is not a small thing. That is Chicago being recognized as a major North American home for one of humanity’s most profound art forms — one that UNESCO itself declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity back in 2010.

A Festival Built on Depth

Teresa Hernando, Cultural Programs Curator at the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago and the architect of this festival’s vision, puts it plainly:

“This Festival was born from the conviction that Chicago deserved to experience flamenco at the highest artistic level,” said Teresa Hernando, Cultural Programs Curator and Festival Producer. “For twenty-four years, we have built a platform where master artists and visionary creators meet an informed and passionate audience. It is not a showcase; it is a dialogue
between history and the present. Here, tradition and risk coexist.”

The 2026 program is remarkable in its range. Rather than serving up a single, monolithic vision of flamenco, it places the art form in honest dialogue with its own complexity — its Andalusian roots, its Moorish and Mediterranean inheritance, its contemporary restlessness, and its capacity for genuine cross-cultural encounter.

The Full Performance Schedule

Sunday, March 1 — RAW (Opening Night) Granada-born dancer and choreographer Irene Morales opens the festival alongside cantaor El Calerito and guitarist José Fermín Fernández. RAW strips flamenco to its essential architecture — rhythm, breath, gesture, silence — while weaving in electronic textures that expand the form without losing its pulse. This is flamenco distilled to its bones, and it is the perfect entry point for the festival.

Friday, March 6 — Latente/Malagueña Guitarist Dani de Morón — born in Morón de la Frontera and shaped by the legendary lineage of Diego del Gastor — brings original compositions alongside the deeply traditional Malagueña. A collaborator of José Mercé, Paco de Lucía, and Antonio Canales, Dani de Morón is one of the most technically authoritative guitarists working in flamenco today.

Saturday, March 7 — YARIN One of the most conceptually daring offerings of the festival. Andrés Marín, one of flamenco’s most innovative choreographer-dancers, meets Jon Maya and the acclaimed Kukai Dantza company in an encounter between flamenco and ancestral Basque dance. Kukai Dantza — winners of Spain’s National Dance Award for creation in 2017 — bridges ancient Basque tradition with contemporary movement. Live music by Basque musician Julen Achiary and the haunting rhythms of the txalaparta percussion instrument make this an evening unlike anything Chicago stages regularly. YARIN is a reminder that identity and artistic dialogue are not mutually exclusive — they can be the same conversation.

Saturday, March 14 — José Antonio Rodríguez ⭐ Co-produced by the ILCC Guitarist José Antonio Rodríguez brings an evening dedicated entirely to the flamenco guitar repertoire, bridging classical structure with contemporary harmonic language. This concert is co-produced by the ILCC, making it a particularly meaningful night for our organization and our community. Tickets are $20–$35 at chicago.cervantes.es — don’t miss it.

Tuesday, March 17 — Seffarine: From Fez to Jerez ⭐ Co-produced by the ILCC | Festival Closing Night The festival closes — and what a closing it is. Seffarine, led by Moroccan vocalist Lamiae Naki and multi-instrumentalist Nat Hulskamp, joined by dancer Manuel Gutiérrez and bassist Yosmel Montejo, traces centuries of musical exchange between North Africa and Andalusia. The program illuminates something that often gets overlooked in popular presentations of flamenco: its deep, living roots in the Moorish world of medieval Iberia. From Fez to Jerez is not just a concert title — it is a historical argument made in music and movement. This closing night is also co-produced by the ILCC. Tickets are $20–$35 at chicago.cervantes.es.

The ILCC’s Role: More Than a Partner

The ILCC’s connection to this festival runs deep. Our Deputy Executive Director, Mateo Mulcahy, is co-producing both the March 14 and March 17 concerts, bringing the ILCC’s creative energy and community reach directly into the heart of the programming.

Mateo had this to say about the collaboration and what these two concerts mean:

The International Latino Cultural Center (or the ILCC) values the opportunity to showcase the bonds between Spain and Latin America through collaborations with the Instituto Cervantes and the Chicago Flamenco Festival. The power of flamenco in its many forms and expressions inspires us to seek out and explore the cultural connections between Spain and Latin America.

Having veteran Maestro José Antonio Rodríguez and Seffarine shows the contrast and evolution of an artform that has lived in our midst for centuries and can still demonstrate the capacity for innovation and growth.

This kind of partnership — between the Instituto Cervantes and the ILCC — reflects exactly what both organizations exist to do: build bridges. Between Spain and the Americas. Between the classical and the contemporary. Between an art form with 1,000 years of history and an audience that may be experiencing it for the very first time tonight.

Listen Before You Go: HablArte! Podcast

Want to go deeper before stepping into the theater? We’ve got you covered.

The latest episode of our HablArte! podcast features an unmissable conversation with Mateo Mulcahy, Teresa Hernando, and Nat Hulskamp and Manuel Gutiérrez of Seffarine. Together, they explore the creative vision behind the festival, the story of Seffarine: From Fez to Jerez, and the living connections between North African musical heritage and Andalusian flamenco. It is the kind of conversation that will completely transform how you hear and see these performances live.

[PODCAST LINK/EPISODE COMING SOON.]

An Invitation

I have been immersed in Latino and Spanish culture my entire life. I grew up in Spain. I attended Spanish schools. I know what it means to feel flamenco not as a spectacle but as a living, breathing thing — something inherited, argued over, reinvented, and fiercely protected by the communities that carry it.

What this festival offers Chicago is rare. It is not a greatest-hits tour. It is not a postcard version of Spain for tourists. It is the real conversation that flamenco artists, scholars, and cultural leaders are having right now, in 2026, about where this art form comes from, where it is going, and what it means for all of us — regardless of whether our family comes from Andalusia, Morocco, the Basque Country, Mexico, Puerto Rico, or Illinois.

Come on March 1. Come on March 6 or 7. Come on March 14 for a masterclass in guitar, or March 17 to hear the musical dialogue between Fez and Jerez close out the festival on a note that will stay with you for weeks.

You don’t need to know anything about flamenco to walk through that door. You just need to be willing to feel something. Willing to open your mind to new things and broaden horizons beyond where the sun rises.

Tickets: $20–$35 | All performances at Instituto Cervantes of Chicago, 31 West Ohio Street Full schedule and tickets: chicago.cervantes.es

The 24th Chicago Flamenco Festival is presented by the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago in collaboration with the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, and supported by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Tourist Office of Spain in Chicago, and Best Western River North Hotel.

This Month’s Star: Texas Style Pulled Pork

Chef Nick Kleutsh from Sanders BBQ has cooked up something special for February—a Texas-style pulled pork taco that’s a love letter to the Southwest. We’re talking slow-smoked pork with that authentic Texas BBQ soul, wrapped in Mercadito’s house-made tortillas and topped with flavors that celebrate the culinary traditions where Mexican and American Southwest cooking collide.

Kleutsh is no stranger to BBQ neither – he is a master at it and to say these tacos are delicious can only be challenged with a taste test!

It’s the kind of taco that makes you understand why BBQ is a religion in Texas, and why tacos are a way of life everywhere else. Put them together, and you’ve got something worth making a pilgrimage for.

How It Works

Simple: you order the February Tacos 4 Strength special, you eat really well, and a portion of the proceeds goes directly to supporting the ILCC’s mission of promoting and preserving Latino arts and culture in Chicago. Win-win-win.

The ILCC is the organization behind the Chicago Latino Film Festival, showcasing Latino cinema since 1985, bringing filmmakers and artists to Chicago, and creating spaces where culture thrives. Your taco habit can literally fund the arts. That’s the kind of multitasking we can get behind.

Where to Find It

Mercadito River North
108 W Kinzie Street
Chicago, IL 60654
River North

Hours:
Monday-Wednesday: 11:30 AM – 9:30 PM
Thursday-Friday: 11:30 AM – 10:30 PM
Saturday: 10:30 AM – 10:30 PM
Sunday: 10:30 AM – 9:30 PM

Getting There:
CTA Red Line: Grand Station (State & Grand) – 5-minute walk
CTA Buses: #65 Grand, #22 Clark, #36 Broadway

So grab some friends, hit up Mercadito, and order that Texas Style Pulled Pork taco. Your February just got more delicious—and more philanthropic. The more you eat the more you support good eating and Latino arts in Chicago.

Something stayed with him on that day. And when the Washington D.C.-based graphic designer sat down to create his entry for the 42nd Chicago Latino Film Festival poster competition, those memories became the foundation of his design.

This week, the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago announced that Mejía’s entry had won first place, selected from more than 750 submissions representing countries from around the world, including Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.

From Observation to Design

Mejía, a Salvadoran visual artist and photographer, translated his Chicago experience into what he describes as “a bold, cinematic graphic language.” The poster features a filmmaker at its center—the person behind the camera, captured in motion.

“The composition emphasizes process, movement, and collaboration, honoring not only the director but the entire team whose combined effort makes each story possible,” Mejía explained. “The design reflects cinema as both a crafted structure and a living, collective experience.”

Pepe Vargas, Executive Director of the International Latino Cultural Center and founder of the festival, praised the winning design. “Don’t let the simplicity of Ed’s magnificent design fool you,” Vargas said. “It speaks about the power the camera gives moviemakers to tell our stories and to bear witness to the many abuses inflicted on our community.”

For many years, the submissions to the Chicago Latino Film Festival’s Poster Contest have used early 20th Century camera and film representations. The selection committee was drawn to the fact that Mejías’ design brought that vision into the 21st Century, with modern camera images and iconógraphy.

A Multidisciplinary Approach

Mejía brings both formal training and a personal creative philosophy to his work. He holds a Master’s degree in Advertising and a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from the School of Design “Rosemarie Vázquez Liévano de Ángel” at UJMD in El Salvador.

His professional portfolio includes branding projects, commercial and artistic photography, social media content creation, and editorial design. But Mejía doesn’t limit himself to one style or medium.

“For years, I questioned my style, trying to fit into a box,” he said in a recent interview with Sitar Arts Center in Washington D.C., where he placed second in their 15th Annual Patricia Sitar Juried Exhibition. “But that only limited my curiosity. I give myself the freedom to evolve.”

His work blends photography, collage, and painting—whatever medium best serves the story he’s trying to tell. He describes his role as “a translator of inner worlds,” creating from emotion, memory, and present experience rather than adhering to a predetermined aesthetic.

The Daily Practice

Mejía maintains a disciplined creative routine. He sketches for ten minutes every day, not necessarily to produce finished work, but to stay connected to his creative process.

“Create every day,” he advises other artists. “Not for validation, not for perfection—just to stay connected to your essence. Don’t wait for inspiration. Let it find you already in motion.”

He’s currently developing a personal project called “33+,” a multidisciplinary exploration of identity through self-portraiture, collage, and painting. The title references both his current age and the idea that identity is fluid rather than fixed—shaped by memory, time, and experience. He hopes to complete the collection by the end of the year.

The Festival and Beyond

Mejía’s winning poster will serve as the visual identity for the 42nd Chicago Latino Film Festival, appearing on schedules, invitations, merchandise, and promotional materials. He receives a $1,000 prize for the winning design.

The festival will run from April 16-27, 2026, at the Landmark Century Center, featuring nearly 100 feature-length and short films from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.

Since its founding in 1985 with an audience of 500, the festival has grown to attract more than 50,000 attendees annually across its year-round programming which includes the Reel Film Club, Films in the Park and many other events produced by the International Latino Cultural Center. Mejía’s poster now joins that legacy—a design born from a summer walk through Chicago, filtered through the eyes of an artist who pays attention to what he sees.

For Mejía, the win validates an approach to creativity that values observation, authenticity, and continuous evolution. As he puts it, being an artist means “being the verb, not just the noun”—staying in motion, remaining open to what the world offers.

Eduardo Mejía’s portfolio can be viewed at edmejiastudio.com and on Instagram @edmejiastudio.

Although film, music and theater remain the International Latino Cultural Center’s three strongest programming pillars, the lack of a permanent home for the ILCC has made it impossible for the organization to consistently program, for example, art exhibitions, culinary events, and even literary presentations (we could not find in our archives any evidence of any literary event such as poetry readings and conferences that the ILCC might have presented or co-presented since its name change). The ILCC did solidify its dance programming through the annual Chicago Latino Dance Festival, a three to four day showcase of over 20 local Latino and Spanish dance companies held weekly throughout the city in the fall.

What follows is a quick overview of the many other events presented and co-presented by the ILCC these past 25 years:

VISUAL ARTS

Founded in in 1993 Chicago’s River North neighborhood, a gallery hot spot at the time, by Nicaraguan artist, dealer and curator Aldo Castillo, the Aldo Castillo Gallery quickly established a high benchmark in the curation and exhibition of Latin American and Iberian art in Chicago, so it made perfect sense that the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago would join forces with the gallery.

The first collaboration we have a record of took place in 2000 when the Aldo Castillo Gallery and the 16th annual Chicago Latino Film Festival presented The Mexican Golden Age of Cinematography: Photographs by Gabriel Figueroa, a selection of mostly black and white stills from the films shot by the Golden Globe-winning legendary cinematographer. The exhibit was held from March 29-April 22, 2000.

Two years later, both organizations presented an exhibit of Alejandro Quijano’s recent bronze sculptures with the title: Alejandro Quijano Without Masks from May 8-June 14. The exhibit was part of the International Guest Artists Program, a joint project of the ILCC and the Aldo Castillo Gallery which provided funding to emerging and established artists from selected Latin American countries and Spain to be able to show and promote their works in Chicago, to personally experience the cultural contributions of the city, and for all people to experience a one of a kind exposure to the universality of the arts.

The following month, the ILCC and Aldo Castillo Gallery brought together four members of the Uruguayan Foundation for the Arts for the exhibit Uruguayan Art Today (July 12-27, 2002): figurative painter Elisa Armendariz; painter Ana Méndez (whose work is inspired by the work of Jorge Luis Borges); the daydream like mixed media work of Martín Mendizábal; and Juan Pedro Paz.

In 2005 and every two years after that (until 2009), the ILCC and Aldo Castillo presented 3+3=6: Three Men, Three Women, Six Countries, a showcase dedicated to the most influential Latin American and Spanish artists. The four exhibits (August 5-31, 2005; July 18-August 30, 2007; August 10-September 1, 2007; and July 31-August 28, 2009) we have record of featured such renowned artists and diverse styles and approaches as Maria Bonomi’s (Brazil) monumental engravings, Haydee Victoria Suescum’s (Panamá) spin on the many hand-painted signs encountered in the Spanish-speaking areas of the United States; Haitian Fritz Millevoix’s’ naive or primitive style paintings featuring mountain village scenes, underwater mermaid villages, and Caribbean beach scenes; theatre and film set designer Gunther Gerzso (Mexico); and Miguel Gómez, whose paintings pay homage to the color, the dance and the carnival culture of his native Dominican Republic.

After accepting the role of assistant art director for the Miami International Art Fair in 2010, Aldo Castillo closed the doors of his River North gallery and relocated to Naples, where he opened a brand new gallery and continued his mission of positioning the work of contemporary Latin American and Spanish artists in  the international arts market.

We found one more photo exhibit presented by the ILCC outside of its collaborations with the Aldo Castillo Gallery. Held between April 3-14, 2000 at the atrium of what was then the James R. Thompson Center and is today the future downtown Chicago headquarters of Google, the Solmares Photography Exhibition showcased a number of photos of the Mexican Revolution by photographer Agustín Víctor Casasola, featuring images of Francisco I. Madero’s presidential campaign and the signing of the 1917 Mexican Constitution. 

NUESTRO FOLKLORE

What would a culture be, or even mean, without its traditions?

They provide stability, meaning, identity and community to a whole village, town, or even country. Those traditions may evolve, may even be re-invented but no matter how much you recombine its DNA, the essence still remains. 

Tradition has never been far behind in the ILCC’s programming, even as it partnered with galleries or organized classical music events and festivals. So whenever the opportunity was there to feature one of our many traditional dances and dance ensembles or storytellers and even musicians, the ILCC did not think twice about it.

On July 19, 2000, the ILCC, with Lake Michigan as a spectacular backdrop, proudly presented Folkloric Dances of Colombia at Navy Pier’s Skyline Stage. Formed in 1954 by Delia Zapata Olivella to preserve the customs and traditions of Colombia, the company’s program showcased the diversity of the country’s musical and dance expressions: from the waltz-like el pasillo to el joropo and the ritualistic dances of mapalé. Alas, this would be one of the company’s final performances under Zapata Olivella’s direction; she passed away the following year. 

Other folk-related events produced by the ILCC that they have records for on their archives:

Aztec Stories (October 12, 2002): Held at West Side Technical Institute (now the Arturo Velázquez Institute), 2800 S. Western Ave., the all-family cultural, educational, musically interactive presentation featured storyteller, musician and poet Michael Heralda who told stories about the legacy of the tortilla and the meanings of Xochitl and Kuikatl, among others.

Carnaval Ponceño (July 26, 2003): Held at Roberto Clemente High School, 1147 N. Western Ave., in the mostly Puerto Rican neighborhood of Humboldt Park, the event featured a performance of traditional dances and marches accompanied by bomba and plena rhythms provided by Africaribe.

Niños del Vallenato (July 20, 2005): An extraordinary troupe of children from Valledupar, Colombia, whose ages range from 6 to 18 years and who play the accordions, sing and dance, performed at the Merle Reskin Theatre.

FUNDRAISERS

The 25th anniversary dinner celebration of the ILCC at CineCity Studios, 2429 West 14th St. on Friday, November 14 is the first true fundraiser the organization has held in more than a decade. But 20 years ago and for seven consecutive years, the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago in association with the marketing and events agency Azúcar Enterprises celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with a series of annual fundraisers titled Vive la Hispanidad.

Held first at Galleria Marchetti, 825 West Erie St., in the River North neighborhood, for several years before moving to the now shuttered Germania Place in the Old Town neighborhood, the multidisciplinary fundraising event featured a catered selection of traditional dishes from the city’s top Latin American restaurants; wines from Chile and Argentina; an art exhibit from Chicago’s top Latino artists; and music from local Latino groups including Mariachi Perla de México, Africaribe, Tierra Colombiana Folkloric Dance Company, Chicago Samba, and Cerqua Rivera Dance Company

FILM OUTSIDE THE FESTIVAL

We end right where we started…at the movies.

The Chicago Latino Film Festival may be the ILCC’s crown jewel but that didn’t stop the organization from screening films from the Pan-Latino diaspora when there was an opportunity to do so outside of the Festival, especially when, outside of the streaming services, the theatrical presentation of such films in this country is still minimal. 

On November 16, 2000, the ILCC kicked off a ten day retrospective of the films of Luis Buñuel in celebration of his birth’s centennial. The retrospective opened at the City North 14 Multiplex in Logan Square with the U.S. Premiere of The Prisoners of Buñuel by director Ramón Gieling, a documentary about how the residents of Las Hurdes feel about Buñuel’s controversial 1933 documentary Las Hurdes/Land Without Bread, more than 60 years after its making. The thirteen-film series then moved to Facets Film Forum and included such key titles as Los olvidados (1950), Nazarín (1958) The Exterminating Angel (1962), and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972).

The ILCC celebrated another centennial four years later with another retrospective: Pablo Neruda’s. Titled Cien Años de Neruda: A Film Series and presented again at Facets from November 19-21, 2004 in cooperation with Columbia College Chicago, the UIC Rafael Contrón-Ortiz Latino Cultural Center and the Consulate General of Chile, the series included two documentaries by Luis R. Vera: Neruda, the Man and His Work (2004) and Viola Chilensis (2003), the most comprehensive documentary at the time on the life and work of another Chilean icon, singer-songwriter Violeta Parra. The series also included a special screening of Micharl Radford’s critically acclaimed Il Postino, about the friendship between Neruda and a local fisherman during the poet’s exile in Italy. 

For the past 17 years, the ILCC’s monthly Reel Film Club series has featured, on the last Tuesday of the month from January to February and from May through November, selections from past festivals preceded by a networking reception featuring appetizers from the selected film’s country of origin and concluding with a post-screening discussion. The series has moved from venue to venue: from Facets to St. Augustine College to Instituto Cervantes and back at Facets. But this wasn’t the first pairing of food and film organized by the ILCC.

Back in 2002, the ILCC teamed up with Café Ba-Ba-Reeba, one of the oldest standing Spanish restaurants in the city, to present Cinema Sangría, a weekly showcase of Iberoamerican cinema held every Monday night from September through November. The program featured selections from current and past festivals; attendees could enjoy a buffet dinner of Spanish dishes followed by the film. Sounds familiar?

Then, in 2006, in partnership with the Chicago Parks District, the ILCC started taking the more family friendly fare of past festivals to different parks across the city, mostly in majority-Latino neighborhoods. Titled Films in the Park and presented as part of the Park District’s summer long Movies in the Park program, the series marked the first time foreign language films were screened outdoors in the city’s parks. Between five and nine films are screened each year, depending on the slots assigned by the city. The series provided families the opportunity to enjoy, free of charge, films that they otherwise would not have the chance to see in a setting that lends itself to community building.

Although the ILCC is strongly committed to continuing such free programs as Films in the Park, the Chicago Latino Dance Festival and many of the concerts it presents free of charge throughout the year, the reality is that the organization has seen a significant reduction in the attendance of such events. Because of the recent indiscriminate ICE raids in our communities, most of our audiences are now afraid to come out, endangering the future of these and so many other events produced by our fellow arts organization. Which is why this year-round fundraising campaign is so important to the organization. The ILCC is also currently looking at different ways to broaden its audience outside of its traditional enclaves. The organization strongly believes that by bringing new audiences to the fold, they not only will be combating the many prejudices against and misconceptions about the community but these new audiences will find common ground with the Latino community through these events.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP:

As part of its fundraising campaign commemorating its 25th anniversary, the International Latino Cultural Center will be hosting a dinner celebration at CineCity Studios, 2429 West 14th St. on Friday, November 14, featuring a solo performance from Grammy® and Latin Grammy® Award winning artist Alex Cuba and the very best in Latino cuisine. Doors open at 6 p.m. For more information, visit the ILCC’s official fundraising dinner page. 

Unable to make the event? Never fear, you can still be part of our campaign with your individual contribution. Every single bit helps our mission to preserve in the city of Chicago a space for Pan-Latino arts in all its glorious disciplines. For more information on individual giving visit our individual giving page.

The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago is a 501(3)(c) nonprofit cultural organization. All contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by the law.

“It’s important that our stories be told as honestly as possible and that they be authentic voices that are speaking from the heart,” playwright, filmmaker and founder of Teatro Campesino Luis Valdez told a reporter from KSBW Action News in Monterey, California in 2021.

Of all the seven programming pillars of the International Latino Cultural Center, theater is the one that best exemplifies Valdez’s beliefs. Live theater allows audiences to immediately perceive if an actor or playwright is being honest to themselves and to the stories they are telling. Actors can create the illusion they are speaking directly to their audiences. Actors can immediately feel the acceptance or reproach of their audiences. That interaction alone creates an energy that is unique. And unlike movies, where performances are forever set on celluloid or digital, actors can feed on that energy and deliver a performance that may be slightly different each night.

A month and a half run of Rick Najera’s Latinologues: Comedy with no Borders is the earliest record we have in our archives of a theatrical performance presented by the International Latino Cultural Center post-name change. Coming off a nine month run in Los Angeles, the play, written and starring Najera (a former writer for the Wayans’ family Fox comedy show In Living Color) and co-starring actor Jacob Vargas (American Me, Mi Familia and Selena), was staged at the Victory Gardens Theater in Lincoln Park from February 4-April 2, 2000. A Mexican Moses who promises to take his followers to the promised land of Chicago; a gay Latino producer trying to convince a chicano scriptwriter to work on a project about Hernán Cortez; and a Mexican-American agent of la migra were among the characters portrayed by Najera, Vargas and their weekly guests from LA’s improv and theatrical circuits.

A month-long run of Cuban-American playwright and actress Carmen Pelaez’s first one-woman show, Rum & Coke, directed by Susan V. Booth (currently the Walter Artistic Director at the Goodman Theatre) followed. Sponsored by the ILCC in cooperation with Columbia College Chicago and presented by Pegasus Players (now Pegasus Theatre Chicago) from September 13-October 22, 2000 at Truman College’s O’Rourke Center in the Uptown neighborhood after a sold-out run in Miami, Rum & Coke centered on Camila, the U.S. born daughter of Cuban exiles, as she prepares for a trip to Havana. 

The ILCC presented another one woman show during that time: Cuban-Rican playwright Marga Gómez’s jaywalker at the Black Orchid Classic Night Club in Old Town. Performed on October 7, 2000, jaywalk pokes fun at the film and television industry’s stereotyping of Latinos as it traces Marga’s quest on becoming the first Lesbian to be cast on the then popular television series Baywatch.

The following year, the Center brought to Chicago from Honduras Teatro La Fragua’s production of Romero de las Américas, to the Getz Theatre of Columbia College from September 28-30, 2001. The play, originally written by Carlos Morton as The Savior, and re-written in 1998 with members of La Fragua, uses traditional dances as well as corridos, rock music, and a minimalist set design to tell the story of how Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero became the voice for human rights in his country and all of Central America until he was assassinated by in 1980 while giving mass by members of a death squad. Still active, Teatro La Fragua was founded in Olanchito, Honduras in 1979 by Jack Warner, a Jesuit priest and graduate of Chicago’s Goodman Theater School (now the Theater School at DePaul) with the idea of awakening the people’s creativity to further empower and enrich them. The troupe is composed of young, marginalized men and women who developed their acting skills through a series of workshops. 

References to other theatrical productions can be found in Panorama, the ILCC’s quarterly newsletter mailed to members between 2000-2004. Three theatrical productions were announced in the Fall 2002 newsletter beginning with a program of two short plays produced by the local theater company Cuerda Flojas Arts Troupe led by actor Eduardo Von: El oso, based on Anton Chekhov’s story about a landowner who comes to collect an outstanding debt from a young widow; and Puros cuentos, an experimental theater piece based on three short stories by Octavio Paz, Juan Rulfo and Chekhov. The program was presented on September 13 and 15 at Teatro Luna’s space on 18th street in Pilsen.

(A word about Teatro Luna before we continue this trip through history. Founded in June 2000 by Coya Paz and Tanya Saracho, Teatro Luna was Chicago’s first full all-Latina theatre ensemble. For more than ten years, they staged original collective shows throughout the city and in their own space in Pilsen and later Lakeview. They also created programs that nurtured and trained Latinas in the art of playwriting, directing, acting and production. After trying to operate in both Los Angeles and Chicago, especially after so many of them found new opportunities on the West Coast, the company settled in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of L.A. and changed its name to Studio Luna where they continue to empower Latinas through workshops and performances.)

On September 20 and 21, 2002, the ILCC presented Chilean troupe Teatro del Puente’s production of Ojos rotos, the story of one woman’s dementia told through dance and song and based on Almudenas Grandes’ 1996 short story Modelos de mujer, at the Chicago Historical Society (now Chicago History Museum). Then from September 27-29, the ILCC presented Mujeres en la guerra, based on Colombian journalist Patricia Lara’s book about three women who have to deal with the legacy of Colombia’s Civil War. The play was staged at the Getz Theater but, unfortunately, there is no mention in the newsletter of the company responsible for its production.

Only one play was presented by the ILCC in 2003 (at least based on what is available in our archives): Argentinean theater group Tespico’s production Pagar el Pato: Tango para dos from August 1-3 at Columbia College Chicago’s Music Department. Written by Dino Armas, considered a master of the grotesque and absurd in Uruguay, Pagar el pato tells the story of Roma, a woman with a hideous and monstrous scar, and Omar, the man who seeks to benefit from her misery. In a review published on August 16, 2003 in the Uruguayan daily El país, Elbio Barilari (who later became the co-artistic director of the Chicago Latino Music Festival) praises the work of directors Patricia Pisani and Graciela Balletti and the choreography they created around Rodolfo Mederos’ music. 

And now, as Monty Python would say, for something completely different. The ILCC joined forces with the Mikey O Comedy Show, a pioneer programmer of Latino stand-up shows in Chicago, to launch in 2004 a series titled CHISTES with three nights of comedy at Joe’s Bar on Weed Street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. The first show held on October 29 featured Chicago’s Patti Vazquez telling stories about growing up in an Irish-Mexican-American family, working in unsatisfying jobs and humiliating moments at the doctor’s office. Audiences were invited to dress in full costume (the event took place days before Halloween and Día de los Muertos) to win tickets for the following year’s Chicago Latino Film Festival. 

Then, on November 12, L.A. comedian Noe González headlined a night of comedy featuring several local comedians and on January 21, 2005, Vasquez returned to Joe’s on Weed for an encore performance featuring comedians Alex Ortiz, Ricky Carmona and Joey Villagomez. A year later, on September 30, 2025, the series moved to Chromium Night Club on Fulton Market with headliners Luke Torres (In Living Color), Sara Contreras (The View, Third Watch) and Eric Nieves, described by the promotional materials as the most sought-after Latino comic in New York at the time.

On January 19, 2006 the series went back to Joe’s with performances by Vasquez, Ortiz, Vince Acevedo, Ricky Carmona, Villagomez and Chon.

Unfortunately, there are no records in our archives of any theatrical or stand-up events. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t any produced or presented in the last ten years. It just means that, like most not-for-profit organizations, especially arts organizations, the ILCC did not have the foresight to preserve for posterity many of the materials (photos, brochures, press clippings) for most of the events produced during these past 25 years.

In 2016, the ILCC announced that it was joining forces with the National Museum of Mexican Art and the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, and arts executive Myrna Salazar (who from 2007-2011 was the Center’s Director of Development and Marketing) to create the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA). The Alliance’s mission is to support the development of emerging and established Latino playwrights, actors, directors and theater professionals and cultivate a vibrant and inclusive theater community. CLATA’s signature event Destinos: The Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, brings together dozens of theater companies and artists from Chicago and all over Latin America in venues across the city.

Working for the first time with Center on Halsted, a gay, lesbian, transgender and community center located in the heart of what is known as Boystown in Lakeview, The International Latino Cultural Center presented from July 20-22, 2023, the Chicago premiere of Venezuelan actor and transdisciplinary artist Migguel Anggelo’s theatrical experience, LatinXoxo, in the Center’s main stage. The 70-minute long show combines original and reinterpreted music with dance and theater, and explores the connections of Anggelo’s Latino immigrant identity to his search for freedom.

Three years ago as well, the Center started co-presenting and promoting some of the Latin American plays and companies Physical Theater Festival Chicago programmed as part of its annual event. Launched in 2014 by Alice da Cunha and Marc Frost through the Artistic Associate program at Links Hall, Physical Theater Festival Chicago presents new forms of theater that are being performed around the world.  

Marrano: a Tale from the Inquisition, a riveting tale about intolerance and religious persecution presented as part of the 10th Annual Physical Theater Festival Chicago at Theater Wit, July 13-15, 2023, marked the beginning of this collaboration. Produced and staged by the Spanish-Israeli company LaPercha Teatro, Marrano: a tale from the Inquisition focuses on the assassination in Zaragoza, Spain, of Pedro de Arbúes, the highest representative of the Holy Inquisition in 1485. Five actors played more than twenty characters; in order to recreate the Jewish culture of that time, ancient Sephardic melodies and Hebrew prayers were sung and performed. 

The following year, again at Theatre Wit, both presented Macacos from July 18-20, 2024. Written, directed and performed by Clayton Nascimento, the actor uses nothing more than his own body, voice and a lipstick, to bring the story of Brazil and slavery to the stage, from rulings by the Portuguese Court during slavery to the present day, when executions of black people by the police go unpunished.

And this year, they co-presented one of The Guardian’s top 10 best theatre shows of 2024: REWIND by Epheremal Ensemble from June 5-7 at Theatre Wit. The play invites audiences to witness the investigation of a crime secretly buried through powerful live music, energetic physical theatre and striking visual imagery.  Ephemeral Ensemble drew from real testimonies of Latin American refugees and migrants across generations, weaving their stories with the groundbreaking science of Forensic Anthropology—the first discipline in history dedicated to investigating human rights violations.

For now, the lights have temporarily gone dark for the ILCC when it comes to any future theatrical presentations. Here’s how you can help the ILCC keep that curtain raised:

As part of its fundraising campaign commemorating its 25th anniversary, the International Latino Cultural Center will be hosting a dinner celebration at CineCity Studios, 2429 West 14th St. on Friday, November 14, featuring a solo performance from Grammy® and Latin Grammy® Award winning artist Alex Cuba and the very best in Latino cuisine. Doors open at 6 p.m. For more information, visit the ILCC’s official fundraising dinner page. 

Unable to make the event? Never fear, you can still be part of our campaign with your individual contribution. Every single bit helps our mission to preserve in the city of Chicago a space for Pan-Latino arts in all its glorious disciplines. For more information on individual giving visit our individual giving page.

The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago is a 501(3)(c) nonprofit cultural organization. All contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by the law.

With the hiring in January, 2022 of Mateo Mulcahy, former Director of Community Projects and Events at the Old Town School of Folk Music, as the ILCC’s Deputy Executive Director and music and dance curator, the Chicago Latino Music began to take shape.

He walked through the ILCC’s doors with guns a-blazing. Not only did he add the ILCC as a co-presenter to the many World Music Wednesdays concerts he had already scheduled at the Old Town School of Folk Music for the year before his departure. Under his leadership, the ILCC presented and co-presented concerts featuring such high profile artists as Alex Cuba (the musical guest of the ILCC’s fundraising dinner on November 14), Los Van Van, Chilean singer-songwriter Pascuala Ilabaca, and São Paulo musician and educator Paulo Padilha. 

The 2022 Chicago latino Music Series wrapped up the year with an equally eclectic lineup which included: a Zapotec folk dance troupe (Galguez Laxá) and a Zapotec rock group (Dizá) as part of the city of Chicago’s Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations; explores the influences of Middle Eastern music on Andalusia, Spain (The Andalusian Trail and flamenco guitarist Juan Carmona); presented 16-year-old guitar prodigy Juan Ausiàs Parejo from Valencia; and celebrated the tradition of las tunas (that dates back to 13th century Spain and Portugal when students went about singing and playing music out of the pure need to survive and pay their school fees) with La Tuna de Oro de Guanajuato. 

The following year, produced 33 music concerts in 18 venues, featuring some big names including: Olga Cerpa, one of the most important female voices in the Canary Islands, and her group Mestisay at the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center in the West side neighborhood of Hermosa; Juan de Marco González and his Afro-Cuban All Stars at Dominican University’s Lund Auditorium in the suburb of River Forest; Argentinian rocker Kevin Johansen and graphic designer and illustrator Liniers collaborating on a multimedia show at the Old Town School of Folk Music, the Afro-Peruvian folk-electronica group Novalima as part of that year’s Indigenous Peoples Day celebration at Chop Shop, a music venue/restaurant/butcher shop located in the Wicker Park neighborhood; and son jarocho legends Mono Blanco at Instituto Cervantes. 

When it comes to big names, however, the ILCC took a big gamble by joining forces with national events producer Backstage Productions to present the Chicago debut of samba superstar Zeca Pagondinho on June 14 at The Vic Theater. Born Jessé Gomes da Silva Filho in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Zeca started his career as a child in the 1970s and became a regular performer in samba gatherings, where he perfected a samba style known as Pagode. This new style triggered a samba revival in the 1980s, when Zeca became known as its true face. It was in the most important of these pagodes, the one that gathered the bloco carnavalesco Cacique de Ramos, that he became acquainted with another samba legend, Beth Carvalho, who became his madrinha, or protector. Does that name ring a bell? 

Last year, the ILCC launched the inaugural season of the Levitt VIBE Belmont Cragin Music Series at Riis Park, in the far northwest mostly Latino community of Belmont Cragin. Supported in part by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, which partners with changemakers and nonprofits across the country to activate underused outdoor spaces through the power of free, live music, the series featured a mix of local, national, and international artists (some making their Chicago debut) from across the Latino diaspora for 10 consecutive weeks from mid-June to mid-August,. Artists included: the cumbia-punk-queer group Kumbia Queers; Montreal-based Haitian musician Wesli; singer-songwriter Sara Curruchich, the first indigenous Guatemalan singer and songwriter to sing in Kaqchikel; and Chicago’s ESSO Afrojam Funkbeat.

Speaking of Chicago debuts, the ILCC joined forces with the Instituto Cervantes to bring two of the most exciting, innovative flamenco women performers as part of Cervantes’ annual Flamenco Festival in March of last year: María José Llergo and Las Migas. Llergo had already been the subject of a New York Times article that helped elevate her profile in the United States while Las Migas were celebrating their 20th anniversary with a new lineup and a Latin Grammy award in 2022 for their album Libres in their pockets. Las Migas would return to Chicago for an encore performance on November 15 at the Old Town School of Folk Music to present their brand new album Rumberas, a tribute to rumba in all its forms.

Another highlight of what turned out to be a hectic 2024 series was a program of two concerts the ILCC titled The Galicia/Portugal Connection, an exploration, through music, of the cultural ties that bind Portugal with Galicia, in the Northwest region of Spain. The series featured the return to Chicago, after ten years, of acclaimed Galician bagpipe player Carlos Núñez. Considered the “7th member of The Chieftains” and proclaimed the “Jimi Hendrix of bagpipes” by Billboard. The concert, produced in partnership with the Irish American Heritage Center and with community partner Instituto Cervantes, was held at the Irish American Heritage Center on October 15.

Then, on November 2, fado sensation Carminho kicked off her US tour at City Winery, to support the release of the EP Carminho at Electrical Audio, which was co-produced and engineered by the late Steve Albini in his Chicago studio, Electrical Audio. Albini is known for his work with some of the finest musicians including Nirvana, Page & Plant, and The Pixies, among others. The EP includes a duet with the iconic Brazilian artist Caetano Veloso.

Lessons learned from last year’s Levitt VIBE Belmont Cragin Music Series were applied this year to the Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series. Instead of mid-afternoon, most concerts would start after 6 pm, guaranteeing a larger audience. Through social media, the ILCC reached out to neighborhood organizations and businesses to get out of the word. The concerts were still held on Saturdays from mid-June to mid-August but instead of taking place in one park, the series expanded to four: Riis Park and, on the south and southwest side, La Villita Park, Gage Park and Rainbow Beach. For the first time in its history, the ILCC featured Regional Mexican Music as part of its programming through this summer series with performances from local stalwarts La Ley del Norte, Banda el Recuerdo and Grupo Love Secreto. This year’s series also featured the Chicago debut of Las Karamba, an all-female ensemble based in Barcelona that brings together six musicians from Venezuela, Cuba, Catalonia, France, and Argentina who infuse traditional styles like Son, Cha-Cha-Cha, Salsa, and Timba with rap and urban influences. 

Outside of the Levitt series, the ILCC was far more judicious and strategic when it came to the number of concerts produced this year, especially given this current administration’s attack on the arts Besides after-Levitt shows for Los Crema Paraíso and Dos Santos at Fitzgerald, a second show of Las Karamba at the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center and multiple appearances by Los Gaiteros de Pueblo Santo at outdoor events and indoor venues during the summer, the ILCC also presented two kickass jazz shows at Constellation: Paquito D’Rivera, Fareed Haque and multi-instrumentalist Howard Levy on May 14, followed on June 6 by Puerto Rican trumpetist Charlie Sepúlveda and his band The Turnaround with Eligio “Prodigio” Claudio in the Puerto Rican cuatro.

What will the Chicago Latino Music Series look like in 2026 and beyond? Well, that’s where you, our dear reader and supporter, come in:

As part of its fundraising campaign commemorating its 25th anniversary, the International Latino Cultural Center will be hosting a dinner celebration at CineCity Studios, 2429 West 14th St. on Friday, November 14, featuring a solo performance from Grammy® and Latin Grammy® Award winning artist Alex Cuba and the very best in Latino cuisine. Doors open at 6 p.m. For more information, visit the ILCC’s official fundraising dinner page. 

Unable to make the event? Never fear, you can still be part of our campaign with your individual contribution. Every single bit helps our mission to preserve in the city of Chicago a space for Pan-Latino arts in all its glorious disciplines. For more information on individual giving visit our individual giving page.

The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago is a 501(3)(c) nonprofit cultural organization. All contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by the law.