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 

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

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.

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.

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.

Filmmakers, your moment has arrived! The submission portal is now open!

From humble beginnings to cinematic greatness – that’s the story of both the Chicago Latino Film Festival and the countless filmmakers who have graced our screens over the past four decades. As we prepare for our 42nd edition in April 2026, we’re once again opening our doors (and our FilmFreeway portal) to discover the next generation of Latino storytellers who will captivate, inspire, and transform our understanding of the Latinosphere.

A Festival Born from a Vision beyond Concrete Walls

Picture this: 1985, 14 films projected onto a concrete wall for an audience of 500. That was the modest beginning of what would become the largest, most comprehensive, continuously running Latino film festival in the United States. Founded by visionary Pepe Vargas and organized by the International Latino Cultural Center (ILCC), our festival was born from a simple yet powerful belief: cinema is “necessary, important” and “transformative” against preconceptions people may have of Latinos.

What started as Chicago Latino Cinema has evolved into something extraordinary. The growth of the Festival from 500 attendees to more than 35,000 tells a story of community, passion, and the universal power of storytelling. Today, we proudly hold the distinction as the nation’s longest-running and largest Spanish and Portuguese language film celebration.

From 14 Films to Nearly 100: Our Evolution

The numbers speak volumes about our growth and impact. Today, the Festival screens close to 100 films from all over Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal and the United States. Our most recent festival showcased 51 Feature Films and 30 Short Films from around Latino America, Portugal, Spain, The Caribbean, and the United States, each one carefully selected to represent the rich tapestry of Latino experiences and artistry.

But we’re not just about quantity – we’re about quality, diversity, and impact. As Pepe Vargas, our founder and the executive director of the International Latino Culture Center of Chicago, explains: cinema serves as a “weapon” against negative stereotypes, giving “people the opportunity to get to see who the Latinos are, not by the preconceived idea that they have”.

Your Film Could Be Next: What We’re Looking For

The 42nd Chicago Latino Film Festival, scheduled for April 2026, is seeking fresh voices, compelling stories, and innovative filmmaking from across the global Latino community. Here’s what you need to know:

Submission Requirements:

• Features must have a running time of 70 minutes or above & shorts must be less than 20 minutes
• Films from Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the United States, or works where the subject matter is directly related to Latino culture
• All submissions must include English subtitles
• Selected films must be a Chicago premiere

What We Celebrate: The Festival presents all forms of filmmaking including animation, documentaries, experimental, narrative, etc. We particularly encourage the submission of works for young audiences and welcome films with an educational value, or a strong historical and artistic importance.

Recognition That Matters

While the Festival is non-competitive, we believe in celebrating excellence. The most popular narrative feature, feature documentary, and short film are given the Audience Choice Award – recognition that comes directly from the hearts and minds of our passionate Chicago audiences.

But the real prize? Becoming part of a legacy that has been continuously celebrating Latino filmmakers and serving as a platform for cultural exchange and community building. Your film doesn’t just get screened; it becomes part of a movement that’s been breaking down barriers and building bridges for over four decades.

Mark Your Calendars: Important Dates

🎬 Submission Portal Opens: September 4th, 2025 📅 Submission Deadline: December 1st, 2025 🎭 Festival Dates: April 2026 💻 Submission Platform: FilmFreeway portal

Beyond the Screen: Educational Impact

The Chicago Latino Film Festival isn’t just about entertainment – it’s about education and cultural understanding. A fundamental educational platform that continues to channel the cultural significance of film to the next generation of filmmakers, our festival provides new creators the opportunity to learn about the diversity of other cultures, and the prospect of meeting film artists.

Your film could be the one that opens dialogue, challenges perspectives, or inspires the next generation of Latino filmmakers. That’s the kind of impact that extends far beyond box office numbers or critical acclaim.

Ready to Join Our Story?

As we prepare for April 2026, we’re not just planning another festival – we’re curating the next chapter in a story that began with 14 films on a concrete wall and has grown into a cultural institution that attracts passionate audiences, generous sponsors, and talented filmmakers from around the world.

The submission portal opens tomorrow, September 4th, 2025, on FilmFreeway. Don’t just submit your film – submit your voice, your perspective, your piece of the Latino experience. Join us in bringing even more latinismo to Chicago’s cultural landscape.

Because at the Chicago Latino Film Festival, every frame tells a story, every story builds a bridge, and every bridge brings us closer together.

Ready to be part of our 42nd year of cinematic celebration? Visit FilmFreeway and submit your film today!

The Chicago Latino Film Festival is organized by the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago and represents the great diversity of themes and genres of Latino film making from around the world. For more information, visit our website or follow us on social media for the latest updates.

The Man Behind the Camera

Most Chicagoans know Joe Miñoso as the dependable firefighter Joe Cruz on NBC’s hit drama “Chicago Fire,” where he’s been winning viewers’ hearts since 2012. But this latest achievement proves Miñoso’s talents extend well beyond acting, showcasing his profound storytelling abilities and vision as a director.

Born to Dominican parents, Miñoso has long been a respected figure in Chicago’s entertainment scene. His move behind the camera represents not just a career evolution but a deeper dive into storytelling that resonates with his cultural roots and the immigrant experience in America.

“Paper Flower”: A Story That Matters

“Paper Flower” tells the poignant story of a 10-year-old Latino “DREAMer” who must care for his seven-year-old sister while their family navigates the complex and often heartbreaking challenges of immigration. What makes this short film particularly special is how it illustrates the way imagination becomes a survival tool for children facing harsh realities beyond their control.

In just a few minutes of screen time, Miñoso manages to capture the innocence, resilience, and hope that define many young lives caught in the immigration system. The film avoids heavy-handed political messaging, instead focusing on the human element that transcends policy debates.

“I wanted to show how children process trauma through creativity,” Miñoso explained in a brief statement. “Sometimes imagination is the only safe space available to kids going through impossible situations.”

Festival Triumph

The film’s victory at the 41st Chicago Latino Film Festival carries special significance, as the festival has grown into one of the most important showcases for Latino filmmakers in North America. The Audience Choice Award specifically reflects how deeply the film connected with viewers from diverse backgrounds.

Festival Director Pepe Vargas praised “Paper Flower” for its “authentic voice and visual poetry,” noting that “Joe brings the sensitivity of an actor who understands emotional truth to his directorial work.”

The win places Miñoso in distinguished company among previous award recipients who have gone on to significant careers in filmmaking, both in Hollywood and in international cinema.

What’s Next

For those eager to see “Paper Flower,” the International Latino Cultural Center will be presenting the film along with other festival shorts favorites at their Reel Film Club showcase on Tuesday, May 27th at Facets Film Forum in Chicago. During this special event, Miñoso will be presented with the Audience Choice Award statuette designed by Mexican sculptor David Camorlinga Tagle. In addition to this prestigious recognition Joe will be presented with a Studio Version of Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve video editing software.

As for Miñoso himself, sources close to the actor-turned-director suggest this may be just the beginning of his filmmaking journey. While he continues his role on “Chicago Fire,” he’s reportedly developing several new projects that explore themes of identity, family, and cultural heritage.

A Chicago Story

What makes Miñoso’s achievement particularly meaningful is how it represents Chicago’s vibrant intersection of television production, independent filmmaking, and cultural diversity. As one of the city’s most recognizable Latino actors, his move into directing signals new opportunities for authentic representation both in front of and behind the camera.

“Paper Flower” arrives at a crucial time when stories about immigration and childhood are often politicized and dehumanized. Through the universal language of visual storytelling, Miñoso reminds us that behind every policy debate are real children using every tool at their disposal—including their boundless imagination—to make sense of a complex world.

For a city that prides itself on both artistic excellence and cultural diversity, Joe Miñoso’s directorial debut stands as a testament to Chicago’s continuing importance as an incubator for meaningful, socially relevant cinema.

The Reel Film Club will showcase “Paper Flower” along with other Film Festival Favorite shorts on Tuesday, May 27th at 7 PM (reception at 6 PM) at Facets Film Forum, 1517 West Fullerton Ave. Tickets are $25 ($20 for ILCC & Facets members) and include a reception with appetizers and cash bar (21+)<.

The Audience Choice Award for Best Fiction Feature went to Dear Gentlemen, actor and novelist Patricia Castañeda’s directorial debut about the women’s suffrage movement in 1950s Colombia led by lawyer Esmeralda Arboleda starring Julieth Restrepo (Neftlix’s Griselda and The Residence). The Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary went to Norita, Jayson McNamara and Andrea Tortonese’s documentary about Norita Cortiña, co-founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and her lifelong struggle for human rights in Argentina. The documentary was co-produced by Jane Fonda, Naomi Klein and Gustavo Santaolalla, who also provided the score.

Finally, Chicago Fire’s Joe Miñoso’s auspicious and touching directorial debut, Paper Flower, the story of two young children trying to make sense of their parents’ immigration struggles through their own imagination, won the Audience Choice Award for Best Short.

Even though CLFF is a non-competitive festival, since 1993 the public has had the opportunity to vote for their favorite film in several categories for the Audience Choice Award. 

In addition to the Audience Choice Award statuette designed by Mexican sculptor David Camorlinga Tagle, the winners will receive Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve Studio post production software valued at $295. The software combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics and audio post production into one tool, allowing filmmakers to work with camera original quality images throughout the entire process. With worldwide offices across the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia, Blackmagic Design is one of the world’s leading innovators and manufacturers of creative video technology. With its long history in post-production editing and engineering, Blackmagic has created some of the most talked about products in the industry, including affordable high-end quality editing workstations. 

The Chicago Latino Film Festival had its best post-pandemic run this year. Out of 100 screenings, 32 were sold out or almost sold out. The Festival saw an increase of 44% in sales and attendance over last year. 2,000 students attended the Student Outreach Screenings, three days of free morning screenings held at the Landmark Century Center that provide students from across the Chicago Metro area the opportunity to learn about the diversity of other cultures, the possibility to connect with their cultural heritage, and the prospect of meeting film directors/actors/producers to discuss viable career options in the arts. 

“Audience attendance and response went above and beyond our wildest dreams and goals. We implemented a number of new initiatives and mechanisms to drive audiences to our theaters, and educate them on our diverse slate of films; the results speak for themselves. Moviegoers are still looking for that unique connection to other cultures and experiences that only the movies can provide, especially in these challenging times. This 41st festival reenergized us; we are now looking forward to the countless possibilities the 42nd has to offer,” said Pepe Vargas, executive director and founder of the International Latino Cultural Center and the Chicago Latino Film Festival.

The Chicago Latino Film Festival, held April 3rd-April 14th, presented 51 features and 30 shorts from Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the United States in three venues throughout the city: Davis Theater, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave.; Instituto Cervantes, 31 W. Ohio St.; and the Landmark Century Center Theatres, 2828 N. Clark St. 

The ILCC is now looking ahead to the 42nd Chicago Latino Film Festival, April 16-27, 2026. Submissions for the 42nd edition of the Festival open September 2nd, 2025.

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS

The winners and runner-ups of the 41st Chicago Latino Film Festival Audience Choice Awards are:

• Feature/Winner: Dear Gentlemen/Estimados señores (Colombia; Director: Patricia Castañeda): In 1954, a group of women led by lawyer Esmeralda Arboleda (Julieth Restrepo) embarked on a battle to bring women’s suffrage to the National Constituent Assembly of Colombia. They endured personal attacks from their opponents, but their resilience proved decisive. In her feature film debut, actress, novelist and screenwriter Patricia Castañeda portrays with empathy and courage the uphill battle Arboleda and her peers faced in their struggle against a patriarchal regime.
  • Second Place: Underdog/Correr para vivir (Mexico; Director: Gerardo Dorantes): In his feature film debut, Gerardo Dorantes explores how organized crime has penetrated the heart of the Tarahumara community in the state of Chihuahua through the story of two highly competitive brothers who want to become the best runners in the world. 
  • Third Place: What Rhymes with Magdalena (United States; Director: José Pérez): Chicago filmmaker José Pérez’s feature debut centers on​​ Magdalena, a poet whose relationships have only ever ended in painful heartbreak. The night before a major decision, Magdalena is determined to break the pattern and tracks down her eight exes, desperate for closure. But reconnecting with them proves difficult as, one by one, they challenge Magdalena’s views in unexpected ways. 

• Documentary/Winner: Norita (Argentina/USA; Directors: Jayson McNamara, Andrea Tortonese): Executive produced by Jane Fonda, Naomi Klein, and Gustavo Santaolalla (who also provides the score), Norita follows Nora Cortiña, co-founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, as she seeks justice for her disappeared son during the dark days of Argentina’s dictatorship. Norita is a tribute to a heroic, complicated woman who passed away last year at the age of 94
  • Second Place: The Most Beautiful Deaths in the World/Las muertes más bellas del mundo (El Salvador/USA; Directors: Quique Avilés, Ellie Walton): Five artists whose families escaped to Washington, DC from El Salvador’s violent civil war during the 80s come to terms with its legacy. Avilés and Walton’s documentary follows a poet, a dancer and several musicians; their work, personal archives and stories offer an intimate account of a community in search of its own identity, salvation and happiness.
  • Third Place: I Am My Grandma’s Granddaughter/Nieta de mi abuela (Dominican Republic; Director: Tatiana Fernández Geara): “Don’t end up alone like I did.” This plea from her grandmother Teresa before she passed away haunts Tatiana Fernández Geara. Filled with questions about what it means to “not end up alone,” the 40-year-old documentary filmmaker embarks on a journey through family archives, old films and hundreds of letters, constructing —or trying to— a story about love, expectations and solitude.

• Shorts/Winner: Paper Flower (USA; Director: Joe Miñoso): Chicago Fire’s Joe Miñoso tells the story of a 10-year-old Latino “DREAMer” who has to care for his seven-year-old sister through their family’s immigration struggle by using the power of his imagination.
  • Second Place: Arranca (Puerto Rico/USA; Director: Lilliana M. Molina): Carmen is a 75-year-old woman in the early stages of dementia. Laura, the eldest out of her four children, lives a hectic life but she always makes time to take care of her mother. Things get out of control for Laura when Carmen can’t find her precious emerald ring, a gift from her beloved husband Sebastian.
  • Third Place: Unless We Dance/A menos que bailemos (Colombia; Directors: Hanz Rippe Gabriel, Fernanda Pineda Palencia): Dance teacher Jonathan undertakes an initiative to rescue young people from the crime that stalks Quibdó, a city with the highest homicide rates in Colombia. This is how Black Boys Chocó emerged, a dance company where hundreds of young people try to overcome difficult social situations through dance. 

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE INTERNATIONAL LATINO CULTURAL CENTER

With the Festival behind them, the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago is ready to continue its year-round program of cultural events including concerts, dance presentations, plays, culinary experiences…and film, among so many other disciplines.

The Center’s Chicago Latino Music Series returns in May and June with a Latin Jazz double whammy at Constellation, 3111 N. Western Ave: legendary Cuban saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Paquito D’Rivera, in his first Chicago-area performance of the year, alongside guitarist Fareed Haque and multi-instrumentalist Howard Levy (Wednesday, May 14), and Latin Grammy award winning Puerto Rican trumpetist Charlie Sepulveda and his group The Turnaround (Friday, June 6). This summer, the ILCC will present the second annual Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series in several city parks including Riis Park, 6100 W. Fullerton Ave. Sponsored by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, this groundbreaking series of free concerts will be presented every Saturday for 10 consecutive weeks from June 14-August 16. Details about this festival and other concerts will be announced soon.

The International Latino Cultural Center’s film programming continues with their monthly Reel Film Club at Facets, 1517 West Fullerton Avenue. Held on the last Tuesday of each month (except March, April and December), the Reel Film Club celebrates a theme night with a reception and screening showcasing films and filmmakers from Latin America, Spain and Portugal followed by a post-screening discussion. Then, during the summer and in collaboration with the Chicago Parks District, the Center will present four family-friendly films every Wednesday from July 6-30 in different parks throughout the city as part of their 19th annual Films in the Park program. Films for both series will also be announced soon. For more information on this and other events, visit latinoculturalcenter.org.

Adriana is the queen bee and general of a tightly run household of four that includes  husband Alfredo, and their children, Lucia and Felipe. Everything must be perfectly structured: the family unit should consist of only four people; her furniture, decoration, even the way dinner is served on individual platters follow rigid geometrical patterns. Those strict parameters are jeopardized by the birth of her third child, Tomás. She solves it by locking him in a closet a la Harry Potter and forcing him to hide in the bushes outdoors. But Tomás turns the tables on the entire family when he discovers the books of one Ann Land in his sister’s bedroom, and the battle for control of this household and a new alpha begins.

A former Economics student turned entrepreneur and even University Dean, Daniel Rodríguez Risco started making short films in 1998 releasing one per year until 2005. His first short film, El colchón (1998), received the award for Best Short Film at Conacine (Peru). His next short, Triunfador (2019), was selected at the Festival du Court Métrages at Clermont-Ferrand and was distributed internationally by Canal-Plus. Thanks to these two shorts, he received a scholarship to study a Master of Fine Arts in Film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. 

Three of Daniel’s six features which were selected by the Chicago Latino Film Festival: El acuarelista (The Watercolorist, 2008, 25th edition of the Festival); El vientre (The Womb, 2014, 31st edition), and Siete Semillas (Seven Seeds, 2016, 35th edition), starring Javier Cámara and Federico Luppi in his last on-screen appearance. 

We spoke to Daniel about the film’s visual design, Ayn Rand and who in their right mind would marry Adriana:

How was the idea for Cuadrilátero born and how does the film fit in your filmography in terms of styles, themes and even personal obsessions?

The trigger for the story was a commentary I overheard, by coincidence, from my wife who was talking on the phone to a friend who was about to give birth to her third child. When my wife hung up, she confirmed that they were talking about how this boy would change her friend’s family routine and dynamic. If it is true that the birth of a child can bring about a beautiful change, at the same time it provokes a series of complications—instability. This coincided with the release of my short Cuellos Almidonados [shown at the 39th CLFF] where I explored the dynamics of a family with three children where the mother is “the steward of order” and the younger son an “agent of disruption,” so the anecdote fit like a glove and allowed me to further explore this idea. When it comes to my filmography, Cuadrilátero follows the same line of my shorts which are these atemporal, non-geographical, slightly autobiographical short fables.

You present a very precise, geometrically perfect household and world where everything, from the furniture to the hill that leads the family to the car garage follow a specific rigid stricture. It’s also rather monochromatic and austere. Can you talk a bit about the film’s production design?

I had a lot of fun creating this quadrilateral, monochromatic world with my production designer Edi Mérida and my director of photography Miguel Valencia. We all collaborated on Cuellos Almidonados. To visually show the lack of communication [in this family], we decided to place each character at the border of the frame and add weight over them (beams, rafters) so that they would feel as if they were being crushed. Once you define how your film is going to look, which is like the rules of a game, it is key that you do not steer away from it to maintain the film’s unity and cohesion. One of our rules was: less is more.

We see Lucía read a book written by one Ann Land, and in fact, nothing but books by this author on her shelves. This author, in fact, inspires Tomás to take matters into his own hand. Is Ann Land a wink to Ayn Rand? And why?

Funny that you noticed that. My dad was a huge fan of Ayn Rand so I grew up reading her books: The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Night of October 16th, The Virtue of Selfishness (Gordon Gekko’s speech in Wall Street is taken from that book). I must have read everything she wrote. I believe something as radical, or even more so, than Rand’s “Objectivism” —[in defense] of an exacerbated individualism— most have stuck in Adriana’s, the mother’s, mind for her to behave the way she does. And I imagine she must have passed Land’s almost Darwinian ideology to her husband and children, except for Tomás who injects himself with it, encouraging him to rebel.

One of the most troubling aspects of your film is that we never know what social, political or even family-driven factors drove Adriana to be so severe, so authoritarian. What was her environment growing up like? And who in their right mind would marry her?

The answer to these two questions are tied to your previous one. Adriana must have grown up in an environment where that culture of egoism, in contrast to an altruistic one that defends the common good, was the norm. We never know the reasons why Alfredo, her husband, submits to Adriana the way he does. I didn’t find it pertinent to go into his backstory but in my mind, he must have some sort of moral debt with her: he must have been unfaithful to her at some point and in order not to lose his family, he took on a passive role.

In the end, this is a movie about the use and abuse of power and the cruelty it inspires. And we live in a world where cruelty for the mere sake of being cruel seems to be the norm for many governments. In what ways does this family represent a microcosm of the world we currently live in?

Your question reminds me of that memorable verse from John Donne’s poem: “No man is an island”. To tell you the truth, some of my movies, the most personal ones, are an artistic recreation of past events that could have become either painful or traumatic. Treating them artistically, so to say, allows me to distance myself from them, to look at them from the other side and even laugh at them. Cuadrilátero is one of those cases of artistic expression as therapy. Which is why it’s been a pleasant surprise to discover how the public goes beyond this family microcosm to themes like the ones you mention. I didn’t think I was making a political movie but I know I did thanks to the audience.

Cuadrilátero will screen on Saturday, April 12th at 4 p.m. and Sunday, April 13, 8 p.m. at the Landmark Century Center Theatres.