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

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

The 2027 submission calendar includes three entry windows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Honoring a Legacy

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

Mulcahy’s Vision: Seven Pillars, One Mission

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

A Career Rooted in Latino Arts Advocacy

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

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

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

About the ILCC

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

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

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

Learn more at latinoculturalcenter.org.

Additional Coverage:

Chicago Sun Times

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER June 8, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

The Dream Lives On

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pepe Vargas is one of those people.

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

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

From humble beginnings to cultural icon

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

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

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

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

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

A Life That Earned Its Stories

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

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

What the People Who Know Him Best Have to Say

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

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

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

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

We could not agree more.

The Work Goes On

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

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

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

That is his final gift to us.

Thank You, Pepe

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

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

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

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

Que viva la cultura. Que viva Pepe Vargas.

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

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.

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.

This was more than a cosmetic change. The decision strengthened Founder and Executive Director Pepe Vargas and his team’s commitment in presenting in Chicago the most daring, exciting, moving and unique artists and productions from the entire Pan-Latino diaspora, including Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal, and the many Latino communities in the United States. Of sharing with Chicago audiences from all walks of life the diversity of Pan-Latino voices while celebrating those commonalities that unite these countries and communities.

Since then, the ILCC has presented hundreds of musicians, dancers, writers, filmmakers and painters, most of them making their Chicago, some even their North American, debut. The ILCC has taken the show on the road, so to say, bringing these artists to culturally underserved communities all across Chicago, from Belmont-Cragin to Pilsen. More than 25% of the programming is free, including matinee screenings for school groups during the film festival, concerts and films in parks, and an annual dance festival.

But today that vision, and the vision of many other arts organizations in the city and the country, is under attack. The ILCC has seen a significant reduction in federal funding, impacting their ability to present and produce culturally relevant programming that speaks to the whole city.

PARTY WITH A CAUSE

To shine a spotlight on their ongoing successful work and to raise the funds needed to maintain and build crucial and indispensable programming for the community and the public at large, the ILCC is launching a fundraising campaign under the slogan Honoring Our History, Investing in Our Future. 

The campaign’s headline event will be the 25th anniversary dinner celebration at CineCity Studios, 2429 West 14th St. on Friday, November 14, that will include pre-reception cocktails, the very best in Latino cuisine, and an unforgettable solo performance by Grammy® and Latin Grammy® Award winning artist Alex Cuba. 

Born Alexis Puentes in Artemisa, Cuba, Alex Cuba studied electric and upright bass at a young age. In 1999, he moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where he recorded an album, Morumba Cubana, with his twin brother, Adonis. Alex went on to record his solo debut album, Humo De Tobaco, for which he earned a Juno Award for World Music Album of the Year for 2006. In 2009, he released his first-ever English track, “If You Give Me Love.” In 2010, he took home the award for Best New Artist at the Latin Grammy Awards, where he also got a nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Album. A second Latin Grammy soon followed, this time as a songwriter, alongside Yoel Henriquez, for Best Tropical Song for Milly Quezada’s single, “Toma Mi Vida,” featuring Juan Luis Guerra 

In 2017, Alex Cuba continued to push the boundaries of his music. His sixth album, Lo Único Constante, delved deeper into his songwriting roots, focusing on a nylon string guitar and upright bass and looking at the “Filin” movement in Cuba in the 1940s that fused jazz and trova, 19th-century Cuban folk music, together. On May 28, Alex Cuba released a brand new single, Nada es de Verdad, with Grammy-Award winning Miami-based pan-Latino sensation Bacilos. 

MORE THAN ONE WAY TO HELP

Individual contributions are a key component of the ILCC’s fundraising campaign. For a contribution as low as $20 a month, supporters will contribute to the lasting stability of the organization and ensure that Latin arts will still have a voice and a space in the city. 

For more information on the ILCC’s 25th anniversary fundraising dinner and individual contributions, visit the ILCC’s official fundraising page. 

“As an organization, we do not have a tradition of an annual fundraiser as most nonprofits do, yet perilous times impel us to take a moment to both celebrate our milestone and to provide others an opportunity to invest in the future of Latino arts in Chicago. We want to continue sharing those transformative stories with Chicago audiences for years to come,” said Pepe Vargas, Founder and Executive Director of the ILCC

“Our silver jubilee is more than a celebration. It also represents an opportunity to renew our deep commitment to presenting multidisciplinary work from across the Pan-Latino diaspora. These are, undoubtedly, challenging times for the arts and for arts organizations like ours. Our fundraising campaign and gala will help pave the way for a more sustainable future for our organization,” added Mateo Mulcahy, Deputy Executive Director of the ILCC.

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.