Latin American Festival @ CSUN

This November, I attended the first annual Latin American Festival at the CSUN campus. This was a joint venture organized by CSUN and UNAM Los Angeles consisting of a 5 day festival highlighting films from different countries in Latin America as well as a live music theater presentation and a photography exhibit. The festival is the result of the new partnership CSUN and UNAM have established to create the Center for Mexican and Latin American Studies (CMLAS).

The San Fernando Valley has been home to a very large population of Chicanos and Latin Americans for a very long time. The Spanish arrived in 1769 to settle in the Valley and since then, there has been an ongoing representation of the Hispanic or Latin culture up to the present day. According to census.gov, as of 2012 the population of the San Fernando Valley was 1.77 million. Of the population, 41% were Hispanic or Latino.

It is hard to imagine that just now, this sector of Los Angeles' metropolitan area, is recognizing the culture it has for so long been a part of. Fortunately, this cause is championed by CSUN, the only CalState University in the area, and UNAM Los Angeles. UNAM brought Samuel Douek, Director of the Hola Mexico Festival, to help with the films.


The Festival started on Wednesday, November 12th, with the opening of a photography exhibit by Alan Vidali called Hand Held. I've written about this photographer in a past blog about this exhibit when it was shown at the Mexican Consulate which you can read here. The festival included documentaries, films and shorts from Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Uruguay, Chile and Brazil. It also included Lectures, Q&A and a live music theater presentation.

I don't think they could have chosen a better film to end with than Brazil's candidate for this coming Oscars, The Way He Looks (Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho) by Daniel Ribeiro. It is a beautiful coming of age story about a A blind teenage boy on a voyage of independence and self discovery.

For its first endeavor, I feel that this was a very good start for the Latin American Festival. I believe it shows a lot of promise and will find an ever growing audience in the years to come. With this piece of experience and a year to organize the next festival, it will be exciting to see what other forms of art they may add. After all, Latin America is a very large place with a seemingly endless supply of culture waiting to be showcased.