FILM / Screening

• Con Alma: For the first time, México Now Festival and CortoCircuito Latino Short Fest NY join forces to celebrate Latino culture with the New York Premiere of Con Alma, presented in partnership with NYU’s Espacio de Culturas and CLACS. This moving documentary follows acclaimed musicians Magos Herrera and Paola Prestini, who created a global musical collaboration, Con Alma, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Featuring over 30 artists, Con Alma grew into an album and live performances, which would include a landmark concert at the United Nations on gender equality.

MUSIC / Artist Talk

• Solidarity in Song. Music, Mutual Aid and the Making of a  Movement: Doris Anahí Muñoz—founder of Solidarity for Sanctuary, artist manager turned singer-songwriter, and subject of the Sundance-premiered documentary Mija—shared her inspiring journey of transforming music into a vehicle for social change. From organizing concerts to fund her (now formerly) undocumented parents’ legal fees, to curating national benefit events in collaboration with organizations like Make the Road NY, and telling her story through documentaries, Doris reflects on how storytelling, mutual aid, and cultural production serve as forms of resistance.

MUSIC / Concert

• Canciones de Mis Ancestros, a Tribute to the Ranchera Legacy: A heartfelt celebration of the composers and performers who have immortalized the beloved Mexican folk tradition of ranchera for over a century. This concert honored mariachi as a vibrant form of intergenerational connection, as a way to pay tribute to our ancestors, embrace our roots, and sustain cultural traditions across migration and lineage.

• Singing Stones. Celebrating the Ancient Americas: The program inculded Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth singing Ortiz’s Canta la Piedra—Tetluikan, commissioned by The Met on the occasion of the reopening of The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing and based on poems by Nahua multidisciplinary artist Mardonio Carballo. Then, Mexican contemporary choral ensemble Coro Acardenchado, presenting a rare taste of the endangered Mexican canto cardenche, a wrenching expression of pain and heartbreak through song. Finally, the two ensembles come together to premiere a brand-new double-choir arrangement of Ortiz’s powerful Kauyumari, a rhythmic ode to music as a means of healing and transformation. The performance will include live, hand-drawn animated projections by Arturo López Pío, as well as video of the sacred Wirikuta desert by Mercedes Aquí and Paola Stefani.

LITERATURE / Artist Talk

• Queen of Swords: Acclaimed Mexican author Jazmina Barrera and the award-winning translator of Elena Garro’s work, Megan McDowell, join in a captivating virtual conversation about Barrera’s forthcoming book, The Queen of Swords. Translated from Spanish by Christina MacSweeney and published by Two Lines Press, The Queen of Swords is an inventive, genre-defying portrait of the influential writer Elena Garro. Originally intended as a brief essay, Barrera’s deep curiosity transformed the project into a sprawling literary investigation of its enigmatic subject.

• Caricature and Revolution: A dynamic conversation with renowned Mexican cartoonist, writer, and historian Rafael Barajas (“El Fisgón”). Drawing from his research, Barajas traced a vivid line from 17th-century religious prints to the satirical magazines of late 19th- and early 20th-century that would ultimately play a decisive role in igniting the Mexican Revolution.

LITERATURE / Book Presentation

• Celebrate México Now Festival 2004–2024: A commemorative presentation of the book honoring the first twenty years of México Now Festival—an independent, multidisciplinary cultural project in New York City founded and directed by Claudia Norman. Written and edited by Rocio Echevarría and published by independent press Editorial Microhistorias, the book draws from more than twenty-five interviews with Claudia and a deep review of two decades of festival archives, materials, and testimonies. The result is an intimate visual and narrative journey through the festival’s evolution and its vibrant, ever-growing community.