NYC’s 18th Celebrate Mexico Now Festival 2021 is streaming live and on demand Saturday-Monday, October 30 – November 1, with an in-person performance by Renee Goust at Terraza 7 in Elmhurst, Queens on Saturday, October 30 at 9pm. FREE mexiconowfestival.org 🇲🇽
Celebrate Mexico Now Festival 2021
This year’s Festival is adapting to the pandemic. It features contemporary dance, music, film, art, women’s history and business spotlights that are mostly streaming with one in-person performance. This year’s focus on women is important because women are the guardians of culture.
The Festival is produced by CN Management (one of NYC’s most important Mexican culture producers) in collaboration with Cinema Tropical, CUNY Mexican Studies Institute and NYU Latin American and Caribbean Studies. These are all heavy hitters.
Saturday, October 30
- Reencuentros: Works for the Screen in Times of Lockdown streams on Sat, Oct 30 at 4pm. RSVP at mexiconowfestival.org
- Reencuentros: Works for the Screen in Times of Lockdown is a live Q&A with Works for Screen creatives streaming on Sat, Oct 30 at 5pm. mexiconowfestival.org
- New York singer-songwriter Renee Goust turns Terraza 7 in Elmhurst, Queens into a Cantina Cuir at 9pm. (Cuir is not Spanglish, it is phonetic.). She’s a powerful singer. We like her work. It’s hard to categorize her. She’s a real New Yorker. mexiconowfestival.org 🏳️🌈
Sunday, October 31
Watch and discuss new documentaries from Mexico. These films focus on women.
Watch “Yolik (Despacio),” Epifanía Martínez Rosete’s documentary of an old Mexican woman talking about her childhood memories on Sun, Oct 31 at 5:30pm. It’s a beautiful view into the wisdom of the ages. RSVP at mexiconowfestival.org
Watch “Tote/Abuelo,” María Sojob’s story of a mother who while braiding her daughter’s hair, is inspired to visit her grandfather and weave a traditional hat with him as a way to reconcile her past heritage and her daughter’s future, on Sun, Oct 31 at 6pm. RSVP at mexiconowfestival.org
Conversatorio: En Esta Familia is a conversation in Spanish with María Inés Roqué and the directors of “Tote Abuelo” and “Yolik (Despacio)” on Sun, Oct 31 at 6:30pm. mexiconowfestival.org
Monday, November 1
Malintzin: The Indigenous Woman’s Role in the History of Mexico is a discussion between writer Yásnaya Elena A. Gil and historian Federico Navarrete about La Malinche, one of the first mothers of our Mestizo (mixed European Indigenous) people, on Mon, Nov 1 at 11am. RSVP at mexiconowfestival.org
La Malinche (c 1500 – c 1529) was an enslaved Nahua woman who worked as an interpreter for the malparido Cortés, and bore him a son, Martín, one of the first Mestizos. She is often considered evil for her association with Cortés, but one has to ask what choice did an enslaved woman in that time really have?
Call for Action: Artists at the Helm is a discussion in Spanish with ANTI, the Mexican National Association of Independent Theater, about how cultural producers are surviving the pandemic with new collaborative strategies on Mon, Nov 1 at 9pm. Join the conversation at mexiconowfestival.org
This is important not only for pandemic survival strategies, but for the possibility of discussing how we create cultural narratives that are accepted by the culture we live in and move us closer to the time when we are perceived, not as some label of “other,” but just as people. I have a dream. You have a dream. We all have the same dream.
This is Who We Are
Creatives who work in both Mexico City and New York City generally report that Mexico City is more creative than New York. The Celebrate Mexico Now Festival is a view into both worlds.
Mexican Americans are not only tacos and Mariachis. We are Americans with a Mexican heritage, but the key word is Americans. New York City famously says, “When you’re here, you’re a New Yorker,” and that is really true. Mexicans live in Mexico, and Americans live in the United States, but we are the proverbial hero twins joined at the hip.
The Celebrate Mexico Now Festival is especially relevant because we are neighbors and the western two-thirds of our country was once Mexico. We have a saying, “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” Our shared history is filled with both bad and good things.
So the Festival is not about some “other” group. This is who we are as Mexicans and as Americans.
According to the 2020 US Census, Latinx communities (who are mostly Caribbean descent in NYC, but mostly Mexican descent across the USA) are currently 20% of the population and the fastest growing demographic. Our contributions keep getting more important.
We think the increase in America’s Latinx population is great, not just because it’s what we write about, but because the Latinx demographic is young, hard-working, strong families. That is all good.
You can draw a line in the sand, build a wall and put children in cages, but it’s nonsense theater because we are all Americans.
See you at the Celebrate Mexico Now Festival 2021.
