32nd Annual César Chávez and Dolores Huerta Celebration
2025-04-05 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
NOTE: Due to inclement weather, the 32nd Annual César Chávez and Dolores Huerta Celebration will be held in Domenici Education Building.
March for Justice: 10:00 am
Fiesta: 12:00 – 3:00 pm
The Recuerda a Cesar Chavez Committee (RCCC) and the National Hispanic Cultural Center are excited to announce the return of the annual César Chávez and Dolores Huerta Celebration – the only celebration of its kind in the country that honors both great civil rights leaders. The legendary Dolores Huerta will be our honored guest!
Since 2007, the National Hispanic Cultural Center has collaborated with Albuquerque’s Recuerda a César Chávez Committee (RCCC) to celebrate the life and legacy of the renowned American civil rights leader César Estrada Chávez, co-founder, with Dolores Huerta, of the National Farmworkers Association and subsequently president of the United Farmworkers of America.
This event will feature a keynote address from Dolores Huerta, presentation of the “Sí Se Puede” Awards, a car show presented by the Drifters Car Club, live dance and music performances, local dignitaries, and fun activities for the entire family.
The Annual César Chávez and Dolores Huerta Celebration is sponsored by the City of Albuquerque and supported by the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) and the County of Bernalillo.
Free Community Event.

AfroMundo Festival: Literary Reading: Changing the Narrative
2025-04-13 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Wells Fargo Auditorium, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
7:00 pm
NHCC | Wells Fargo Auditorium
Presentations by Haitian American poet Patrick Sylvain, Afro-Cuban filmmaker Aida Esther Bueno Sarduy, and Egyptian Palestinian American author, filmmaker, and actor Randa Jarrar. Followed by a Q&A.
Free Community Event. This event is part of the 2025 AfroMundo Festival: Troubled Territories: The Will to Heal.

About the Festival:

From April 12 – 19, enjoy music, literature, oral histories, theater, film, culinary taste feasts, panel discussions, and more.
Mark your calendars and join us for this bilingual, weeklong, arts & humanities series that explores the shared traditions, histories, struggles, activism and aspirations of Black and Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas.
All the programs featured in the 2025 AfroMundo Festival supports NHCC’s mission to preserve, promote and advance Hispanic culture, arts and humanities by broadening understandings of Latinidad, and by introducing intersectional narratives of regions with shared histories, cultures, traditions and plights so as to promote a greater understanding of our shared humanity. AfroMundo is a grassroots, cultural ecosystem where the individual and collective narratives, traditions, and lived experiences of Afro diasporas are expressed through multiple mediums and from local, national, and international perspectives to allow for an exchange of knowledge, and for interrogation as well as critical thinking. AfroMundo further extends the conversation by ensuring that audiences can engage presenters in dialogue.
Ticket reservations are REQUIRED.

Día Del Niño
2025-04-26 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
11:00 am – 3:00 pm
NHCC | Domenici Education Building
Join us for a day of celebrating the youth in our community during this free event for families of all ages and sizes!
Enjoy Nanny’s Petting Zoo, performances from Voces de Coronado and Ballet Folklorico Fiesta Mexicana, student films, and our Youth Art Market. Learn about birds and bugs with the U.S. Forest Service. Make art, play, climb a rock wall and discover a variety of community resources from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, UNM Early Childhood Services Center, Explora, New Mexico PBS, Kids Cook, Bernalillo County Public Library and many more!
For more information, please call or email Elena Baca at 505-246-2261 or elenad.baca@dca.nm.gov.
Free Community Event.

Things to see and do:
Enjoy performances from Voces de Coronado (11:30 am), Ballet Folklorico Fiesta Mexicana (12:30 pm), Public Academy for Performing Arts (1:30 pm), and National Institute of Flamenco (2:30 pm)
Climb the CABQ rock wall
Visit animals at Nanny’s Petting Zoon
Ongoing art activities
NMPBS
UNM Early Childhood
Explora
ABQ BernCo Public Library
Kids Cook
NM Museum of Natural History & Science
APS Fine Arts
US Forest Service
WoW Van
Story Riders
Working Classroom

Inaugural Native Theater & Performing Arts Festival: Professional Native Theatre Panel Event
2025-05-01 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Wells Fargo Auditorium, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
7:00 – 9:00 pm
NHCC | Wells Fargo Auditorium
Dancing With Fire Productions in collaboration with the National Hispanic Cultural Center presents
the Inaugural Native Theater & Performing Arts Festival.
Please join us for our Inaugural Native American Theater & Performing Arts Festival on April 24-27 and May 1-4, 2025 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, featuring music, dance, staged readings, and more!
About the Festival: Our Key Host of the festival will be Ms. Lori Chavez, beginning with an Opening Reception with music and dance performances on Thursday, April 24, 7:00 – 9:00 pm.
Echo In The Canyon, a fully staged theater production, will be shown on Fridays and Saturdays: April 25 & 26, and May 2, & 3. Echo In The Canyon will feature traditional style dancing by Niko DeRoin. Doors open at 6:30 pm and the performances will be at 7:00 pm. This production will be $19.00 General Admission with a $2 discount for children, seniors and NHCC members.
We have scheduled two staged reading performances on Sunday, April 27, starting at 2:00 pm, and again Sunday, May 4 at 2:00 pm. I Am Joaquin by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales; Directed by Patricio Tlacaelel Trujillo y Fuentes and Craft Lady, Spider, and Bird by Alysse Kinsel and Leia Pickel (UNM Theater and Film students 2024).. The staged readings will be $14.00 General Admission with a $2 discount for children, seniors and NHCC members.
A Native Theater Panel Event featuring Ty Defoe, Jay B. Muskett, Enock Chapman and Jennifer Benally of Shiny Moon Creations will be on Thursday, May 1, 2025 at 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm at $14.00 General Admission with a $2 discount for children, seniors and NHCC members.
We will host a Closing Reception Fashion Show featuring Jennifer Benally of Shiny Moon Creations on Sunday, May 4 from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm at $14.00 General Admission with a $2 discount for children, seniors and NHCC members.
Local Native American vendors will be on site to sell their latest work at all events for the hour prior to showtimes!
$14 w/ $2 discount for seniors, children 10 and under and NHCC Foundation members.
Click the link here for Native Theatre Festival Vendor opportunities

Railyards Art Project
2025-05-22, 2025-05-29 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Wells Fargo Auditorium, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
6:30 pm
NHCC | Wells Fargo Auditorium
Help Shape the Railyards Art Project: A Community Event for the Barelas residents
Hosted by the National Hispanic Cultural Center
Co- hosted by Erick Corona
Organizer, Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 49
Join us for two community listening sessions, May 22nd & 29th, for the Barelas neighborhood and Sheet Metal Workers, to help shape the concept design of a public art piece celebrating Barelas – from its farming roots to the Santa Fe Railroad and beyond. Submit ideas, share feedback, and help shape this tribute to 363 years of growing community, love, and togetherness in Barelas.
Free community event.
Barelas Community Engagement Flyer

Rescheduled: Escribir | Escuchar Latine Author Series: Estella González Reading
2025-06-12 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
6:30 pm Reception and Book Signing
7:00 pm Reading
NHCC | Salón Ortega
Join us for a literary evening as we celebrate the launch of Huizache Women, the latest novel by Estella González! Delve into a captivating narrative intertwining the lives of women navigating the complexities of identity, family, and resilience in González’s evocative storytelling. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet the author, engage in enriching discussion, and hear excerpts from her compelling new work.
The Saturday after the presentation, come and participate in an ancillary creative writing workshop led by Estella, offering a unique opportunity to explore your own narrative voice and craft.
Free community event. Please register for the Reading and the Workshop individually below.
This event is generously supported by AARP Albuquerque.

Rescheduled: Escribir | Escuchar Latine Author Series: Estella González Workshop
2025-06-14 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
NHCC | Salón Ortega
This Saturday come and participate in an ancillary creative writing workshop led by Estella González, offering a unique opportunity to explore your own narrative voice and craft.
This workshop celebrates Huizache Women, the latest novel by Estella González! Huizache Women delves into a captivating narrative intertwining the lives of women navigating the complexities of identity, family, and resilience in González’s evocative storytelling. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet the author and engage in enriching discussion.
Free community event. Please register for the Reading and the Workshop individually below.
This event is generously supported by AARP Albuquerque.

Herencia 1776 Ceremony
2025-07-03 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
NOTE: This event has been moved to the Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts lobby due to weather.
9:30 – 10:30 am
As part of the arts and diplomacy herencia series at the center, please join friends and familia for a ceremony sharing the collective history of 1776 between Spain and the United States.
Co-hosted with the Spanish Resource Center Education Ministry of Spain. Special guests include renowned poet Aaron Abeyta and historian Dr. Tomas Chavez! The event begins at 9:30am and will be located in the Pete Padilla Manuel Mora Memorial Park inside the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
Free Community Event, please register below.

Artist Chisme: Creative Conversations
2025-07-20 | Visual Art Museum, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Join the curator and artist Vicente Telles along with artists Vanessa Alvarado, Eric Romero, and Daisy Quezada Ureña for a fun and casual afternoon celebrating the NHCC art exhibition Rendered Presence: Artistas de Nuevo México.
Attendees will have a chance to walk through the exhibit with the artists. Community, artists and NHCC staff will sit and relax in the museum while participating in engaging conversation. The chisme will continue over light refreshments served in the museum courtyard.
Free community event, please register using the link below. For more information about this event, contact Education Program Manager Elena Baca at 505-220-7928 or ElenaD.Baca@dca.nm.gov. To learn more about our guest artists please check out their websites.
Vicente Telles
Vanessa Alvarado – Albuquerque Fine Arts Oil Painter
Eric Romero Art
Daisy Quezada Ureña

Dr. Cesar Lozano: Felizmente Imperfectos
2025-08-05 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Albuquerque Journal Theatre, 1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
*Atención: este evento se ha pospuesto del 15 al 5 de agosto. Las entradas adquiridas para la función del 15 de agosto serán válidas el día 5.
8:00 pm
NHCC | Albuquerque Journal Theatre
Una noche inolvidable con el Dr. Cesar Lozano.
Prepárate para una experiencia única en conferencias con el renombrado orador César Lozano y su nueva gira “Felizmente Imperfectos”. Conocido principalmente por sus “frases matonas”, Lozano compartirá su perspectiva inspiradora contigo. Autor de varios libros, incluyendo “Una buena forma para decir adiós” y “No te enganches todo pasa”, este evento promete ser divertido y motivador. No te pierdas la oportunidad de presenciar una conferencia que te hará reflexionar y encontrar la felicidad en la imperfección.
Get ready for a unique experience in conferences with renowned speaker César Lozano and his new tour “Felizmente Imperfectos”. Author of several books, including “A Good Way to Say Goodbye” and “Don’t Get Hooked, Everything Happens,” this event promises to be fun and motivating. Don’t miss the opportunity to witness a conference that will make you reflect and find happiness in imperfection.

*Please note, this event has been moved from August 15th to August 5th. Tickets purchased for the August 15th performance will be honored on the 5th.
An unforgettable evening with Dr. Cesar Lozano
Get ready for a unique conference experience with renowned speaker César Lozano and his new tour “Felizmente Imperfectos.” Known primarily for his “killer phrases,” Lozano will share his inspiring perspective with you. Author of several books, including “A Good Way to Say Goodbye” and “Don’t Get Hooked, Everything Happens,” this event promises to be fun and motivating. Don’t miss the opportunity to witness a conference that will make you reflect and find happiness in imperfection.
Get ready for a unique conference experience with renowned speaker César Lozano and his new tour “Felizmente Imperfectos.” Author of several books, including “A Good Way to Say Goodbye” and “Don’t Get Hooked, Everything Happens,” this event promises to be fun and motivating. Don’t miss the opportunity to witness a conference that will make you reflect and find happiness in imperfection.
$40, $55, $65, $80, $75, $90, & $125

* El evento es un evento de alquiler, no una producción del NHCC. El título, el contenido, las fotos/imágenes y la descripción de este evento fueron proporcionados al NHCC por la organización que alquiló el recinto del NHCC. Al actuar como recinto y publicar el evento en su sitio web, el NHCC no respalda las opiniones expresadas en el título o la descripción del evento, ni su contenido.
*The event is a rental event not an NHCC production. The title, content, photos/images and description for this event were provided to the NHCC by the organization renting the NHCC venue for the event. By serving as a venue and posting the event on its website, the NHCC is not endorsing any views expressed in the title or description of the event, nor is it endorsing the content of the event.
*Todas las ventas de entradas para espectáculos/eventos del NHCC se realizan a través del sitio web del Centro Nacional de Cultura Hispana (NHCC). El NHCC es una división del Departamento de Asuntos Culturales de Nuevo México. Será redirigido a nuestro sistema central de venta de entradas. NO COMPRE A TERCEROS. Si ve una aplicación o sitio web de terceros, por favor, repórtelo al Centro al (505) 246-2261.
*All NHCC performance/event ticket sales go through the National Hispanic Cultural Center Website. NHCC is a division of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. You will be redirected to our central ticketing system. DO NOT BUY FROM THIRD PARTIES. If you see a third party app or website, please report it to the Center at (505) 246-2261.

Reading: Dr. Irene Blea
2025-08-07 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
6:30 – 8:00 pm
NHCC | Salon Ortega
Join author, Irene Blea, Ph.D. as she reads from her unusual, magical realistic, memoir. Dr. Irene I. Blea shares frequent conversations with award-winning author, Rudolfo Anaya, who died in 2020. They were friends for over forty years, shared working on the University of New Mexico campus, and lived near one another. Anaya is best known for his book, Bless Me, Ultima. In this volume, Dr. Blea recalls platicas, conversations, with her friend, Rudy, about the essence of his writing, growing up in New Mexico, the nature of university life, the art and business of writing, publishing, death, dying, and spirituality. Blea, also an award-winning author and a sociologist, draws from their shared community understanding, and her ability to write in a multidisciplinary manner to poetically close the gap between literature and social science to render us an opportunity to say good-bye to Rudolfo Anaya, the godfather of Chicano literature.
On August 7, the Center will host a reading and book-signing with Dr. Blea from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. Then, join us the following week for her associated virtual writing workshop from 6:00 to 8:00 pm on August 14.
Free Community Event. Please register using the link below.

About the book: In this unusual, magical realistic, memoir, Dr. Irene I. Blea shares frequent conversations with award-winning author, Rodolfo Anaya, who died in 2022. They were friends for over forty years, shared working on the University of New Mexico campus, and lived near one another. Anaya is best known for his book Bless Me Ultima. In this volume, Dr. Blea recalls platicas, conversations, with her friend Rudy, about the essence of his writing, growing up in New Mexico, the nature of university life, the art and business of writing, publishing, death, dying, and spirituality. Blea, also an award-winning author and a sociologist, draws from their shared community understanding, and her ability to write in a multidisciplinary manner to poetically close the gap between literature and social science to render us an opportunity to say good-bye to Rodolfo Anaya, the godfather of Chicano literature.

Noche de Familia: Noche de Curanderismo & Bless Me, Ultima
2025-09-06 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Bank of America Theatre, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
4:00 pm Limpia Workshop
6:30 pm Film Screening: Bless Me, Ultima
New Mexico Gas Company presents Noche de Familia: Noche de Curanderismo, consisting of a limpia workshop and screening of Bless Me, Ultima.
Noche de Curanderismo will be dedicated to the immersion and celebration of the indigenous healing practices of Latin America and the Southwest. Curanderismo refers to these practices that rely on natural remedies. The community will have an opportunity to explore curanderismo through a limpia workshop. A limpia is a spiritual clearing practice. The workshop will be followed by a screening of Bless Me Ultima, a film that integrates these practices into a captivating narrative.
Rudolfo Anaya’s beloved and iconic Bless Me, Ultima returns to the NHCC with Carl Franklin’s screen adaptation in partnership with the English department of the University of New Mexico. Bless Me, Ultima is set in the 1940s in rural New Mexico and tells the story of a young boy and the mysterious healer who opens his eyes to the wonders of the spiritual realm. As the entire world is plunged into war and Antonio Marez grapples with the harsh realities all around him, his life is forever changed by the sudden arrival of Ultima, a curandera who inspires him to see the world from a new perspective.
2011; Carl Franklin; English; 102 minutes; Rated PG-13.
Workshop Runtime: 2 hours
Film Runtime: 1h 46m
Free community event, please register using the link below.

Speaker Series: Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of NM: The Santa Fe New Mexican
2025-09-13 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
10:30 am – 12:30 pm

The Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of NM presents the 2025 Speaker Series. The H.G.R.C. of N.M. will host Inez Russell-Gomez a past Editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper. The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper, under extraordinary times, has survived 175 years! Inez Russell-Gomez will cover a historic timeline of stories in shifting times and of the newspaper business that is determined to survive. She will share with us her insightful thoughts on an amazing history, while celebrating the 175 Anniversary & Years of New Mexico News Stories.
The HGRC Office is in the History and Literary Arts Building at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Tuesday & Thursday from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. By appointment only on Saturdays.
For more information on the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of NM or to make an appointment please call 505-833-4197 or check out their website here: https://www.hgrc-nm.org/index.html
Free Community Event.

Viva Indie: The future of New Mexico Film
2025-09-23 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Bank of America Theatre, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
6:00 pm: Discussion
7:00 pm: Networking Mixer
NHCC | Bank of America Theatre
Presented by NHCC & New Mexico Film Office
Join us for a discussion on the future of filmmaking in New Mexico! We will hear from filmmakers who have carved out careers from our vibrant local industry. We will discuss challenges and triumphs of independent filmmaking as well as how to get started or enhance your participation as a local filmmaker or cinephile.
Moderators: Respect the Connect (Trad to Trav and Lenwords)
Film Panel:
Alejandro Montoya Marin
Matthew Page
Michelle Waterson Gomez
Shaandiin Tome
Free community event. Limited availability. Please register to attend.

The Early Chicano Movement at New Mexico Highlands University, ca. 1968–1970: A Historical Overview
2025-09-25 | Visual Art Museum, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
6:00 to 7:00 pm
Join us at the Visual Art Museum for a Lecture and Q&A with Julianna Loera-Wiggins on the Early Chicano Movement at New Mexico Highlands University. She will be introduced by Ray Hernández-Durán, Ph.D, co-curator of the NHCC art exhibition Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico.
Free Community Event. Please register using the link below.
About the exhibition: Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico features a group of New Mexican artists who were among the earliest generation of Chicana and Chicano activists in the state. The artworks on display capture a distinctly New Mexican Chicana and Chicano experience that has received little attention in Chicano art history. Learn more at nhccnm.org/museum.

Reading: Yolanda Nava
2025-10-02 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
6:30 pm

NHCC | Salón Ortega
Join us for a two-day reading and workshop event featuring author Yolanda Nava, in celebration of her book Through The Dark. Through the Dark tells the remarkable true story of Nava’s fight with a mysterious illness that nearly claimed her life – eventually diagnosed as a rare autoimmune disease. Inspiring, uplifting, and transcendent in purpose, Through The Dark reads like a gripping thriller as Nava conducts an investigation into her own life.

On October 4, the Center will host a workshop with Yolanda Nava at 10:00 am. Please register separately for both events.
Free Community Event.

Books on the Bosque: Fright Night
2025-10-10 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Bank of America Theatre, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
National Hispanic Cultural Center | Bank of America Theatre
Fright Night, Horror Event presented by Books on the Bosque. Meet bestselling authors Brian Asman, Nat Cassidy, Clay McLeod Chapman, Ramona Emerson, Philip Fracassi, Jennifer Givhan, T. Kingfisher, C.J. Leede, and Keith Rosson in conversation with Jeff C. Carter of the We Bleed Orange & Black Podcast. Bookstore Pop-Up, Wine & Beer Vendor TBD. Presented by Books on the Bosque.
$35 General Admission, $45 Preferred Seating, and $65 VIP Seating
🎟 General Admission Ticket Includes:
*Event bookmark
*Event sticker
*Open seating
🪑 Preferred Ticket Includes:
*Event bookmark
*Event sticker
*Early entry for preferred seating
*Opportunity to have one book signed by each participating author
👻 VIP Ticket Includes:
*Event bookmark
*Event sticker
*Reserved seating in the first two center rows
*Spooky swag bag filled with goodies
*Exclusive small-group meet and greet with the authors
*Private signing session with two books signed per author
*Signed commemorative event poster
18+ event-minors must be accompanied by an adult

*The event is a rental event not an NHCC production. The title, content, photos/images and description for this event were provided to the NHCC by the organization renting the NHCC venue for the event. By serving as a venue and posting the event on its website, the NHCC is not endorsing any views expressed in the title or description of the event, nor is it endorsing the content of the event.
*All NHCC performance/event ticket sales go through the National Hispanic Cultural Center Website. NHCC is a division of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. You will be redirected to our central ticketing system. DO NOT BUY FROM THIRD PARTIES. If you see a third party app or website, please report it to the Center at (505) 246-2261.

Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of NM Speaker Series: Jack R Fox
2025-10-11 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
10:30 – 12:00 pm
NHCC | Dominici Education Building / Rooms 122-124
The Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico welcomes Retired New Mexico Army National Guard Brigadier General Jack R. Fox for our October HGRC Speaker Series. General Fox will lead a discussion on “The Rough Riders of New Mexico,” a nickname given to the 1st U.S. Volunteer Calvery Legendary Cowboy Regiment. The Men who served had to already have knowledge and experience capable on horseback and in shooting. One Half the unit came from New Mexico and recruited by Commander Theodore Roosevelt. Las Vegas, New Mexico celebrates with a museum about “The Rough Riders of New Mexico” as the first regiments gathering place in 1899.
“On June 24, 1899, on the one-year anniversary of the Battle of Las Gusaimas, about a hundred soldiers who called themselves the Rough Riders gathered together to celebrate victory in the Spanish-American War. Where they gathered wasn’t as important as why. But when it came time to organize such an event only one Old West town seemed appropriate: Las Vegas.
Yes, Las Vegas.
Only this was not the Las Vegas built in the middle of the Nevada desert. That town’s reputation was still several decades away.
No, this was the City of Las Vegas in the New Mexico territory.”
– By Ken Zurski

Día de Familia: Día de Muertos
2025-11-01 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
11:00 am
NHCC | Domenici Education Building
Join us for a special day for the whole family commemorating Día de Muertos traditions. Contribute to our community ofrenda and view ofrendas created by local schools and community organizations. Decorate sugar skulls, craft paper flowers, enjoy face-painting, and sample Pan de Muerto. Visitors can also enjoy food from local food trucks.
Please bring a non-returnable photo or item to contribute to our community ofrenda.
Free Community Event, generously supported by NM Gas Co.

WORLD PREMIERE: Native Bound Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery
2025-11-01 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Wells Fargo Auditorium, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
1:00 pm
NHCC | Bank of America Theatre
WORLD PREMIERE
On this special weekend, when we honor all saints and all souls, we are excited to launch this magnificent project focused on Indigenous slavery — a history and legacy centering creativity, consciousness, and community.
Join us for an afternoon of reflection, dialogue, and celebration featuring the project team, community voices, a performance by Unbound, and a reception to follow.
Free community event
Please join the Native Bound Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery, on Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 1:00 pm in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, 710 Camino Lejo off Old Santa Fe Trail on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a second opportunity to be a part of this celebration. This is a Free community event as well.

Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of NM Speaker Series: Linda Tigges PH.D.
2025-11-08 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
10:30 – 12:00 pm
NHCC | Dominici Education Building / Rooms 122-124
The Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico welcomes Linda Tigges PH.D.. Author, Historian, Archivist Researcher, Dr. Tigges’, extensive research into New Mexico Spanish Colonial documents uncovered extensive and interesting topics and works published in her outstanding writings, books and in presentations!
Working with translators of Spanish Colonial documents, Linda Tigges, PH.D. has published primary source materials which have been foundational in many fields of research. Over the past decade, Linda’s works have assisted geneologists, anthropoligists, historians, museum curators, and novelists with accounts from original Spanish Colonial documents. These documents tell the stories of New Mexico’s 18th century founders and settlers through their mishaps, grievences, complaints and outrageous behaviors.
Come see and hold some of these historic objects!
“Historical Artifacts/Materials: Metal Objects, Tools Including a Sword from Civil War:” Historic objects hold stories from the times and lives of N.M. Past Eras!”
Free community event

New Mexican Chicanas in the Spotlight: Chicana Feminism and Art in New Mexico
2025-11-20 | Visual Art Museum, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
6:00 to 7:00 pm
Head to the NHCC Visual Art Museum for a conversation a Lecture and Q&A with Bernadine Hernández, associate professor in the Department of English at the University of New Mexico. She will be introduced by Ray Hernández-Durán, co-curator of the NHCC art exhibition Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico.
Free Community Event. Please register using the link below.
About the exhibition: Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico features a group of New Mexican artists who were among the earliest generation of Chicana and Chicano activists in the state. The artworks on display capture a distinctly New Mexican Chicana and Chicano experience that has received little attention in Chicano art history. Learn more at nhccnm.org/museum.

Pláticas Públicas: In the Gallery with the Artists
2025-12-07 | Visual Art Museum, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Head to the NHCC Visual Art Museum for a Gallery Tour led by Roberta Márquez and Adelita M. Medina, two of the artists featured in the NHCC art exhibition Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico.
Free Community Event. Please register using the link below.
About the exhibition: Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico features a group of New Mexican artists who were among the earliest generation of Chicana and Chicano activists in the state. The artworks on display capture a distinctly New Mexican Chicana and Chicano experience that has received little attention in Chicano art history. Learn more at nhccnm.org/museum.

Opera Southwest: The Farolitos of Christmas
2025-12-07 - 2025-12-14 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Albuquerque Journal Theatre, 1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
December 7, 12, 13 & 14, 2025
6:30 pm Friday, 2:00 pm & 6:00 pm Saturday, & 4:00 pm Sundays
Music & Libretto / Héctor Armienta
Opera Southwest and the National Hispanic Cultural Center present a heartwarming holiday opera for all ages with Héctor Armienta’s The Farolitos of Christmas.
A new opera for families and children based on Rudolfo Anaya’s beloved children’s book, The Farolitos of Christmas is a heartwarming holiday opera about love, tradition, and the quiet power of invention. Luz’s father is away at war. Her grandfather is too sick to build the luminarias. So Luz finds a new way to light the path on Christmas Eve, one that will become tradition.
With music and libretto by Héctor Armienta (Zorro, Bless Me, Ultima) and stage direction by John de los Santos (Frida, Before Night Falls), this luminous one-act opera captures the spirit of New Mexico in winter: flickering light, faith, and family that endures.
$25, $35, $45, $55, & $65 with discounts for groups of 8 or more & anyone 30 years old and younger.
Running time: Approximately 1 hour
For more information on Opera Southwest please click HERE.
Keepsake volumes of Anaya’s The Farolitos of Christmas are available for purchase HERE.

*In accordance with the ticketing policies of the event promoter, tickets for this event are not permitted to be advertised or re-sold for more than face value. All ticket sales must be purchased through National Hispanic Cultural Center or accompanying host partner.
*All NHCC performance/event ticket sales go through the National Hispanic Cultural Center Website. NHCC is a division of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. You will be redirected to our central ticketing system. DO NOT BUY FROM THIRD PARTIES. If you see a third party app or website, please report it to the Center at (505) 246-2261.

AfroMundo Festival: “Narratives of Power: Myth, History, and the Stories that Shape Us”
2026-04-12 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Wells Fargo Auditorium, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Sunday, April 12, 2026
7:00 pm
NHCC | Wells Fargo Auditorium
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Literary Reading with Samoan storyteller Gabby Langkilde; Puerto Rican poet, Dr. Eleuterio Santiago-Diaz; and Virgin Islands’ author, Tiphanie Yanique. Followed by panel discussion and Q&A moderated by Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace, Director of UNM’s Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Panel discussion with:
Gabby Langkilde is a Samoan storyteller and the founder and executive editor of Pasefika Presence. Born and raised on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa, her love for storytelling was cultivated early in life —listening to ancient Samoan legends shared by her grandfather and later crafting her own tales for cousins, friends, and family to enjoy. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Harvard College, where she wrote ‘Pasefika Presence,’ one of the first recurring columns in The Harvard Crimson to center Pacific Islander perspectives and issues. After graduating, she returned home to American Samoa and worked as an eighth-grade social studies teacher, and in 2023, she founded Pasefika Presence as an online, submission-based magazine uplifting Pacific Islander stories and art. Rooted in the same commitment to centering Pacific Islander perspectives as her original column, Pasefika Presence began as a way to engage her students in Pacific storytelling and has since grown into an international platform that has published two issues and received hundreds of submissions from creatives across the Pacific and its diasporas. Gabby went on to be awarded a Fulbright U.S. Graduate Award to pursue research in Auckland, New Zealand, and received an East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellowship to complete her master’s degree in Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Today, she continues to guide Pasefika Presence while using storytelling, education, and research to empower Pacific communities and expand space for Pasefika voices.
https://www.pasefikapresence.org
Dr. Eleuterio Santiago Diaz is a poet, professor, and literary critic. Upon graduation from the University of Puerto Rico, Santiago-Díaz worked as a teacher of Spanish, physical education and industrial arts, and as a librarian in Puerto Rican elementary schools. He earned a Master’s degree in Spanish from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from Brown University, and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico. His teaching and research center on Afro-Caribbean and Caribbean literature examined in light of theories of race, writing and modernity; Latino-Caribbean literature in the United States; and Modern Latin American poetry. Before joining UNM, he taught language and literature in the departments of Spanish and Portuguese and African and Diaspora Studies at Tulane University, at Cambridge Community College and at St. Cloud State University. Santiago-Díaz is the author of the poetry books Árbol de plaza talado en su novena edad (Ciudad de México, Ediciones del Lirio, 2021) and Breaths (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2012), the scholarly book Escritura afropuertorriqueña y modernidad (Pittsburgh, PA: IILI/University of Pittsburgh, 2007), and articles published in academic journals and anthologies such as Revista Iberoamericana, Confluencia, Bilingual Review, Revista de Literatura, História e Memória, and Marvels of the African World: Cultural Patrimony, New World Connections, and Identities (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003). Pending publication, he has several creative projects: the poetry books Kernel and The Mollusk and the Thumb, and a collection of short stories titled El Circo.
Tiphanie Yanique is the author of the novel, Monster in the Middle, which was published in 2021 and on numerous best of the year lists. Monster in the Middle was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards and is a finalist for the Townsend Prize. Tiphanie is also the author of the poetry collection, Wife, which won the Bocas Prize in Caribbean poetry and the United Kingdom’s Forward/Felix Dennis Prize for a First Collection, the novel, Land of Love and Drowning, which won the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Award from the Center for Fiction, the Phillis Wheatley Award for Pan-African Literature, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Family Foundation Award. Land of Love and Drowning was also a finalist for the Orion Award in Environmental Literature and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. She is the author of a collection of stories, How to Escape from a Leper Colony, which won her a listing as one of the National Book Foundation’s 5Under35 and the Bocas Prize in Fiction. Her writing has won the Boston Review Prize in Fiction, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, a Pushcart Prize, an Academy of American Poet’s Prize and two Fulbright Scholarships. Tiphanie is also an outspoken activist on behalf of the Caribbean, having appeared on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, and published an op-ed in The New York Times on the US response to hurricanes in the Caribbean. Tiphanie is from the Virgin Islands and is Professor at Emory University.
MODERATOR: Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace, Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Director of the Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program at the University of New Mexico. She teaches classes and conducts research on Global Black Speculative Fiction, with an emphasis on Afrofuturism and Caribbean speculative literature. Her essays have appeared in a number of journals, including Small Axe, Cultural Dynamix, and Radical Teacher and in several anthologies, including the forthcoming book, The Routledge Handbook of Latinx Visions, where she contributed a chapter that explores the intersections between Caribbean-speculative fiction and Latinx-futurism. Presently, she is editing a book on power, gender, and teaching speculative fiction in the college classroom. Belinda’s edited collection will be published in early 2027.
AfroMundo Festival: Literary Reading: “Narratives of Power: Myth, History, and the Stories that Shape Us” | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

AfroMundo Festival: “Fight for Equality"
2026-04-12 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Wells Fargo Auditorium, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Sunday, April 12, 2026
3:00 pm
NHCC | Wells Fargo Auditorium
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Panel Discussion with Darlene T. Gomez, attorney for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives; Abraham Paulos of BAJI (Black Alliance for Just Immigration); Dr. Estévan Rael-Gálvez, President and founder of Native Bound-Unbound; and Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal and Advocacy for Project South. Moderated by Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace, Director of UNM’s Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Panel discussion with:
Darlene T. Gomez is a lifelong native of Northern New Mexico, having been born and raised in Lumberton where her ancestors homesteaded before New Mexico was incorporated into the United States. She has been practicing law for over 19 years and specializes in Indian Law, Complex Family Law, and advocating on behalf of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Relatives (MMIWR). Darlene attended the University of New Mexico School of Law where she first began her pro bono work fighting for clean water in her hometown of Lumberton. She was the inaugural recipient of the Carlos Vigil Scholarship, among numerous other awards while in school. Darlene is tirelessly passionate about giving a voice to the voiceless through her pro bono work. She has been a fierce advocate for primary and secondary victims of the MMIWR crisis since 2001 and spends much of her time organizing rallies, mentoring and advocating for secondary victims, preparing and distributing press releases, and serving as the attorney for 15 families of MMIWR victims. She is a founding member of the New Mexico MMIW Task Force and serves as the general counsel for the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Medicine Wheel Ride. She is widely considered a leading expert in MMIWR throughout the US and her persistent efforts on behalf of victims have led to an increase in domestic as well as international media attention for the MMIWR Public Health Crisis
https://dargomezlaw.com/mmiw/
Abraham Paulos is a nationally recognized communications strategist, writer, and advocate who has spent over two decades driving the movement for human rights and immigrant justice. His work centrally focuses on the complex intersection of immigration, race, and criminalization, with a specific emphasis on the unique challenges faced by Black migrants. Abraham currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). His career features influential leadership roles, including serving as the Executive Director of Families for Freedom. He has also been a researcher for Human Rights First and a Program Director for Life of Hope, a community-based organization serving low-income immigrants. A powerful voice in public discourse, Abraham has highlighted systemic issues within the U.S. deportation system through his writing for outlets like Foreign Policy Association, Huffington Post, and City Limits. He has also been featured on major news platforms such as NY Daily News, Democracy Now!, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Vice, ABC News and NBC News. Abraham is a Stateless Eritrean refugee born in Sudan and raised in Chicago. He holds an associate’s degree from Harold Washington College, a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and a master’s degree from The New School.
https://baji.org
Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez is the President and founder of Native Bond-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery. He was born and raised in the sovereign landscape of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, where the memories and stories of the complex identities that formed these communities were part of his upbringing on the family ranch, including of “la India Panana,” the Pawnee woman whose story continues to be told by descendants. Trained as an anthropologist, historian, and ethnographer, he received his BA from UC Berkeley and his MA and PhD from the University of Michigan, where he completed an award-winning dissertation on Indigenous slavery in colonial New Mexico. He has served as New Mexico State Historian, Executive Director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and Senior Vice President at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. His work is rooted in lived experience—holding a woven Diné blanket passed down as inheritance and protection or discovering archival traces of several Indigenous people in his family tree, including Antonia, listed simply as “India” in the 1750 Santa Fe census, and Margarita, an Apache woman named in a lawsuit over her possession.
https://nativeboundunbound.org/home/
Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal and Advocacy Director with Project South, advances a practice of movement lawyering, focused on confronting state repression and dismantling systems of surveillance, incarceration, and deportation. Azadeh has organized for two decades to protect and defend migrants and Black and Muslim communities from systemic lslamophobia, xenophobia, and anti-Black racism. She also provides support to social justice movements in the Global South, from Brazil to Palestine.
Azadeh is a past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She currently serves on the Advisory Council of the American Association of Jurists. She is the author or editor of several groundbreaking human rights reports as well as law review articles and book chapters focused on movement lawyering, immigrants’ rights, surveillance of Muslim-Americans, and using the international human rights framework as a tool for liberation. Her writings have appeared in The Guardian, The Nation, MSNBC, TIME Magazine, Boston Review, Slate, and Los Angeles Times, among others.

MODERATOR: Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace, Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Director of the Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program at the University of New Mexico. She teaches classes and conducts research on Global Black Speculative Fiction, with an emphasis on Afrofuturism and Caribbean speculative literature. Her essays have appeared in a number of journals, including Small Axe, Cultural Dynamix, and Radical Teacher and in several anthologies, including the forthcoming book, The Routledge Handbook of Latinx Visions, where she contributed a chapter that explores the intersections between Caribbean-speculative fiction and Latinx-futurism. Presently, she is editing a book on power, gender, and teaching speculative fiction in the college classroom. Belinda’s edited collection will be published in early 2027

AfroMundo Festival: “The Future is Now”
2026-04-13 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Bank of America Theatre, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Monday, April 13, 2026
7:00 pm
NHCC | Bank of America Theatre
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Screening of documentary “The Fight to Preserve & Revitalize the Chamorro Language.” Directed by Brian Muna. 2025. 13m. Followed by a panel discussion and Q&A. Panelists include Ashby Combahee, Library and Archives Program Manager at the Highlander Research and Education Center; Darlene T. Gomez, attorney for Medicine Wheel Ride; Gabby Langkilde, founder of Pasefika Presence; and Akilah Martinez, award-winning Diné creative technologist and cultural bearer. Moderated by CHamoru filmmaker Brian Muna.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Panel discussion with:
Ashby Combahee is the Library and Archives Program Manager at the Highlander Research and Education Center. Their work focuses on the documentation and preservation of southern grassroots liberation movements in United States. They are a co-founder of Georgia Dusk: a southern liberation oral history. Ashby started the Southern Memory Workers Institute at the Highlander Center, which is a 5-day popular education workshop sharing skills in public history, archival preservation, documentary arts, and political strategy. They are also a research fellow with the Folk Education Association of America, focused on resourcing Black craftspeople and Black-led folk schools.
Darlene T. Gomez is a lifelong native of Northern New Mexico, having been born and raised in Lumberton where her ancestors homesteaded before New Mexico was incorporated into the United States. She has been practicing law for over 19 years and specializes in Indian Law, Complex Family Law, and advocating on behalf of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Relatives (MMIWR). Darlene attended the University of New Mexico School of Law where she first began her pro bono work fighting for clean water in her hometown of Lumberton. She was the inaugural recipient of the Carlos Vigil Scholarship, among numerous other awards while in school. Darlene is tirelessly passionate about giving a voice to the voiceless through her pro bono work. She has been a fierce advocate for primary and secondary victims of the MMIWR crisis since 2001 and spends much of her time organizing rallies, mentoring and advocating for secondary victims, preparing and distributing press releases, and serving as the attorney for 15 families of MMIWR victims. She is a founding member of the New Mexico MMIW Task Force and serves as the general counsel for the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Medicine Wheel Ride. She is widely considered a leading expert in MMIWR throughout the US and her persistent efforts on behalf of victims have led to an increase in domestic as well as international media attention for the MMIWR Public Health Crisis
Gabby Langkilde is a Samoan storyteller and the founder and executive editor of Pasefika Presence. Born and raised on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa, her love for storytelling was cultivated early in life —listening to ancient Samoan legends shared by her grandfather and later crafting her own tales for cousins, friends, and family to enjoy. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Harvard College, where she wrote “Pasefika Presence,” one of the first recurring columns in The Harvard Crimson to center Pacific Islander perspectives and issues. After graduating, she returned home to American Samoa and worked as an eighth-grade social studies teacher, and in 2023, she founded Pasefika Presence as an online, submission-based magazine uplifting Pacific Islander stories and art. Rooted in the same commitment to centering Pacific Islander perspectives as her original column, Pasefika Presence began as a way to engage her students in Pacific storytelling and has since grown into an international platform that has published two issues and received hundreds of submissions from creatives across the Pacific and its diasporas. Gabby went on to be awarded a Fulbright U.S. Graduate Award to pursue research in Auckland, New Zealand, and received an East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellowship to complete her master’s degree in Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Today, she continues to guide Pasefika Presence while using storytelling, education, and research to empower Pacific communities and expand space for Pasefika voices.
Akilah Martinez (Glittering World Girl) is an award-winning Diné creative technologist and cultural bearer from the Navajo Nation focusing on the creation of building an Indigenous-based circular economic ecosystem that cycles off of language & culture futurism through video art and XR technology. Akilah’s a 2024 New Mexico Women in Tech Emerging Leader Award, a guest speaker at the MIT Reality Hack in Cambridge, MA and Bridge Innovation Studio UCLA. Akilah’s team, Inkovator, won 1st place for the Snap track at Stanford XR Immerse The Bay 2024 and team, Yeigo, won two 1st place Gold Prizes at MIT Reality Hack 2025.
https://www.glitteringworldgirl.com
MODERATOR: Brian Muna is an established CHamoru filmmaker on the island of Guam with over 10 years of experience in the industry. His filmmaking credits also include commercial work for corporations on island and has also worked abroad for projects filmed in Japan, Taiwan, and had volunteered for a short-form documentary filmed in the Philippines (2017) aimed to support a non-profit organization to support funding for a children’s orphanage. Under his company, Brian Muna Films, he has directed, written, filmed and produced short films, music videos, and documentaries surrounding issues within the island and Pacific region. He has participated in numerous international film festivals, namely the Guam International Film Festival, where was awarded “Best Made in the Marianas” winner with one additional nomination for the films he directed: Luther (2015); Plastic Bag (2018); Madam (2015). In 2020, he was the recipient of the “Best Cinematography” award for the film Bittersweet (2020) at the Mumbai International Cult Film Festival. In 2024 Brian won “Best Short Film” at the 2024 Hawai’i International Film Festival for his documentary “CHamoru A Lost Language.”
AfroMundo Festival: Documentary Screening & Panel Discussion—“The Future is Now” | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

AfroMundo Festival: “Re-imaginings: Power & Transformation”
2026-04-14 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Bank of America Theatre, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
7:00 pm
NHCC | Bank of America Theatre
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Screening of Puerto Rican documentary “The Bee—A Reflection on Women, Land, and Occupation.” Directed by Nelson Varas-Diaz. 2024. 30m. Followed by a panel discussion and Q&A. Panelists include award-winning afro-diasporic siblings, mulowayi and mapenzi who together comprise Las Nietas de Nonó; Afro-Puerto Rican attorney and former member of the Puerto Rican Senate, Ana Irma Rivera Lassén; Robert Washington-Vaughns, founder of Black Men Flower Project; and Tyeshia ‘Ty’ Wilson, Certified Impact Philanthropy Advisor and award-winning Giving Circle expert. Moderated by Latinx, transfeminist sociologist, Amaury J. Rijo Sanchez.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Las Nietas de Nonó are the afro-diasporic siblings, mulowayi and mapenzi. In their creative process, they evoke ancestral memory through personal archives. Their practice incorporates performance, found objects, organic materials, ecology, fiction, video and installation. In 2022, their solo show, Posibles Escenarios, Vol. 1 LNN was presented at Artists Space, New York a grouping of newly commissioned multimedia works that extend Las Nietas’s explorations of themes such as processes of expropriation and colonial violence against Black communities and the development of microhistories in relation to geopolitics. They created Ilustraciones de la Mecánica in 2016 – a multimedia installation that was later commissioned by the 10th Berlin Biennale (2018) and the 79th Whitney Biennial (2019). They have received the Latinx Artist Fellowship from the US Latinx Art Forum (2022), the Rome Prize in Visual Art from the American Academy in Rome (2022), the United States Artist Award (2018), The Art of Change from the Ford Foundation (2017), and the Global Arts Fund from the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (2017 & 2020). Their art has been shown in Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, England, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, and the United States. In 2019, they co-founded Parceleras Afrocaribeñas, an organization run by Black womxn, where spaces for environmental and racial justice are created in the face of industrial developments that threaten their barrio of San Antón, in Carolina, Puerto Rico. https://www.lasnietasdenono.com
Anna Irma Rivera Lassén, an Afro-Puerto Rican attorney and former member of the Puerto Rican Senate, was born on March 13, 1955, in Santurce, San Juan. Throughout her career, Lassén has been a steadfast champion for human rights, particularly focusing on issues of discrimination, gender violence, and socio-economic rights. Her commitment to justice was exemplified in her successful challenge against discriminatory courtroom attire rules in the 1980s, setting a precedent for gender equality. Her expertise and advocacy have garnered recognition from prestigious organizations, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Lassén’s leadership extends beyond legal circles. From 2012 to 2014, she was the head of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico, making history as the first Afro-Puerto Rican and openly lesbian individual to hold the position. Her tenure was marked by significant advancements in promoting gender equality and access to justice. Additionally, she has contributed to the legislative process, actively participating in assessments of bills aimed at advancing human rights protections in Puerto Rico. Her impact and dedication have been acknowledged through numerous awards and honors, including the “Medalla Senatorial Capetillo-Roqué” from the Puerto Rican Senate and the “Martin Luther King/Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Prize.” Notably, Anna was recognized as one of USA Today’s Women of the Year in 2023, further underscoring her influential contributions to society.
Robert Washington-Vaughns: Founder of Black Men Fower Project
Tyeshia ‘Ty’ Wilson is a Certified Impact Philanthropy Advisor, an award-winning giving circle expert, and a catalyst for collective action, driven by the belief that everyone is a philanthropist capable of creating positive social change. As Senior Director of Community at Philanthropy Together, Ty leverages her lived experiences and expertise in community organizing and coalition building to architect the organization’s global partnership and engagement strategy, connecting diverse stakeholders to expand the collective giving movement. An energizing public speaker and bold advocate for collaborative, community-led philanthropy, Ty has spoken to thousands of people and trained hundreds through Philanthropy Together’s flagship Launchpad programs. She serves as immediate past Chair of HERitage Giving Fund, the first Black giving circle in Texas, and sits on multiple national boards including RegisterHER, Philanos and the Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy. Ty’s strategic, community leadership experience spans hospitality, fundraising, and government sectors. Notably, she previously served as Assistant to the City Manager and Chief of Staff at the City of Dallas. A proud Dallas native with deep Texas roots, Ty holds degrees from UT Arlington and UNT Dallas, and an Executive Certificate in Philanthropic Leadership from Georgetown University
MODERATOR—Amaury J. Rijo Sanchez: As a Latinx, transfeminist sociologist, Sanchez’ work explores the intersections of decoloniality, activist coalitions, and cultural and creative expressions, with focus on Latinx populations. Guided by a decolonial feminist lens, he investigates how feminist organizing and queer artivism resist colonial infrastructures and generate alternative modes of community-building and survival. Sanchez’ research draws from ethnographic methods and critical theory to highlight the significance of mobilization from the margins in shaping more just futures.
AfroMundo Festival: Documentary Screening & Panel Discussion—“Re-imaginings: Power & Transformation” | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

AfroMundo Festival: “Food is Power: Cultivating Community”
2026-04-15 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
7:00 pm
NHCC | Salón Ortega
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Panel discussion followed by a Q&A. Panelists include Samoan Chef Devynne Fuga Ah-Mai, and Puerto Rican Chef Pau Rocío. Moderated by Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace, Director of UNM’s Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Panel discussion with:
Chef Devynne Fuga Ah-Mai is a community-rooted chef, entrepreneur, and founder of Samoa Food Security, an initiative dedicated to preserving Samoan food traditions while addressing the urgent need for accessible, healthy, and locally grown food. Through her work, she bridges culinary arts with community well-being, hosting food demonstrations, cultural events, and educational programs that uplift local farmers and promote sustainable food systems in American Samoa. Her culinary storytelling highlights the connection between heritage, health, and the environment, making food not just nourishment but also a vehicle for cultural preservation and resilience. As a recipient of Creative West’s Pacific Jurisdiction Artist Fund award, Chef Fuga continues to champion the intersection of art, food, and culture to strengthen her community’s future.
Puerto Rican Chef Pau Rocío is a culinary artist known for conscious, sustainable, and Afro-Antillean cuisine, offering personalized dining experiences, often through her private chef services, focusing on flavorful, creative, and story-driven dishes, as seen on her Instagram @chefpaurocio and website chefpaurocio.com. She started her professional journey around 2019, working in various hotel roles, and now emphasizes food that tells a story.
MODERATOR: Belinda Wallace
AfroMundo Festival: Panel Discussion: “Food is Power”—Cultivating Resilience | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
