Stitch Night
2026-03-11 | HLA Conference Room, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
5:00 – 7:00 pm
NHCC | HLA Conference Room
Stitch socially with us on the second Wednesday of the month! Bring whatever knitting, crocheting, weaving, or cross stitch, or fiber art projects you’re working on, and join the conversation with your fellow crafters for an informal craft get-together. If you would like to learn the basics of a particular stitching technique, please bring supplies with you, though we will always have basic crochet and knitting materials on hand for an impromptu demonstration!
Meetings will be in the Conference Room of The History and Literary Arts building from 5:00pm-7:00pm. For young adult and adult audiences.
Free community event. Please let us know who will be attending by registering below.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Siempre Creativo: Yoga
2026-03-11 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
10:30 am
NHCC | Pete V. Domenici Education Building
Join us for yoga for seniors with Maria Gutierrez, owner of Tierra Sagrada Yoga. Maria completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Peoples Yoga, the first and only yoga studio in East LA. She is working on making yoga and wellness opportunities accessible to a wide range of communities in the greater Albuquerque area.
This all-levels yoga class incorporates options for modifications depending on the students’ abilities and experience including some chair yoga and more advanced poses. No prior experience necessary. We will have some mats, straps and blocks for use. Yogis are encouraged to bring their own.
These workshops are part of the NHCC’s Siempre Creativo program, which provides free multidisciplinary arts programs for seniors.
Please pre-register to attend. Each class in the workshop series requires registration. For more information, please call or email Elena Baca at 505-246-2261 or elenad.baca@dca.nm.gov.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Free Community Event, generously supported by AARP

Siempre Creativo: Genealogy Workshops
2026-03-12 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Thursday, March 12, 2026
1:30 pm
NHCC | Salón Ortega
Explore your cultural heritage at the NHCC with a free genealogy workshop as part of our Siempre Creativo program! These workshops will provide participating seniors with an opportunity to learn about the descendants of a person, their family, or their connection with an ancestor. Join us as we discover where we came from, where we have been and the complex interrelating parts of our familial ancestral lines. The first 10 participants to arrive will receive a free home archiving kit.
This workshop will feature a presentation from the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico.
Free Community Event, generously supported by AARP New Mexico.

PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Saturday Special- Torreón Tour: Mundos de Mestizaje & Visual Arts Museum Tour
2026-03-14 | NHCC Torreón, 1701 4th street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
Beginning March 14, the NHCC will offer Docent-guided tours of both the Torreón and Art Museum on the second Saturday of every month. Additional Docent-led tours of the Torreón will be held each Friday and Saturday after March 14.
11:00 am Mundos de Mestizaje fresco in the Torreón
1:00 pm Visual Art Museum
Admission to the Torreon tour is $2 and the docent-led tour of the museum is free with the price of admission. Tickets are available for advance purchase below or can also be purchased in the New Mexico Mutual Welcome Center, depending on availability. Capacity for each tour is limited.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
A Vision of History through Fresco…
Mundos de Mestizaje by Frederico Vigil is a mural housed in the Torreón on the campus of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. This monumental fresco depicts thousands of years of Hispanic history highlighting diverse cultural connections between people and places from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas. The 4,000 square foot painting is one of the largest frescos in North America.
The digitized imagery of the painting ensures that this culturally significant work can be a sharing and learning experience for students and families anywhere. We invite you to explore the imagery, history and complexities of the Mundos de Mestizaje mural.
Discover on your own by clicking the link HERE.
(It may take a moment to load. Microsoft Internet Explorer is NOT recommended. Best experienced with Safari, Firefox or Chrome.

Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of NM Speaker Series: Dr. Richard Melzer
2026-03-14 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Saturday, March 14, 2026
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
NHCC | Dominici Education Building. Rm.122-124
Please join the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico for the next speaker series featuring Dr. Richard Melzer. Dr. Melzer is a retired Professor of History with the University of New Mexico’s Valencia Campus, and a former President of the Historical Society of New Mexico. He is a renowned historian, author, and educator whose work has significantly shaped the understanding and appreciation of New Mexico’s rich past.
Dr. Melzer will lead the conversation about W.P.A., in N.M. Depression Era (1935-1943) Economic Help of Infastructure & Construction +300 – Art & Culture – Music. Its important impact on New Mexicans of this challenging time. The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6, 1935, by presidential order, as a key part of the Second New Deal.
Based on archival material and interviews with former enrollees, Dr. Melzer tells the story of some 50,000 young men who worked in the Corps, an initiative of the New Deal program, to support their families and learn skills when the private sector failed them. Great pains were taken, he notes, to keep the Corp from becoming a paramilitary organization, but when World War II broke out, military recruiters plundered it to acquire well-disciplined and highly skilled soldiers. He also describes the enduring contributions the program made to the state.
Richard Melzer is also a guest columnist for the Valencia County New-Bulletin. He has written several columns. One of which is “Eleanor Roosevelt: The first First Lady to visit Valencia County” published on Jan 19th, 2023.
This is a free community event and open to the public. No reservation is required.

OSW: NM Symphonic Chorus: Brahms – Requiem
2026-03-15 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Albuquerque Journal Theatre, 1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Sunday, March 15, 2026
2:00 pm
Opera Southwest Presents: The New Mexico Symphonic Chorus
Brahms – Requiem
Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem)
Presented in Spanish translation
Brahms did not set a Latin mass. He called his great work “Ein deutsches Requiem—A German Requiem” – but wrote to a colleague that he would have preferred to call it “A Human Requiem.”
His intention was clear: this is music for the living, not the dead. Not bound to any single dogma, Brahms bypassed conventional liturgy to weave together scripture that speaks to sorrow, love, and release. Just three years after its premiere, the work was performed in English with the composer’s support.
In that spirit of openness and consolation, we present the Requiem in Spanish.
For more information on the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus and Opera Southwest please click HERE.
$22, $37, $52, $69 & $89 w/ discounts for anyone 30 years old and younger and Opera for All with a WIC or EBT card. Opera for All tickets are limited to 2 per ID and must be purchased at the NHCC box office by calling 505-724-4771 or in person.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

*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.
*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.

Yankwik Xiwitl Ceremony/Año Nuevo Azteca/Aztec New Year
2026-03-15 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Albuquerque Journal Theatre, 1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Sunday, March 15, 2026
10:00 am: Laying of the Tlalmanalli
12:00 pm: Danza
NHCC Plaza Mayor
Xiwitl Ze Tochtli
Año Uno Conejo
Year One Rabbit
Join us for Yankwik Xiwitl or Mexika/Aztec New Year on the NHCC’s Plaza Mayor. The free public event, ushering in the year Matlaktli yei Kalli/ Trece Casa/Thirteen House features fire making with a hand drill, an offering of flowers and fruit and ritual Mexika/ Chichimeka (Aztec) dance. This year marks the end of a 52-year cycle.
Free public event.
For more information, e-mail pazehecatl@hotmail.com.

Early Childhood Bilingual Storytime
2026-03-17 | NHCC Library, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
10:00 am
NHCC | HLA Library
Stories come to life through art, movement, and more! For children ages 3 to 5 and caregivers.
Bilingual Storytime is designed for children ages 3 to 5 and their caregivers. For school, childcare, or homeschool groups; please reach out to NHCC Librarian Amy Padilla at amy.padilla@dca.nm.gov or the NHCC HLA Interim Program Manager Robin Sánchez at robin.sanchez@dca.nm.gov to find out about group options and available dates. We are unable to accommodate these groups during the Bilingual Storytime on third Tuesdays.
Free community event, generously supported by NM Gas. Please let us know who will be attending by registering below.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Siempre Creativo: Yoga
2026-03-18 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
10:30 am
NHCC | Pete V. Domenici Education Building
Join us for yoga for seniors with Maria Gutierrez, owner of Tierra Sagrada Yoga. Maria completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Peoples Yoga, the first and only yoga studio in East LA. She is working on making yoga and wellness opportunities accessible to a wide range of communities in the greater Albuquerque area.
This all-levels yoga class incorporates options for modifications depending on the students’ abilities and experience including some chair yoga and more advanced poses. No prior experience necessary. We will have some mats, straps and blocks for use. Yogis are encouraged to bring their own.
These workshops are part of the NHCC’s Siempre Creativo program, which provides free multidisciplinary arts programs for seniors.
Please pre-register to attend. Each class in the workshop series requires registration. For more information, please call or email Elena Baca at 505-246-2261 or elenad.baca@dca.nm.gov.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Free Community Event, generously supported by AARP

PAPA Spring Dance Concert 2026
2026-03-19 - 2026-03-21 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Albuquerque Journal Theatre, 1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
March 19, 20, & 21, 2026
7:00 pm Thursday & Friday, 2:00 pm Saturday
The Public Academy for Performing Arts presents the annual Spring Dance Concert featuring beginning to pre-professional ballet, contemporary, flamenco, hip-hop, and jazz dance students in grades 6 – 12.
$15, $20, & $25, no discounts available.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Tickets will go on sale starting on Friday, February 13, 2026 at 10:00 am

*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.

NHCC Book Club: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
2026-03-25 | HLA Conference Room
6:00 – 7:30 pm
The NHCC invites lovers of literature, folks who love to read, and those who enjoy talking about the history and the vast array of identities that contribute to Latinidad/Hispanidad to join us! We will meet on the fourth Wednesday of every month in the Center’s HLA Conference Room.
For the month of March 2026, the NHCC Book Club will feature The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from The New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.
In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.
Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved. (Goodreads)
The book is available at the Albuquerque Public Library: 5 regular copies, 5 Large Type copies, Libby audiobook, Kindle
This is a free community event. Please let us know who will be attending by registering below.
NHCC Book Club | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

Siempre Creativo: Yoga
2026-03-25 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
10:30 am
NHCC | Pete V. Domenici Education Building
Join us for yoga for seniors with Maria Gutierrez, owner of Tierra Sagrada Yoga. Maria completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Peoples Yoga, the first and only yoga studio in East LA. She is working on making yoga and wellness opportunities accessible to a wide range of communities in the greater Albuquerque area.
This all-levels yoga class incorporates options for modifications depending on the students’ abilities and experience including some chair yoga and more advanced poses. No prior experience necessary. We will have some mats, straps and blocks for use. Yogis are encouraged to bring their own.
These workshops are part of the NHCC’s Siempre Creativo program, which provides free multidisciplinary arts programs for seniors.
Please pre-register to attend. Each class in the workshop series requires registration. For more information, please call or email Elena Baca at 505-246-2261 or elenad.baca@dca.nm.gov.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Free Community Event, generously supported by AARP

Mundos de Mestizaje, Torreón Tours
2026-03-27 - 2026-03-28, 2026-04-03 - 2026-04-04, 2026-04-10 - 2026-04-11 | NHCC Torreón, 1701 4th street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
Fridays & Saturdays
11:00 am
NHCC | Welcome Center and the NHCC Torreón
Admission to the Torreon tour is $2. Tickets are available for advance purchase below or can also be purchased in the New Mexico Mutual Welcome Center, depending on availability. Capacity for each tour is limited.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
A Vision of History through Fresco…
Mundos de Mestizaje by Frederico Vigil is a mural housed in the Torreón on the campus of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. This monumental fresco depicts thousands of years of Hispanic history highlighting diverse cultural connections between people and places from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas. The 4,000 square foot painting is one of the largest frescos in North America.
The digitized imagery of the painting ensures that this culturally significant work can be a sharing and learning experience for students and families anywhere. We invite you to explore the imagery, history and complexities of the Mundos de Mestizaje mural.
Discover on your own by clicking the link HERE. (It may take a moment to load. Microsoft Internet Explorer is NOT recommended. Best experienced with Safari, Firefox or Chrome.)
Mundos de Mestizaje: Torreón Tour | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

NM Gay Men’s Chorus: Voices of Our Community
2026-03-29 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Albuquerque Journal Theatre, 1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Sunday, March 29, 2026
2:00 pm
NM Gay Men’s Chorus presents Voices of Our Community, an extraordinary community concert that will bring together some of Albuquerque’s and New Mexico’s most beloved musical organizations—including the Albuquerque Civic Chorus, Albuquerque Philharmonic, NM Peace Choir, and NM Women’s Chorus—in a powerful collaboration that celebrates unity through song. The concert will also feature new work by Grammy®-winning composer Christopher Tin, including Southwest premieres of Calling All Dawns and Song Offerings. It is bold. It is ambitious.
$20, $30, $45, & $60 with a special discount for UNDER 30.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

*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.

City of ABQ Community Information Sharing
2026-03-31 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
6:00 – 7:00 pm
Education Building | NHCC Campus

This is the first discussion in a series of community conversations gathering, healing, and sharing information regarding the process of renaming streets in the city. Hosted by the City of Albuquerque.
Free Community Event.

Siempre Creativo: Latin Dance for Seniors
2026-04-01 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
1:30 – 3:30 pm
NHCC | HLA Salon Ortega
Latin Dance for Seniors will feature 4 weeks of Latin dance lessons taught by instructor Carlota Silva. Classes run for four consecutive Wednesdays from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. No prior experience necessary. These classes are part of the NHCC’s Siempre Creativo program, which provides free multidisciplinary arts programs for seniors.
Please pre-register. Free to attend.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Generously sponsored by AARP New Mexico

Happy Arte Hour
2026-04-02 | NHCC | Education Building: Grand Hall, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
Thursday, April 2, 2026
6:00 pm
NHCC | Pete V. Domenici Education Building
NHCC invites adults for artistic fun in a relaxed social setting. This is a great opportunity for friends to hang out, a unique date night option, or a place to come solo and connect with fellow art enthusiasts. Drinks and snacks will be available to purchase from La Fonda del Bosque/City Treats.
Elena Baca will lead a hands-on monotype workshop. This printmaking workshop will use Gelli plates, watercolor paint and ink pads to create one-of-a-kind prints.
Please pre-register with the link below (so we know how many materials to prepare). Registration for the following month is available the day after the current program month. For more information, please call or email Elena Baca at 505-246-2261 or elenad.baca@dca.nm.gov.
Free Community Event. $5+ donations are encouraged to support the artists & purchase supplies.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Paula Poundstone
2026-04-03 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Albuquerque Journal Theatre, 1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Friday, April 3, 2026
7:30 pm
Paula Poundstone Tickets Here
Paula Poundstone is known for her smart, observational humor and a spontaneous wit that has become the stuff of legend. Time magazine, in the March 2020 “Best of” issue, listed Paula’s HBO special, Cats, Cops and Stuff as one of The 5 Funniest Stand-Up Specials Ever. Paula can be heard weekly as the host of the comedy podcast, Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone and as a regular panelist on NPR’s comedy news quiz, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
Also an author, Poundstone’s second book, The Totally Unscientific Study Of The Search For Human Happiness (Algonquin 2017) was one of eight semi-finalists for The Thurber Prize for American Humor, the highest recognition of the art of humor writing in the United States. The audiobook was one of five finalists for the Audio Book of the Year AUDIE award.
Paula was the first female comic, in its then 73rd year, to perform at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. She was the first female standup, in its then 5th year, to win the ACE award for Best Comedy Special on Cable television. She is included in innumerable lists, documentaries and literary compendiums noting influential standup comedians of our time.
$55 & $65.
*price includes NHCC Facility fee
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

*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.

Siempre Creativo: Printmaking
2026-04-03 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Friday, April 3, 2026
10am – noon
NHCC | Pete V. Domenici Education Building
Join us for a hands-on monotype workshop. This printmaking workshop will use Gelli plates, watercolor paint and ink pads to create one-of-a-kind prints.
These workshops are part of the NHCC’s Siempre Creativo program, which provides free multidisciplinary arts programs for seniors.
Please pre-register with the link below (so we know how many materials to prepare). For more information, please call or email Elena Baca at 505-246-2261 or elenad.baca@dca.nm.gov.
Free Community Event, generously supported by Presbyterian.
RESERVE YOUR TICKETS HERE!

Vamos! Experience the Arts Family Program
2026-04-04 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
NHCC | Domenici Education Building
Join us for a joyful, all-ages introduction to Ballet Folklórico! This family-friendly workshop invites participants of every generation to explore the vibrant rhythms, colorful traditions, and cultural stories of Mexico through dance. Led by experienced instructors, from Ballet Folklórico Fiesta Mexicana, you’ll learn basic steps, simple choreography, and the history behind this dynamic folkloric art form—no prior dance experience needed.

Come move together, celebrate heritage, and experience the energy and beauty of Ballet Folklórico in a welcoming, community-centered environment. Comfortable clothing and shoes recommended.

Vamos to the National Hispanic Cultural Center on the first Saturday of the month for vibrant monthly family workshops that provide immersive experiences exploring Visual Arts, Performing Arts and History and Literary Arts. Designed to inspire creativity, foster cultural appreciation, and build community, each workshop will offer an inclusive and welcoming space where participants of all ages and backgrounds can come together to explore and celebrate culture through artistic expression, movement, and traditions in an engaging, fun, and educational environment!
Check nhccnm.org/events for updates. Note: this program will not be held in January, July, or November.
Please pre-register so we know how many materials to prepare. For more information, please call or email Elena Baca at 505-220-7928 or ElenaD.Baca@dca.nm.gov.
Free community event, $5 donations are encouraged to support the program & purchase supplies.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Reading: Dr. Irene Blea
2026-04-04 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Saturday, April 4, 2026
12:30 – 2:00 pm
NHCC | Salon Ortega
Join the NHCC for National Poetry Month! We are honored to once again host award-winning author Dr Irene Blea. She will be reading from her book of poems, Dragonfly, along with brand-new poetry material.
RESERVE YOUR TICKETS HERE!
In this collection of fifty years of her poetry, Dr. Irene I. Blea brazenly relates her efforts to understand what she thought was wrong with her. She came to an understanding of social and historical factors that misinformed her colonized mind. Decolonization demanded evaluating her mind, body, and spirit. She portrays decolonization as a complex process involving the rejection and redefinition of the colonizer’s language, embracing her own tri-cultural history, and commitment to ongoing learning and growth. This is a process that requires dedication and struggle to create a more just and equitable world. Irene Blea shares her transformation from the prescription of traditional female roles riddled by confusion and conflict to guide us to peace, and understanding of the physical, psychological, and spiritual process that brought her to what it means to be a female human in a sometimes-hostile world.
The author writes: “On January 1, 2024, I opened my eyes and asked into the crispness of my bedroom if I would die that year. I have been obsessed with my death for decades and wrote about it in my autobiography, Erené with Wolf Medicine. The room responded with, ‘I don’t know.’ I decided to rise and make some coffee. I have outlived most of my friends, and several seniors of my extended family. I do not want to die at home on a sweltering summer afternoon when everyone is working and not be found for a week bloated and smelling on the bathroom or kitchen floor. If I must leave this world, it should be after viewing the golden firefly that visits me in my yard each year one more time.
“I am not okay living to a hundred, but do not want to die before I inform you that throughout my life, I wrote much poetry and that I was one of few women at the forefront of Chicano literature. This type of poetry was an important literary movement. Chicano and Chicana poetry was rooted in resistance to class discrimination, racism, and sexism. Early poets of the time created a genre that added to American literature another category. We had unique philosophical, topical, and aesthetic features different from the divisions of genres of the time. This literary movement provided language for comparing, contrasting, and discussing literary words and works, and served as an introduction to the formation of curricula and anthologies.”
Free community event.
Reading: Irene Blea | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

Visual Arts Museum: First Sunday Free Admission
2026-04-05 | Visual Art Museum, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
10:00 am to 4:00 pm
The Art Museum presents multiple exhibitions in its three gallery spaces each year and welcomes visitors of all ages. Our three galleries showcase artworks from a range of media that focus on diverse subject matter and examine identity and culture.
On the first Sunday of every month, the Visual Arts Museum is free to all New Mexico residents!
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Siempre Creativo: Latin Dance for Seniors
2026-04-08 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
1:30 – 3:30 pm
NHCC | HLA Salon Ortega
Latin Dance for Seniors will feature 4 weeks of Latin dance lessons taught by instructor Carlota Silva. Classes run for four consecutive Wednesdays from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. No prior experience necessary. These classes are part of the NHCC’s Siempre Creativo program, which provides free multidisciplinary arts programs for seniors.
Please pre-register. Free to attend.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Generously sponsored by AARP New Mexico

Opening Reception: Nuclear Past, Present, and Future: Art in Action
2026-04-10 | Visual Art Museum, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
5:00 pm – 7:30 pm
NHCC | Visual Arts Museum
Join us to celebrate the opening of the exhibition Nuclear Past, Present, and Future: Art in Action is a collaboration between the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum. The project examines the impact of nuclear technologies, its devastating human and environmental toll, and the artistic expression and activism of community members advocating for justice.
Free and open to the public!
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Saturday Special: Visual Arts Museum Tour
2026-04-11 | Visual Art Museum, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
1:00 pm
NHCC | Visual Arts Museum
Beginning March 14, the NHCC will offer Docent-guided tours of both the Torreón and Art Museum on the second Saturday of every month. Additional Docent-led tours of the Torreón will be held each Friday and Saturday after March 14.
Admission to the museum is free with the price of admission. Tickets are available for advance purchase below or can also be purchased in the New Mexico Mutual Welcome Center, depending on availability. Capacity for each tour is limited.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Escribir Escuchar – Hispanic & Latine Writer Series: Roberto Duran
2026-04-11 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Saturday, April 11, 2026
2:00 – 4:00 pm
NHCC | Salon Ortega
Celebrate National Poetry Month with the NHCC! Join us for a combined reading and writing workshop event with prominent Chicano poet, Roberto Tinoco Duran. Duran is a poet, vocalist, and visual artist from San Jose, CA and we are honored to have him share his new book, The Vulcanic Poet: New and Selected Works 1973 – 2023. This event will begin with a reading and book signing, immediately followed by a writing workshop.
Free community event
RESERVE YOUR TICKET HERE!
This event is generously supported by AARP.

Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company: Out of Many, One
2026-04-11 - 2026-04-12 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Albuquerque Journal Theatre, 1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
April 11 & 12, 2026
7:30 pm Saturday, 2:00 pm Sunday
The National Institute of Flamenco presents Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company in Out of Many, One. The performance showcases five original flamenco works, each representing a distinct process of individuals connecting to a whole: Convergence, Momentum, Inheritance, Embodiment, and Reconciliation.
In Elementos, choreographed by Adrián Santana, earth, air, fire, and water converge as interdependent elements. In Sara Cano’s Camina, momentum unifies energy into forward motion. Inheritance links the individual to culture and tradition in invited guest artist Ricardo Moro’s Marianas. Embodiment integrates memory, emotion, and identity in an untitled solo work by Yjastros Principal Dancer, Carlos Menchaca, and in Ana Morales’ Taranterias, reconciliation bridges opposing forces. Out of Many, One celebrates unique voices, bodies, and perspectives, bringing them together into a single, resonant experience.
$109, $89, $69, $49, & $29* w/ a $2 discount for seniors, students w/ID, children 10 years old and younger, and NHCC Foundation members. *Price includes the NHCC’s $4 box office fee.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

*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
