EVENT CALENDAR September 10–27, 2026 | Voices of Our Land THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 Opening Ceremony + Movie Screening A Song for My Land — Argentina Harn Museum | 5:00–9:00 PM Opening ceremony followed by the film screening and a virtual Q&A with filmmaker Mauricio Albornoz. Reserve Your Spot SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 Multicultural Food Festival Vecinos | 5:00–8:00 PM A family-friendly event celebrating food and culture. Reserve Your Spot SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 Movie Screening Comparsa — Guatemala Smathers Library | 5:00–8:00 PM Followed by an in-person Q&A with producer Anna Hadingham. Reserve Your Spot THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 Movie Screening A Wolf Among the Swans — Brazil Reitz Union Auditorium | 6:00–8:00 PM Reserve Your Spot FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 Baila Gainesville with Latin Swing Band Bo Diddley Plaza | 7:00–9:00 PM Gather with the community, dance, and [...]
The Gainesville Latino Film Festival returns this September for its 22nd edition, featuring a program dedicated to Latin American film, art, and culture, presented by the Latina Women’s League. Under this year’s theme, “Voices of Our Land,” the festival will take place from September 10–28, 2026, at various locations throughout Gainesville. The celebration will begin on Thursday, September 10, at the Harn Museum of Art with a screening of A Song for My Land, an Argentine documentary directed by Mauricio Albornoz Iniesta. The film follows a music teacher, his students, and a community that finds in music a way to make their voices heard. The documentary explores themes of music, education, community, and caring for the place we call home, connecting closely with this year’s festival theme. Opening Night Opening Night will coincide with Museum [...]
Saturday night was transformed into a cinematic celebration with the anticipated screening of the documentary “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez”, written and directed by David Alvarado. The first screening was sold out but the film is showing all week. The documentary narrates the story of the famous Chicano storyteller, theater and film director, Luis Valdez. During 1965 farm strikes in Delano, California, Valdez founded The Teatro Campesino, a group that performed skits to dramatize the cause of the farmworkers. Known for the play and movie “Zoot Suit” and “La Bamba”, Valdez transformed the American cultural landscape by bringing Chicano stories from the farm fields to Broadway and Hollywood. Later in his life, he was awarded the 2015 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities by President Obama for “bringing Chicano culture to American [...]
There’s a weight that comes with being far from the place where we were born, far from our families, and from the traditions familiar to us. It’s a feeling that’s hard to explain but easy to recognize, like something within us is still missing or unsettled. Immigrating, in itself, is a difficult journey. For many, it requires starting over, often from zero, and sometimes alone. We learn how to navigate systems we don’t fully understand at first, adjust to a new language, and keep up with a pace of life that feels constant, fast, and overwhelming. Here, everything moves quickly, and it can take time to find our place within it. In the middle of that process, something as simple and as powerful as community can make all the difference. Finding community grounds us. It [...]
