14th annual Philadelphia Latino Arts and Film Festival comes to an end with closing ceremony

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For the 14th year, the Philadelphia Latino Arts and Film Festival concluded its six-week run Sunday with a closing ceremony celebrating the breadth of Latino culture. The festival included a variety of film screenings, performances and other exhibitions highlighting Latino culture and spreading political messages through art.

A small crowd of people sat as they watched “Laguna Mental,” a mystery film set in Aculeo, Chile, directed by Cristóbal Arteaga Rozas.

Marángeli Mejía-Rabell, 57, serves as festival director and chief curator. Born in Puerto Rico and a Philadelphia resident for 37 years, she has led the event for over a decade, shaping its vision and cultural footprint in the city.

“Our festival is grounded and rooted on community building and we’re here to celebrate the great work of all the Latine creatives and just bring community together,” Mejía-Rabell said.

She said this year is especially important for Latino artists due to the “political state.” Some exhibitions expressed political messages or symbols of the difficulties of immigration and the suppression of women in the arts.

“You feel a different kind of energy,” Mejía-Rabell said. “I think that community spaces have become much more critical, given the climate and everything that we’re navigating individually and collectively and as an organization. You can see in all of our materials, we spread love, not hate.”

Mejía-Rabell began her journey as an artist through music and being inspired by different famous Latino artists such as Rubén Blades.

On another corner of the festival, multimedia journalist and producer Jennifer Mota, 33, curated an exhibition of Judy Santos, a pioneering voice in bachata, a Latino music genre long dominated by men.

“I knew that one of the projects that I wanted to do with this residency was to tell the story of Julie Santos, who is the phenomenal voice in a lot of the Aventura bachata tracks,” Mota said. “Everyone knows her voice, but a lot of people don’t know her story.”

Her exhibition depicted different stages and pockets of the personality of Santos’ life, from her time as a cheerleader in high school to showcasing her original outfit in a recent performance with the band Aventura.

“Give people their flowers when they’re alive,” Mota said as she wiped away tears. “I think that we often wait ’til it’s too late, especially in music. And I really wanted to do something while she was alive.”

JJ Tiziou, 46, is a Philadelphia resident and founder of Walk Around Philadelphia. He watched the entirety of the first film and lingered, speaking to different members of the festival.

“I was really excited to stumble into this one because it was really cool,” Tiziou said.

He said he worked around his schedule in order to attend at least one of the films.

“I love enjoying cinema like this and being able to enjoy it in a way that feels accessible to everyone and being introduced to things I would never otherwise see. It feels important,” Tiziou said.

Kimberely Rial, 51, is a Philadelphia resident and film technician who came to the festival because she “loves film.”

“It just feels like a good idea to come and support,” Rial said.