For Key Biscayne resident Marilyn Borroto, this year’s International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami carries a weight beyond its milestone anniversary.
The festival, which returns Sept. 3-27, will honor her late brother, Mario Ernesto Sánchez, the Key Biscayne resident who founded it nearly five decades ago, and whose daughter has stepped in to carry the festival forward.
The 40th edition of the festival, presented by Teatro Avante, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami-Dade County Auditorium at Westchester Cultural Arts Center, Miami Dade College’s Koubek Center and The Roxy Theatre Group, will bring nine productions from Argentina, Chile, Spain, Uruguay, Peru and the United States to venues across Miami and Key Biscayne, including a stop at the Key Biscayne Community Center.
Sánchez, who founded Teatro Avante and built the festival into one of the country’s leading showcases for Spanish-language theater, will receive a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award in Performing Arts during the festival’s opening night Sept. 3 at the Westchester Cultural Arts Center. Sánchez spent nearly 50 years promoting Hispanic theater in Miami, helping turn the city into a meeting point for artists and audiences from Latin America, Europe and the U.S.
A still from “Carrusel,” one of the featured films at this year’s International Hispanic Theatre Festival in Miami.
(Directed by Jackie Briceño)
His daughter, Vero Sanchez, has since taken up leadership of the festival he started, keeping the event, and the family’s ties to it, alive for a 40th year.
This year’s program includes the world premiere of “Carrusel” by Teatro Avante, winner of the 2025 Max Aub Literary Prize, along with “Historia de un Jabalí” from Chile, “A Fuego” from Spain, “Zombi Manifiesto” from Uruguay, “Odd Man Out” from the U.S., “Sueño” and “Pundonor” from Argentina, and “Hamlet” from Peru. A family-oriented production, “The Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,” will be presented as part of the festival’s International Children’s Day celebration.
Beyond the productions, the festival will include educational programming, post-performance discussions, children’s workshops and other events. Miami-born artist Alexander Mijares designed this year’s official festival artwork.
Performances will take place at the Westchester Cultural Arts Center, the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater, Miami Dade College’s Koubek Center and the Key Biscayne Community Center. Tickets and the full schedule are available at ihtfmiami.org.