Kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month, Cara Mía Theatre launches its 30th Anniversary Season: A Legacy of Community and Creation with the 7th annual Latinidades Theatre Festival: Creating New Worlds, taking place September 26 – October 11, 2026, at the Latino Cultural Center (2600 Live Oak St., Dallas, TX 75204). Bringing together artists from Dallas and across the United States, Latin America and Spain, Latinidades offers three weeks of theatre, dance, music, artistic exchange, residencies, and new work.
This year’s festival places artistic residency and collaboration at its center. Mai Rojas of Escultores del Aire (Barcelona, Spain), Teo Castellanos (Miami), and Diego Fernando Montoya (Colombia) will work alongside Dallas-area artists. Austin-based Las de Allá Dance Collective will join Rojas in a residency supporting the continued development of its work-in-progress, Alien Number.
“Cara Mía brings artists from around the world to collaborate with Dallas artists and communities, making Latinidades a place where Dallas and the world create together,” says David Lozano, Executive Artistic Director of Cara Mía Theatre.
Latinidades opens Saturday, September 26, with a free community procession in partnership with The Loop Dallas, a local nonprofit connecting Dallas communities through a citywide network of trails and public green spaces. The procession begins at 5 p.m. at Central Square Park and travels to the Latino Cultural Center, where the celebration continues with free theatre, dance, live music, and poetry.
Escultores del Aire performs at 7:30 p.m., followed by a concert in the Plaza at 9:00 p.m. Featured artists include Escultores del Aire, Las de Allá, Cara Mía Theatre, and Dallas artists. People of all ages are invited to participate in the procession, and families and children are welcome.
The festival continues with Leave a Message After the Beep by New York’s Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater; BRUMA by Teatro del Cielo of Cuenca, Ecuador; Alien Number, a work-in-progress by Las de Allá Dance Collective; and F.PUNK JUNKIES, written and directed by Miami-based artist Teo Castellanos, presented by Cara Mía Theatre and Soul Rep Theatre and featuring local actors.
The 3rd Annual Latinidades Arts Symposium: Sustaining the Arts through Alternative Models, October 1–2, grows directly from the artistic practices taking place throughout the festival. Artists and cultural leaders will examine new approaches to creating work, sustaining organizations, funding, and responding to artificial intelligence. The Symposium runs Thursday, October 1, from 1–5:30 p.m. and Friday, October 2, from 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Featured participants include Diego Fernando Montoya, winner of Colombia’s 2025 National Playwriting Award; Sage Crump, an artist, strategist, and cultural organizer with the National New Play Network; Vicki Meek, a nationally recognized Dallas artist, curator, and cultural leader; Thomas Riccio, a director and performance-maker known for creating work with communities around the world; and Rosalba Rolón, Artistic Director of New York’s Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.