The 50th edition of the International Cervantino Festival (FIC) will take place from October 12 to 30.

The International Cervantino Festival (FIC), which in this edition will be held from October 12 to 30, 2022, announces the first part of the program for its 50th anniversary, with the artistic proposals of Guanajuato and the main stage of this celebration, the esplanade of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas.

This year the festival, which has Korea as a guest country and Mexico City as a guest entity, will present 115 stage shows, including disciplines such as theater, dance, music, opera, and 50 multidisciplinary and visual arts activities. This programming will be carried out in a face-to-face format to welcome audiences from Mexico and the world.

The festival will include the participation of 34 countries: Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Republic of Korea, Serbia, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States of America, Venezuela, Russia and Ukraine, a sample of the artistic and cultural diversity of the world.

The Alhondiga de Granaditas is the stage that will receive prestigious artists such as: Joan Manuel Serrat, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra led by the great musician Winton Marsalis; Café Tacuba accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Guanajuato (OSUG), the great Lila Downs, Francisca Valenzuela, Sean Kuti, Rosario Flores, Paté de Fuá and the guest of honor country, with the presence of the group Coreyah and the presentation of the K-pop group: KARD.

This year’s program was built with the nostalgic memory of the 50th anniversary, but also as a pause for reflection on the future of the Festival. Peace, sustainability, inclusion, collective rights, recognition of diversity, decentralization, and the defense of cultural heritage are the themes and values that motivate us.

Mexico City’s Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, announced part of the program and celebrated the fact that the opening and closing of the event will be in charge of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra and the emblematic urban group Caifanes.

“Ancient, classical, contemporary, experimental and rock music, among others, will nourish the program. Also participating will be the Orquesta Típica de la Ciudad de México, Héctor Infanzón, Cecilia Toussaint, Los de Abajo, Hello Seahorse!, Sonideras y sonideros, Las Reinas Chulas, Astrid Hadad and the atmosphere of the Salón Los Ángeles will be transferred,” he revealed.

In this edition, the festival will feature activities that go beyond the stages, such as the publication of a book commemorating the 50th anniversary of FIC, an exhibition in the open gallery of the Rejas de Chapultepec, and the launch of a National Lottery ticket.

The commemorative activities will also include the premiere of the radio series “Your Voice Counts”, the audiovisual capsules “50 de Cervantes”, the First International Seminar Cervantes in America “Los Quijotes de las Lenguas”, the Cervantino Chair, as well as the reorganization and opening of the Cervantino collection.

This fiftieth anniversary coincides with the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Mexican muralism, for which events alluding to this artistic movement are being prepared; the Guanajuato is a light project and an interactive show by La Fura dels Baus, created especially for the FIC.

The opening of the festival will take place on October 12 at the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, with the presentation of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra and the voices of Mexican Maria Katzarava and Korean soprano Hera Hyesang Park; in an artistic fusion of Mexico City and Korea.

Contemporary Korean culture will be reflected with the k-pop group KARD on October 13, followed by the German band Roosevelt on Friday 14, Café Tacvba with OSUG on October 15, and on October 16 the band Mademoiselle, from Algeria and France.
The second week will begin on Monday 17 with the presentation of the Banda de Música del Estado y Vientos Musicales -under the direction of Adalberto Tovar Gómez and Francisco J. Balboa Luna-, who will join the celebration of the half-century of Cervantes’ tradition. The Ballet Folklórico de México de Amalia Hernández will take advantage of this stage to celebrate its 70th anniversary on October 18.

As part of the commemoration of 60 years of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Korea, the guest country, together with the National Center for Intangible Heritage, will bring to Mexico K-Intangible Heritage on October 19, a fragment of the K Festival of Intangible Heritage that shares traditional Korean music, dance, and theater in the same show.
Other artists invited to the Alhóndiga de Granaditas esplanade include Lila Downs on October 20, Seun Kuti on October 21, Coreyah on October 22, and Joan Manuel Serrat, the latter presenting his tour El vicio de cantar 1965-2022 on Sunday 23, with which he bids farewell to the stage after more than half a century of career.

To begin the last week of FIC 50 activities, the Ballet Folklorico de la Universidad de Guanajuato will perform on Monday, October 24, followed by Chile’s Francisca Valenzuela on the 25th and Goran Bregovic and his Wedding and Funeral Band from Serbia on October 26. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will perform on Thursday, October 27; Rosario Flores from Spain will arrive on October 28 and Paté de Fuá will celebrate its 15th anniversary on Saturday, October 29.

The Cervantes festival will close with a performance by the rock band Caifanes, Mexico City’s guest of honor, which will be accompanied by a repertoire of Spanish rock anthems from the last 35 years.

Guanajuato has a wide cultural offer that year after year enriches the streets and stages of Cervantes. This year the University of Guanajuato will have the presence of its Symphony Orchestra, which celebrates its 70th anniversary and will have several performances, including the interpretation of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand and a piece with Enrique Diemecke as guest conductor; as well as those of the University Theater, the Rondalla Señorial, the Rondalla Santa Fe and the Estudiantina of the UG.

Other shows to be presented with talent from Guanajuato include: Sindy Gutiérrez y Paax K’aay Cuarteto de Cuerdas, Te canto un cuento: El pequeño ruiseñor, Mushamukas Ensamble de Contrabajos, Capella Guanajuatensis Ensamble de Música Barroca, Lola Lince’s Experimental Dance Company, Silvestre Revueltas Youth Symphony Orchestra, Rodolfo Ponce Montero, Luis Herman Miranda; Bach, proyecto de danza; Teatro de los sueños; and the sound installation directed by Roberto Morales Manzanares.

This year, for the University of Guanajuato it is important to highlight the roots of the festival, through the Entremeses Cervantinos by the University Theater group of this house of studies.

FIC is also a space open to the visual arts and the exhibition of works within the venues that are part of the history of the festival and of Guanajuato. Under this purpose, this year 27 visual arts exhibitions will be inaugurated in collaboration with the State Institute of Culture, located within the disciplines of painting, photography, installation, pottery, engraving and multidisciplinary, among which stand out: Tina Modotti and Diego Rivera, Dalí. Dreams, and José Guadalupe Posada. Religious prints.

The public squares of Guanajuato are an essential part of culture and FIC through the integration of the public, so this year these spaces will be used with the presence of the Carro de Comedias de Teatro UNAM, Paolo Nani, the Rondalla Santa Fe de la Universidad de Guanajuato, the Rondalla Señorial of the University of Guanajuato, the Danzonera Pegaso of the Secretaría de Seguridad Ciudadana of Mexico City, 100 years of Mexican muralism and Guanajuato is light, a light projection that celebrates 50 years of the Cervantino.

The film screenings present proposals from the guests of honor, Mexico City and Korea. On the part of the CDMX, a sample of 15 films will arrive at the Antiguo Patio del Hospicio de la Santísima Trinidad, at the University of Guanajuato, including: Xochimilco, Alicia más allá del abismo, Sin tantos panchos and Ciudad Merced. As for Korea, 26 films will be screened in collaboration with the Korean Cultural Center in Mexico of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, such as Todos los caminos llevan a casa, Sopyonje, The Host and Arirang; also presented are the cycles Cien años del muralismo en México; Ver y pensar el cine: Felipe Cazals, maestro del cine mexicano; and, FIC Incluyente.

The master classes will be given by the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel, and Wynton Marsalis. Both will feature an intimate encounter where the conductors will engage in dialogue and feedback about the music and the artistic community.

For this edition of FIC, the Colegio de San Ildefonso prepared a series of conferences related to the 100 years of muralism, including: David Alfaro Siqueiros; The Spirit of the West or The Elements, José Clemente Orozco. Cortés y la Malinche y otros, with the participation of Irene Herner and Jonatan Chávez; Fermín Revueltas. Alegoría a la Virgen de Guadalupe y Ramón Alva de la Canal, with Alberto Híjar and Elissa Rashkin, and Entre la revolución social y el feminismo: las estrategias artísticas de las mujeres “modernas”, with Christina Híjar González.

As for literary presentations there will be Aquí estuvo Caduro, a compilation of the work of painter and muralist Rafael Caduro; Enrique Arturo Diemecke. Biografía con música de Mahler, a book by José Ángel Leyva, and La Ciudad de los Poemas: Muestrario poético de la Ciudad de México, by author Claudia Kerink.

As part of FIC Social, this year the Ruelas Project celebrates its eighth anniversary and will conclude its first cycle of community theater workshops, for which the following workshops will be held: Memories of the Ruelas Project, with the participation of stage directors Juliana Faesler, Raquel Araujo and Sara Pinedo. These will be developed with the objective of generating spaces for coexistence through the arts.

There will also be a theatrical performance by the community of CEFERESO No. 12, in addition to the activities of Cervantino para todos and Más allá de Guanajuato.

The entire program for the 50th edition of the International Cervantino Festival will be available at festivalcervantino.gob.mx and on the festival’s official app, starting June 29.

Visit the festival’s social networks on Twitter (@cervantino), Facebook (/Cervantino), and Instagram (@cervantino), and follow the Ministry of Culture’s social networks on Twitter (@cultura_mx), Facebook (/SecretariaCulturaMX) and Instagram (@culturamx).

The FIC program was presented at a press conference in Guanajuato Capital, attended by Mayor Mario Alejandro Navarro Saldaña, Governor Diego Sinhué and Mexico City’s Secretary of Culture Alejandra Frausto Guerrero.