Chicago’s Destinos International Theater Festival Spotlights Latino Stories Across 11 Venues With 14 Productions During Hispanic Heritage Month

CHICAGO, IL — Chicago’s Destinos International Theater Festival is filling stages around the city with Latino stories, music, folklore and contemporary questions during Hispanic Heritage Month. The ninth annual festival, organized by the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, brings 14 productions to 11 venues and centers artists and audiences who rarely get the same scale of attention in mainstream theater spaces.

One of the shows drawing interest is “Yamel Cucuy,” a production that follows a 13-year-old immigrant girl from Mexico named Yamel. The play blends the pressures of border life with supernatural figures from Mexican folklore, creating a story that is both personal and symbolic. Festival organizers and performers say that mix is part of what gives live theater its reach.

‘Yamel Cucuy’ mixes border reality with Mexican folklore

Diana Guizado, a member of Glass Half Full Theater in Austin, Texas, appears in “Yamel Cucuy” as Yamel. In the production, the character lives near the border with her aunt and brother while being pursued by ICE agents and creatures such as Las Lloronas, La Lechuza and El Chupacabra.

Guizado said theater can illuminate what matters in a way that helps people understand one another more deeply. She described stories like this as a way to show real-world issues through a creative lens rather than only through headlines or policy talk. For her, the power of the stage comes from making difficult experiences feel human and immediate.

That approach is a major part of Destinos this year. The festival is not just presenting a single style or tradition, but using multiple productions to show how Latino artists draw on memory, myth and lived experience at the same time.

CLATA says the festival is meant as a celebration of identity

Jorge Valdivia, executive director of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, said Destinos is meant to celebrate Latino culture and the people behind it. He described this year’s lineup as a broad mix that includes Mexican stories, Puerto Rican work, Venezuelan artists and a Peruvian artist.

Valdivia said the festival is designed to raise the visibility of Latino theater artists while also giving audiences a chance to see themselves reflected on stage. He said he hopes younger viewers, in particular, will recognize people who look and sound like them in the performances.

The organization’s mission is woven into the festival’s structure. By bringing together artists from different backgrounds and placing their work in multiple venues across the city, CLATA is trying to make Latino theater feel present, public and central rather than peripheral.

Immigration fears affected last year’s festival

Valdivia also said the climate around immigration had a direct effect on last year’s Destinos festival. According to him, some people dropped out because they were too afraid to perform, regardless of citizenship status. That experience made the organization more aware of how outside pressures can shape who feels safe enough to participate.

This year, he said he hopes the focus shifts back toward celebration. For festival organizers, that means emphasizing artistry, community and the visibility of Latino performers instead of allowing fear to define the event.

Guizado echoed that sentiment, saying there is joy and beauty in coming together to tell stories. That shared energy, she suggested, is part of what makes the festival more than a series of shows — it becomes a place where artists and audiences can connect across differences.

Fourteen productions are spread across 11 Chicago venues

The size of the festival gives it a citywide feel. With 14 productions mounted across 11 venues, Destinos reaches different neighborhoods and audiences instead of concentrating everything in one theater district. That spread helps the festival reflect the variety of Latino artistic work it is trying to showcase.

The performances are being presented across Chicago in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, which gives the festival a timely frame while also extending beyond a single cultural commemoration. The schedule includes productions from different traditions and perspectives, underscoring the breadth of Latino stories available to local theatergoers.

By moving between venues, audiences can encounter different artists, styles and themes throughout the run. The format also reinforces the idea that Latino theater is not one story, but many, with each production contributing to a wider picture of identity and experience.

The festival runs through Oct. 11 with venue details available online

Destinos continues through Oct. 11. Festival organizers say information about each production’s location is available online, making it easier for audiences to choose among the many shows and plan their visits around the city.

For CLATA, the festival is both a public celebration and a statement about artistic presence. The lineup is built to show that Latino theater is already here, already varied and already central to Chicago’s performing arts calendar during Hispanic Heritage Month.

Performers like Guizado say that visibility matters just as much as entertainment. In her view, the act of telling these stories together creates a special kind of joy, one that can be felt by the people on stage and by those in the audience watching themselves reflected back.

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