MXLAN is making its return to the city of McAllen after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
During a news conference Wednesday, the McAllen Chamber of Commerce announced the festival will run from July 27 through July 31 at the McAllen Convention Center.
The five-day event will provide music and arts in celebration of Latin culture and pay homage to Mexican heritage. In promotional material, the chamber refers to it as a celebration of the “past, present and future.”
District 3 City Commissioner Omar Quintanilla said he is excited for the event’s return and looks forward to the community joining the festivities.
Quintanilla said he hopes the festival will “share our culture with the world.”
“When I was growing up, talented young Latinos did not always have a voice on a national stage,” he said, “this summer that will change.”
During its first year in 2019, the festival attracted a total of 81,000 attendees. Luis Cantu, vice president of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, said Wednesday that officials are now expecting about 135,000 attendees based on current community interest.
“What we’ve seen from the community based on the events like the very successful Christmas parade that gathered thousands of people … we knew that this was a good time to return the festival and bring back a lot of those great things that people love from the first festival,” Cantu said.
The event will include various festivities from the 2019 festival, including the Calenda Parade, Neon Nights 5k run, Sabor a Mexico food festival, Mezcal & Tequila Catrina night and the Artisan Mercado.
MXLAN also focuses on giving Latin artists the opportunity to display their art. During Wednesday’s conference, officials announced that this year’s project will feature muralists Paola Delfin and Irving Cano, who will be painting a 20-feet-by-20-feet mural at the event.
Delfin is a muralist from Mexico City whose art is influenced by Mexican culture and the female form.
Cano, an Oaxacan muralist, will be returning from his first visit as part of MXLAN 2019, when he painted a Oaxacan-inspired mural that is now displayed at the Palms Crossing Shopping Center.
This year’s festival will also give local artists the opportunity to share their art with the public through a program called La Comunidad.
“This community art space is going to be a place within the city of McAllen at the McAllen Convention Center during MXLAN where local artists will be able to create one-of-a-kind art pieces in any form that they choose,” said Adan Garcia, director of brand strategy for PolluxCastor Creative, which has a contract with the chamber.
Garcia gave the public a sneak peek of the first artists participating in the new program: Samantha Rawls of Brownsville, Monica Lugo of McAllen and Alexandria Canchola of Corpus Christi.
“We are very excited to be a part of MXLAN 2022 and have the opportunity to showcase our work, because for us the most important thing about our work is to be able to express who we are, where we come from and our perspective as women in a contemporary world,” Lugo said.
To participate in the La Communidad program, apply at MXLAN.com.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to clarify the correct timeframe of the event’s hiatus.
