{"id":19912,"date":"2026-10-03T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/news-and-content\/miranda-intelligence\/culture-chatter\/mexico-culture-chatter-sep-26-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T21:47:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T03:47:19","slug":"mexico-culture-chatter-sep-26-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/news-and-content\/miranda-intelligence\/culture-chatter\/mexico-culture-chatter-sep-26-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico Culture Chatter, Sep. 26, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>A codex comes home, for now<\/strong><\/h3><p>The Codex Azcatitlan, one of the most important pictographic accounts of Mexica history, is back in Mexico for the first time since it left the country in 1840. On loan from the Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale de France (BnF) to mark the bicentenary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, it is on display at the Museo Nacional de Antropolog\u00eda (MNA) until 31 December, in the free exhibition\u00a0<em>El C\u00f3dice Azcatitlan. M\u00e9xico-Francia, 200 a\u00f1os de amistad<\/em>. In return, the Codex Boturini, also known as the Tira de la Peregrinaci\u00f3n, has travelled to Paris, where the BnF was due to put it on show this week. The reciprocal loan was agreed by presidents Claudia Sheinbaum and Emmanuel Macron in November 2025 and completed in under a year, a record for the institutions involved. \u201cWe are undoubtedly seeing a revival of the old friendship that existed between France and Mexico, but there is also a renaissance of cultural ties between Spain and Mexico, and between several other countries,\u201d noted presidential advisor and representative to the European Council, Alfonso Su\u00e1rez de Real. \u201cThanks to the support of President Claudia Sheinbaum, cultural diplomacy has been extremely active.\u201d<\/p><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"502\" src=\"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/a9f49c10651c9d48.jpeg\" width=\"752\"\/><figcaption>The Codex Azcatitlan on display at the MNA. (Photo: Presidencia)<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Culture Minister Claudia Curiel de Icaza described the two works as the same journey told in different mediums: the Boturini a long, uncoloured strip of amate paper, the Azcatitlan a colour-illustrated book that carries the story into the Conquest.<\/p><p>Drawn on paper and bound, the codex was produced between the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It traces the Mexica migration from Aztl\u00e1n to the founding of Tenochtitlan, the reigns of successive tlatoanis (rulers), the arrival of Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s in 1519, and the conquest and evangelisation. Baltazar Brito Guadarrama, director of the Biblioteca Nacional de Antropolog\u00eda e Historia and curator of the exhibition, notes that its annotations in Spanish have helped confirm the locations of several sites in the foundation narrative. He argues that features such as the prominence of women and an African figure among Cort\u00e9s\u2019s forces merit further study. Kept at no more than 40 lux, the original is displayed open at pages four and five, in which eight peoples, among them the Tepanecs, Chalcas and Xochimilcas, set out in search of the site designated by Huitzilopochtli. The choice is intended to show the multi-ethnic roots of the Mexica foundation myth. The remaining folios are reproduced in large format, alongside 25 pieces arranged in six thematic sections.<\/p><p>Its first owner is believed to have been the Texcocan historian Fernando de Alva Ixtlilx\u00f3chitl, a descendant of Nezahualc\u00f3yotl. It passed to Carlos de Sig\u00fcenza y G\u00f3ngora, who bequeathed his library to the Jesuits, and in 1737 was acquired by the Italian collector Lorenzo Boturini, whose papers were confiscated by the viceregal authorities and later deposited at the Royal and Pontifical University. The French scholar Joseph Aubin acquired it in the 1830s and took it to France, later selling it to the collector Eug\u00e8ne Goupil, whose widow donated it to the BnF in 1896.<\/p><p>The loan has revived the question of repatriation. Curiel said the initiative began with a petition from the H\u00f1\u00e4h\u00f1u community of Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo. Brito confirmed that talks with France are under way, though he stressed that nothing has been agreed. French specialists have inspected conservation conditions in Mexico, and Brito sees the loan as a possible first step. The legal path is uncertain. A French law enacted in May 2026 allows items in public collections to be restituted, but only where there is serious evidence that they were illicitly appropriated between 1815 and 1972; the codex\u2019s departure, as historically documented, was not illicit. Bills specifically seeking the transfer of the Azcatitlan and the Codex Borbonicus to Mexico were tabled in the National Assembly in April 2025 and in the Senate in June 2026. Mexico\u2019s ambassador to France, Blanca Jim\u00e9nez Cisneros, said Mexican officials had lobbied French legislators, while cautioning that any result would take time.<\/p><p>The loan also anchored an international symposium on Mesoamerican codices, held at the MNA from 22 to 25 September. It was organised by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the BnF and the Centro de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos, with specialists from Mexico, France, Italy and Poland. The BnF\u2019s director of collections, Jean-Charles B\u00e9dague, noted that nearly 1,000 BnF documents on Mexican history are now available on Mem\u00f3rica, the Mexican government\u2019s digital platform. The INAH, meanwhile, is gathering high-resolution images of Mexican codices held in France, Spain, Italy, the United States, England and Scotland, with a view to making them freely available online.<\/p><hr\/><h3><strong>From Juchit\u00e1n to the National Palace<\/strong><\/h3><p>For her second Grito de Independencia on 15 September, President Claudia Sheinbaum wore an outfit embroidered by artisans from Juchit\u00e1n de Zaragoza, in Oaxaca\u2019s Isthmus of Tehuantepec. It consisted of a black jacket covered in hand-stitched flowers in red, purple, pink, blue and green, worn with a straight black skirt and the presidential sash. The embroidery was the work of Elvis Guerra, Dayari Ram\u00edrez, Reyna Montero and Lorena Mart\u00ednez of the Biul\u00fa workshop; the garment was designed by Thelma Islas Lagunas and Crystel Mart\u00ednez Torres and made up by Sa\u00fal Mosqueda. The floral pattern drew on a design from Guerra\u2019s family history.<\/p><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/8482c90cec30918c.jpeg\" width=\"750\"\/><figcaption>President Sheinbaum and her husband Jes\u00fas Mar\u00eda Tarriba on 15 September in the National Palace\/Detail of the embroidered jacket. (Photos: Gob MX)<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Guerra, a Zapotec poet, translator, artisan and muxe activist, founded Biul\u00fa after the 2017 earthquakes to preserve local textile techniques. Around 20 women and muxe embroiderers now work there, selling huipiles and traditional dress as far afield as South America, Spain and Thailand. Guerra called dressing the president a collective achievement belonging to all of Juchit\u00e1n.<\/p><p>The choice echoed Sheinbaum\u2019s first Grito, in 2025, when she wore a purple dress with a contrasting bodice embroidered by the Nahua artisan Virginia Ver\u00f3nica Arce Arce, of San Isidro Buen Suceso, Tlaxcala. Both outfits mark a departure from the balcony fashion of recent first ladies. Margarita Zavala, wife of former president Felipe Calder\u00f3n, favoured the Mexican designer Macario Jim\u00e9nez, who for the 2010 bicentenary created a dress trimmed with the silver buttons of a charro suit. Ang\u00e9lica Rivera, wife of Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto, made her debut in 2013 in a green lace gown by Benito Santos, reportedly worth 120,000 pesos; the following year she was criticised for wearing an 80,000-peso Oscar de la Renta design. Beatriz Guti\u00e9rrez M\u00fcller wore a green and black lace dress donated by the Mexican label Mussi for her husband Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s first presidential Grito in 2019.<\/p><p>Asked about her wardrobe, Sheinbaum told reporters that she recycles her clothes, often incorporating textiles given to her on tour, and favours Mexican craftwork over international fashion houses as an expression of national identity.<\/p><p>Days after the celebrations, the story took a darker turn. On the night of 18 September, two people on a motorbike fired on the fa\u00e7ade of Guerra\u2019s home in Juchit\u00e1n; no one was injured. In a video, Guerra appealed to Sheinbaum and Oaxaca\u2019s governor, Salom\u00f3n Jara, for help, describing constant threats and extortion attempts following the opening of a new events venue, and saying that hundreds of residents had fled Juchit\u00e1n in fear. Guerra later said the extortionists had been demanding 200,000 pesos since early August; the state prosecutor\u2019s office says the attack stemmed from an extortion attempt and that those responsible have been identified. Jara offered Guerra protection and a security escort, and on 23 September Sheinbaum received Guerra at the National Palace alongside the Security Secretary, Omar Garc\u00eda Harfuch. The same day, federal and state forces arrested Juchit\u00e1n\u2019s mayor, Miguel S\u00e1nchez Altamirano of the governing Morena party, on charges of aggravated extortion and crimes against state security. Investigators accuse him of protecting Los Cromos, a local faction of the C\u00e1rtel de Jalisco Nueva Generaci\u00f3n (CJNG). Sheinbaum has since said that the arrest is not directly related to the attack on Guerra.<\/p><hr\/><h3><strong>Nearly five centuries of academic tradition<\/strong><\/h3><p>The Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico (UNAM) celebrated its 475th anniversary on 21 September, marking the founding of the University of Mexico with an event at the Palacio de la Antigua Escuela de Medicina, in Mexico City\u2019s historic centre. The date recalls the royal decree issued on 21 September 1551 by Prince Philip, on behalf of his father, Charles V, establishing the Real Universidad de M\u00e9xico; teaching began in 1553, and the title of Pontifical was added later by a bull of Pope Clement VIII. After closures and upheavals, the institution was re-founded as the National University in 1910 and became autonomous in 1929. While the UNAM of today differs tremendously from its colonial forerunner, the university regards it as the starting point of a continuous academic tradition.<\/p><p>Its alumni span the centuries. The playwright Juan Ruiz de Alarc\u00f3n and the polymath Carlos de Sig\u00fcenza y G\u00f3ngora studied at the colonial university, while the writer Rosario Castellanos, Mexico\u2019s three Nobel laureates (Octavio Paz, Alfonso Garc\u00eda Robles and Mario Molina) and a long line of presidents, among them Claudia Sheinbaum, passed through the modern one. Its relationship with the state has swung between closeness and confrontation, most dramatically when troops occupied Ciudad Universitaria in 1968.<\/p><p>The commemorative programme, coordinated across more than 70 academic bodies in Mexico and abroad, comprises some 400 activities. The Orquesta Filarm\u00f3nica de la UNAM, itself turning 90, will reopen the renovated Sala Nezahualc\u00f3yotl on 26 September with works by Gabriela Ortiz, Saint-Sa\u00ebns, Tchaikovsky and Mahler (more on this below). The centrepiece exhibition,\u00a0<em>Universidad de M\u00e9xico: 475+ a\u00f1os de concebir futuros<\/em>, opens at the Colegio de San Ildefonso on 7 October and runs until 31 March 2027, displaying more than 700 pieces, from manuscripts to fossils and scientific instruments, alongside immersive technology. A photographic exhibition of 62 large-format panels opens on 12 October along the Galer\u00eda de la Juventud Heroica in Chapultepec. A commemorative book, due in the first quarter of 2027, will pair the San Ildefonso catalogue with 25 personal essays by figures including Elena Poniatowska, Margo Glantz, Gonzalo Celorio and the former footballer Hugo S\u00e1nchez.<\/p><hr\/><h3><strong>A demographic surprise<\/strong><\/h3><p>Mexico\u2019s population is growing more slowly, and ageing faster, than demographers expected. The 2025 Intercensal Survey, conducted between 6 October and 14 November 2025 and published by the national statistics institute (INEGI) on 22 September, puts the population at 130.9 million, well short of the roughly 133 million projected by the National Population Council (Conapo) and the United Nations. Average annual growth slowed to 0.7 per cent between 2020 and 2025, reflecting both deaths during the pandemic and falling fertility. Over the same period, the median age rose from 29 to 32, and the average number of children born to women aged 12 and over fell from 2.1 to 1.9. The survey\u2019s estimate of the total fertility rate, the number of children a woman would be expected to have over her lifetime, is starker still: it fell from 1.9 in 2019 to 1.2 in 2024, ranging from 0.8 in Mexico City to 1.8 in Chiapas. Average household size shrank from 3.6 to 3.3 people, even as the number of occupied homes rose from 35.2 million to 39.7 million. Three of the country\u2019s 32 federal entities lost population: Veracruz, Guerrero and Mexico City.<\/p><p>The survey also records the first fall in the foreign-born population since at least 2010, from 1.21 million to 1.17 million (0.9 per cent of the total), a decline El Pa\u00eds links to tougher US migration policy. More than half of foreign-born residents were born in the United States, followed by Venezuela and Cuba. In the other direction, the survey estimates that 1.26 million people living in Mexico moved abroad, of whom only around 151,000 have returned. Some 24.2 million people (18.6 per cent of the population) identify as Indigenous, and 2.1 million (1.6 per cent) as Afro-Mexican or Afro-descendant. Yet only around three in ten Indigenous people speak an Indigenous language: 7.4 million speakers in all, and their share of the population aged three and over slipped from 6.1 to 5.9 per cent. Education and connectivity have improved, with illiteracy falling to 3.7 per cent, average schooling rising to 10.3 years and household internet access jumping from 53.9 to 75.7 per cent. Violence, however, continues to uproot families: some 1.6 million people, in around 510,000 households, live with at least one member who was forced to move by violence or crime, with Zacatecas and Morelos the worst affected. A further 152,000 households include someone displaced by natural or man-made disasters.<\/p><p>Behind the slowdown lies a sharp fall in births. According to Milenio, births in hospitals run by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) fell from 425,516 in 2017 to 271,955 in 2025, a decline of more than 36 per cent; in those of the ISSSTE, the social security institute for state employees, they fell from 36,052 to 18,691 over the same period, a drop of 48.2 per cent. V\u00edctor Manuel Garc\u00eda Guerrero, a demographer at the Colegio de M\u00e9xico, said his first reaction to the figures was that they must be wrong. He had assumed that births missed while civil registry offices were closed during the pandemic would be registered late, but the numbers kept falling, and INEGI confirmed there had been no processing error.<\/p><p>In the 1970s, when the population was growing by 3.5 per cent a year, the government created Conapo and launched the famous slogan \u201cLa familia peque\u00f1a vive mejor\u201d (The small family lives better). Families that once averaged almost seven children now average 1.2, far below the replacement rate of 2.1.<\/p><p>Mexico is certainly not alone. According to the World Bank, fertility in Latin America has fallen by 68.4 per cent since 1950, and Jos\u00e9 Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), has warned that the region is ageing as much in a couple of decades as Europe did in more than a century. Globally, the UN\u2019s latest World Population Prospects puts the average at 2.25 births per woman, one child fewer than a generation ago, and projects that it will fall to the replacement level of 2.1 by the late 2040s. At 1.2, Mexico\u2019s rate is barely half the global average: the country is arriving early at a point much of the world is expected to reach within a generation.<\/p><hr\/><h3><strong>Sala Nezahualc\u00f3yotl reopens with a premiere<\/strong><\/h3><p>The Sala Nezahualc\u00f3yotl, the UNAM\u2019s celebrated concert hall at the Centro Cultural Universitario, reopens this weekend after closing in April for the second phase of a comprehensive remodel. Over 180 days, work covered 1,250 square metres, some 35 per cent of the complex, focusing on infrastructure, services and comfort while leaving the main auditorium\u2019s renowned acoustics untouched. Stage lighting was completely replaced, with more than 20 kilometres of new cabling and around 190 fixtures that cut energy use by roughly half. The basement rehearsal room, the costliest single intervention at about 18 million pesos, now replicates the main hall\u2019s acoustic conditions. The stage floor, 50 cedar doors with an acoustic function, the original chandeliers and 800 stalls seats have been restored or renewed, and 34 spaces for people with disabilities added. The university\u2019s board of trustees approved a budget of 153 million pesos. A third phase, due for completion in September 2027, will add a story to the orchestras\u2019 building.<\/p><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/0e5b9cbcc67c2761.png\" width=\"752\"\/><\/figure><p>The reopening concerts this weekend, on 26 September at 8pm and 27 September at noon, feature the world premiere of\u00a0<em>Fanfarria volc\u00e1nica<\/em>\u00a0by Gabriela Ortiz, winner of three Grammy awards in 2025 and a UNAM alumna and professor. The five-minute piece gives brass and percussion the leading role, with some musicians playing from the boxes, and draws on the volcanic Pedregal landscape on which the hall stands. It was commissioned to mark the 90th anniversary of the Orquesta Filarm\u00f3nica de la UNAM (OFUNAM), the hall\u2019s 50th and the university\u2019s 475th. Cellist Mischa Maisky, 78, will play Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019s Cello Concerto No. 1 and his own transcription of Lensky\u2019s aria from\u00a0<em>Eugene Onegin<\/em>. The programme closes with Mahler\u2019s First Symphony under principal conductor Sylvain Gasan\u00e7on, whose tenure ends on 7 and 8 November with the composer\u2019s\u00a0<em>Resurrection<\/em>\u00a0Symphony.<\/p><hr\/><h3><strong>A new chapter for public book buying<\/strong><\/h3><p>The Culture Ministry and the Fondo de Cultura Econ\u00f3mica (FCE) have opened a 50-million-peso call to buy books from independent, small and mid-sized Mexican publishers for public libraries nationwide. It is the first such purchase in a decade; the last, in 2016, was worth 300 million pesos but was criticised for favouring large publishers. Registration runs from 28 September to 7 October, and publishers must hold at least 200 copies of each title submitted. Priority areas include Mexican history, children\u2019s and young adult books, Mexican literature, popular science and bilingual editions in Indigenous languages. Results are due on 30 October, with the FCE handling procurement.<\/p><p>The purchase sits alongside a proposed zero VAT rate for bookshops and distributors, included in the 2027 economic package and still awaiting congressional approval. Culture Minister Claudia Curiel de Icaza said that extending publishers\u2019 existing exemption to distribution would correct a significant imbalance; the government puts the benefit at 200 to 250 million pesos a year. Independent booksellers have questioned one of the conditions for the zero rate, which requires sales of books and periodicals to make up at least 90 per cent of income, as many rely on caf\u00e9s and other services.<\/p><p>Meanwhile, Educal\u2019s 2026\u20132030 programme, published in the\u00a0<em>Diario Oficial de la Federaci\u00f3n<\/em>\u00a0(the federal government\u2019s official gazette) on 9 September, establishes that the state bookshop chain will work with the FCE rather than merge with it, although FCE director Paco Ignacio Taibo II had presented a merger as settled. The programme assigns distribution, sales and reading promotion to Educal and publishing to the FCE. It notes that more than 70 per cent of Mexico\u2019s bookshops are concentrated in metropolitan areas, leaving states such as Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero poorly served. Educal, which had 62 operating bookshops and six Librob\u00fas mobile units at the end of 2025, plans to open new branches, upgrade premises and join more book fairs.<\/p><hr\/><h3><strong>Chatter Box<\/strong><\/h3><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"751\" src=\"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/c647811e54ccbb55.jpeg\" width=\"501\"\/><figcaption>An off-the-shoulder sheer brown silk georgette dress with hand-gathered ruffles from Neithan Herbert\u2019s spring 2027 collection. (Photo: Neithan Ruiz)<\/figcaption><\/figure><p><strong>A Milan debut for an emerging Mexican designer.\u00a0<\/strong>Mexican label Neithan Herbert will make its runway debut on Milan Fashion Week\u2019s official schedule on Saturday 26 September with its spring\/summer 2027 collection. Designer Neithan Ruiz, 28, is Mexican Ecuadorian and grew up in San Miguel de Allende; he was named among five new designers to watch by\u00a0<em>El New York Times<\/em>\u2018s\u00a0<em>T Magazine.\u00a0<\/em>He studied at Milan\u2019s Istituto Europeo di Design, graduating in 2020, and founded the brand the following year with his sister, Anga. His clothes are made with local artisans using hand-smocking, embroidery and pleating traditional to Guanajuato, and last year the actress Adriana Paz wore one of his designs to the Oscars.<\/p><p>For Milan, Ruiz has produced half the collection in Italy so that base garments can be reproduced for buyers, while showpieces and embroidery are still made in Mexico. A fundraiser organised by his San Miguel community paid for the five women artisans who make his garments to travel to Milan, where they will open the show.<\/p><p><strong>Morelia Film Festival unveils 2026 programme.\u00a0<\/strong>The Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia (FICM) will hold its 24th edition from 16 to 25 October across Morelia and P\u00e1tzcuaro, with free online screenings on Imcine\u2019s platform, nuestrocine.mx. A total of 96 films will compete: 12 features, 12 documentaries, 64 Mexican shorts and eight titles in the Secci\u00f3n Michoacana. Features in contention include new work by Nicol\u00e1s Pereda, Rodrigo Pl\u00e1 and Diego Luna.<\/p><p>Jon\u00e1s Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s\u00a0<em>Campe\u00f3n gabacho<\/em>, about a Mexican migrant chasing a boxing career in the United States, opens the festival, with his father, Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n, attending as producer. Guillermo del Toro will host a gala screening of a restored\u00a0<em>El laberinto del fauno<\/em>\u00a0marking its 20th anniversary. Other guests include James Gray with\u00a0<em>Paper Tiger<\/em>, Carlos Reygadas with\u00a0<em>Heil Jupiter!<\/em>, Gael Garc\u00eda Bernal with\u00a0<em>Hombre al agua<\/em>\u00a0and Demi\u00e1n Bichir with the documentary\u00a0<em>Mujer santuario<\/em>. International titles include new films by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Danny Boyle and Taika Waititi, while tributes honour the Golden Age screenwriter and actor Janet Alcoriza and the Hungarian director B\u00e9la Tarr, who died in January. Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona will preside over the Mexican feature jury. Winners in the short film and documentary feature categories may be considered for Oscar nominations.<\/p><p><strong>French life on film in Chapultepec.\u00a0<\/strong>The railings of Chapultepec, on Paseo de la Reforma, are currently displaying\u00a0<em>El instante Ronis<\/em>, 60 large-format images by Willy Ronis (1910\u20132009), one of the leading figures of 20th-century French humanist photography. Spanning 1930 to 2000, the selection captures everyday French life, ranging from a 14 July night in Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s in 1955 to the social struggles Ronis documented as a Communist Party member, including the 1938 strikes at Javel, the return of prisoners of war in 1945 and the funerals after the Charonne massacre in 1962. Part of Fotoseptiembre and the programme marking two centuries of Franco-Mexican relations, the show runs until late October. It then travels to the Casa de Francia in Guanajuato for the Festival Internacional Cervantino, where France is guest of honour. It is the first activity in Mexico by the M\u00e9diath\u00e8que du Patrimoine et de la Photographie, the French Culture Ministry archive that holds between 25 and 30 million photographs, the largest public photographic collection in Europe.<\/p><p><strong>J\u00edkuri in Mexican cinemas.<\/strong>\u00a0Ninety years after Antonin Artaud travelled to the Sierra Tarahumara in search of the peyote rituals he believed held the essence of art, Federico Cecchetti\u2019s\u00a0<em>J\u00edkuri: viaje al pa\u00eds de los tarahumaras<\/em>\u00a0is now showing in Mexican cinemas. Loosely inspired by Artaud\u2019s own account of the 1936 journey, the film is neither biography nor illustration but a freeform fiction. It pairs the French actor Fran\u00e7ois Negret as Artaud with the Rar\u00e1muri runner Jos\u00e9 Cruz Apachoachi, who forms a spiritual bond with the poet. Milenio\u2019s critic singled out the moment when a terrified Artaud flees the very ceremony he crossed the Atlantic to witness and also praises Iv\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s photography of the Chihuahua mountains. The film screened in the Mezcal competition at the 39th Guadalajara International Film Festival and the official selection of the 20th Ficmonterrey, both in 2024. The second instalment of Cecchetti\u2019s trilogy on Mexico\u2019s indigenous cultures, it follows\u00a0<em>El sue\u00f1o del Mara\u2019akame<\/em>\u00a0(2016), which won him the Ariel and a Morelia festival prize for best first feature.<\/p><p><strong>Festival CultuaUNAM includes Malkovich and more.\u00a0<\/strong>Celebrated actor<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>John Malkovich is coming to the Festival CulturaUNAM, which runs until 11 October with more than 60 events centred on the reopened Sala Nezahualc\u00f3yotl. On 3 October at 8pm and 4 October at noon, he performs\u00a0<em>Informe sobre ciegos<\/em>, his adaptation of a chapter from Ernesto S\u00e1bato\u2019s 1961 novel\u00a0<em>Sobre h\u00e9roes y tumbas<\/em>. It is set to Alfred Schnittke\u2019s Concerto for Piano and Strings, with the pianist Anastasya Terenkova, his touring partner since 2016. The OFUNAM, conducted by Sylvain Gasan\u00e7on, opens the programme with scenes from Prokofiev\u2019s\u00a0<em>Romeo and Juliet<\/em>. Elsewhere, the former Madredeus singer Teresa Salgueiro performs on 27 September and the saxophonist George Coleman, who played with Miles Davis, on 28 September. Meredith Monk performs on the final day, 11 October. The Com\u00e9die-Fran\u00e7aise stages Annie Ernaux\u2019s\u00a0<em>L\u2019\u00c9v\u00e9nement<\/em>\u00a0on 1 and 2 October, Kaija Saariaho\u2019s opera\u00a0<em>Adriana Mater<\/em>\u00a0receives its Latin American premiere, and Emmanuel Carr\u00e8re discusses his new book on 9 October. The festival also honours the architect Teodoro Gonz\u00e1lez de Le\u00f3n in his centenary year, including a concert by the Ensemble Modern on 30 September.<\/p><hr\/><h3><strong>Culture Outing<\/strong><\/h3><p>Radical Optimism in Casa Hotbook. (Photo: Somos MXC)<\/p><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"410\" src=\"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3b37f326d58c77e5.jpg\" width=\"751\"\/><\/figure><p><strong><a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mangopase.com\/event\/zsonamacolab2026\">ZONAMACO LAB presents Radical Optimism<\/a><\/strong><\/p><p>The celebrated annual art fair\u2019s experimental offshoot ZONAMACO LAB presents\u00a0<em>Radical Optimism<\/em>\u00a0at Casa Hotbook (Monte L\u00edbano 280, Lomas de Chapultepec) until 11 October. Curated by Dami\u00e1n Romero, director of MUTEK Mexico, its interactive and immersive works, by artists including Brian Eno and Tania Candiani, use play to explore critically the tensions between connection and isolation, pleasure and exhaustion.<\/p><p>Open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 8pm; admission costs 100 pesos Tuesday to Thursday and 150 pesos on weekends.<\/p><hr\/><h3><strong>Culture Conversation<\/strong><\/h3><p><strong><a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pV592Vz0eRc&amp;list=PLpbVZv-IuFPD3zVNjX7bN3k179Nqt6bM6&amp;index=1\">\u201cEn M\u00e9xico tenemos el pasado metido en el alma\u201d: Enrique Serna en Ciberdi\u00e1logos<\/a><\/strong><\/p><p>Enrique Serna, author of\u00a0<em>El seductor de la patria<\/em>\u00a0y\u00a0<em>El vendedor de silencio<\/em>, explores the pre-Hispanic past in his new book\u00a0<em>El dios hambriento,<\/em>\u00a0a novel about the power struggles and political intrigues behind the rise of the Mexica empire. In this interview with Le\u00f3n Krauze, he discusses truth, historical rigour and the political uses of history.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Codex Azcatitlan, one of the most important pictographic accounts of Mexica history, is back in Mexico for the first time since it left the country in<\/p>","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":19913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-chatter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19919,"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19912\/revisions\/19919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miranda-partners.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}