Pepe Vargas never imagined himself retiring.
After decades of leading the International Latino Cultural Center, executive director and founder Vargas stepped down last Tuesday due to health reasons. The organization, which has been a steward of pan-Latino multidisciplinary art and artists in Chicago for over 40 years, will continue under new leadership.
Mateo Mulcahy, who’s been with the cultural center since 2022, is the cultural center’s new executive director. And with new leadership comes new goals, including the hope of finding a physical space to welcome visitors and host events like any other cultural institution in the city.
Vargas, who turned 78 the day he stepped down, is one of Chicago’s longest-standing Latino arts leaders, akin to Carlos Tortolero, the founder of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen, and Myrna Salazar, the founder of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance. Tortolero retired in 2023, while Salazar passed away at age 75 in 2022. (Vargas was one of the four founders of the theater group, a list that included Carlos Hernández of the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance.)
Vargas helped shape the cultural center and, in many ways, the greater landscape of Latino cultural life in Chicago, from growing the Latino Film Festival beyond its humble origins to the vast cultural programming it’s known for today.
The work he did was what kept him “energized” and “devoted” for more than 40 years. Born and raised in La Mesa, a small town in Colombia about two hours away from Bogotá, Vargas came to Chicago in 1980.
He studied broadcast journalism at Columbia College Chicago and graduated with a desire to make short films and documentaries. Then, in 1985, the film-loving Vargas launched the Chicago Latino Film Festival, which is now the largest and longest-running in the U.S.
That first event, with just 14 films, evolved into Chicago Latino Cinema, which later became the nonprofit organization now known as the ILCC. This year, the film festival marked its 42nd anniversary.
Vargas said he created the organization to combat racism and discrimination through art.“It’s the impact,” he said. Vargas said that he and the leadership team always had a mutual understanding of “how vital it is for us to really have a way to have a voice, to empower our people to think, and to really take advantage of the many differences that exist among ourselves … when we put that together, really we become a powerful community.”
Vargas said he doesn’t have any regrets about giving the cultural organization everything he could, and he had a “lot of fun” doing it.
“People spend their life thinking and planning and saving, rather than living the moment,” he said. “I try my best, and I have over the years to do everything I can [to live] in the present time.”
Jorge Valdivia, the executive director of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, said he’s always appreciated Vargas for the work he did with the film festival each year.
The pair didn’t always see eye to eye, but Valdivia said he appreciates the ability to disagree on things.
“We don’t have to be leaders, but I think as individuals, I think it says a lot about your humanity when you’re able to sit in the same room with someone and listen to their opinion,” said Valdivia, who served with Vargas on the steering committee for the annual Chicago Latino Arts and Culture Summit.
And while this year’s Latino Film Festival brought in more than 80 feature and short films from across Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the Caribbean, the group also stages a variety of other events celebrating pan-Latino artistic traditions, many of those amplified thanks to Mulcahy’s contributions.
That includes the Levitt VIBE Chicago Music Series. This season’s 10-week concert lineup kicked off in June with performances taking place in Belmont Cragin’s Riis Park through Aug. 22. Las Guaracheras, an all-girl group from Colombia, perform on July 18, while multiple Venezuelan artists appear on July 25 for a heritage night.
The organization also hosts a monthly Reel Film Club at Facets, and an annual Films in the Parks program (beginning July 8 and recurring for five weeks each Wednesday). Plans are also already underway for the Chicago Latino Dance Festival in the fall, too.
Stepping away from all of this felt “inconceivable” for Vargas. But recent health issues have put things into a new perspective, he said.
“I think the most important thing was creating a team of people who would take over just in case,” Vargas said. “And well, the moment came.”
Mulcahy, a Mexican-Irish Chicagoan, has worked at the organization since January 2022 as the organization’s deputy executive director.
Before the cultural center, Mulcahy worked at the Old Town School of Folk Music as director of community projects and events.
Valdivia, the theater alliance director, said he is excited for the next “evolution” of the cultural center under Mulcahy’s leadership.
As Vargas exits, he refers to Mulcahy as his “right-hand man.” And over the years, the two have collaborated to solidify and expand the cultural center’s forward-looking vision.
That includes an “active” search to acquire a permanent home beyond a small office space in the Loop, Mulcahy said. Previously, the group operated out of a classroom at Instituto Cervantes, which holds Spanish language classes.
But Vargas said he imagines that space as a “cathedral” for pan-Latino arts, where visitors can come and go.
“We feel we can be most effective and conserve the most people through our own space,” Mulcahy said. The space will be built on the organization’s seven pillars: film, music, dance, theater, culinary arts, visual arts and literary arts.
As a retired man, Vargas said he’s looking forward to attending cultural center events as a guest. He says Chicago made him “a remarkable person.” And eventually, after a thumbs-up from his doctor, he hopes to return to Colombia.
“Even with all the problems and political mishaps, [it] still is a paradise,” he said. “I will go with a different sense of appreciation, begin a new life.”
