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When thousands of fish die in a polluted river in southern Chile, Magdalena, a woman long-deceased, emerges amongst their lifeless bodies. Magdalena encounters her widowed husband, sending him into a state of shock and prompting the return of their daughter, Cecilia. Magdalena’s presence and her effect on the environment stirs curiosity and fear among her family. As the past comes into focus, mother and daughter are met with the opportunity to change the future.

In this illuminated talk Mexican poet and novelist Adriana Díaz Enciso will share her journey of twenty years in the writing of her novel Ciudad doliente de Dios (Doleful City of God, Alfaguara/UNAM 2018), inspired by William Blake’s Prophetic poems. She will talk about her life-long fascination with Blake’s work and his spiritual quest, and of how in her novel Blake’s mystical city of Golgonooza, London and Mexico City merge into an unknown city where the characters strive to find the meaning of human pain.

Anglo Peruvian Society Talk by Joanna Heywood, author and social entrepreneur. ‘Grit and Silver’ is a magical realism novella of the lives of three women growing up in poverty in Peru in the 1990s. Their partners are a soldier and drug producer, an illegal logger and a terrorist leader… The women experience life on the fringes of crime, displacement and the grit of survival in urban slums. Their destinies are intertwined from childhood to adulthood and the dream of a better life, sometimes at any cost, runs through their stories like a silver thread.

Now in its 29th year, ¡Viva! returns for our annual celebration of Spanish and Latin American culture, bringing you a programme of the most exciting cinema from across the Spanish-speaking world. This year we screen 22 new feature films, including multiple UK cinema premieres, along with filmmaker Q&As, film introductions and other opportunities to get involved. Plus plenty of archive cinema treats – a classic from Juan Antonio Bardem, the UK premiere of 1970s hidden gems by fellow Spaniard Cecilia Bartolomé, and a programme of shorts from a Mexican feminist film collective.

The Royal Academy of Arts presents a landmark exhibition, with over 150 dazzling and fascinating pieces, exploring the art and culture of the Hispanic world. Discover the rich story of Spanish and Hispanic art and culture from antiquity to the 20th century: from masterpieces by Goya, Velázquez, Zurbarán and El Greco to paintings, sculptures, silk textiles, ceramics, lustreware, silverwork, precious jewellery, maps, drawings, illuminated manuscripts and stunning decorative lacquerware from Latin America.

Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña has created a poignant new artwork for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Cecilia Vicuña’s Brain Forest Quipu is a multi-part installation made up of sculpture, sound, music and video. The quipu is an ancient South American recording and communication system made from knotted threads. Vicuña has been exploring and transforming the quipu in her work for over five decades.

La Linea – The London Latin Music Festival will be back again April - May in venues across Central London. With an impressive international reputation as one of the world’s most eclectic celebrations of Latin music, it features musicians from Mexico, Peru, Chile, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and Venezuela. We look forward to celebrating La Linea together with you again in 2023.

Dengue Dengue Dengue is a tropical storm of electronic psychedelia direct from Lima, Perú. The ever evolving project, signed by labels Enchufada and On The Corner, explores the eclectic dance rhythms of South America through exciting live performance. Expect a mixture of Latin American dancefloor sounds from psychedelic cumbia to dub, from salsa to footwork and from tribal to techno – plus amazing visuals and their ever-present masks…

This year La Linea invite Spanish-speaking children to be part of the festival with Chica Charcos and The Katiuskas Band from Madrid. Poetry, humour and rebellious joy are the main characters. Put on your dancing shoes for an incredible show filled with theatre and humour for audiences of all ages.

In this talk, author Adriana Díaz Enciso will tell us about the ways in which rock music has been an active participant in diverse forms of resistance in Mexico. She’ll draw from her experience as a radio producer and presenter in the 1980s for Radio Universidad de Guadalajara, as a rock journalist for several decades, lyricist for rock band Santa Sabina, and a member of the musicians, artists and students’ collectives that organised mass concerts in the 1990s in support of the indigenous communities that constituted the grassroots of the EZLN (National Zapatista Liberation Army), as well as fighting the misinformation that was then rampant about the war in the state of Chiapas. Rage, hope, activism, great music and great fun will be part of her reminiscences about the last decades of the 20th Century in Mexico, when rock music was very much part of a wider national awakening.

Star of Netflix documentary Amar Elo, Emicida has emerged as a true Brazilian music contender over the last year following the release of his breakout É Tudo Pra Ontem, with the participation of Gilberto Gil. He presents the full Amar Elo theatrical experience as seen at Teatro Municipal in São Paulo.

Award-winning fadista and singer-songwriter Duarte comes to London with his intensely personal take on the old songs of old Lisbon. Duarte cuts an unusual figure as a fadista; his dressed-down approach aligns with fado’s nineteenth century origins. “A must see, this artist is incredible.” Cerys Matthews, BBC 6 Music

Latinx pianist Eliane Correa performs at The Jazz Cafe with her twelve-piece band La Evolución, a fresh, high-energy Cuban timba fusion orchestra made up of some of the top Cuban and Latin musicians in the UK and Europe. Led by Eliane – who has MD’d for Grammy-winners Mayito Rivera (Los Van Van) and Maite Hontelé – the band is fronted by award-winning Barcelona-based vocalist powerhouse Yadira Ferrer from Holguín, Cuba.

Learn more: https://www.comono.co.uk/live/eliane-correa/

Steam Down’s founder Ahnansé and Mambo Negro Records founder Daniel Michel lead the groundbreaking British-Colombian ensemble Mestizo making their live London debut in La Linea. Mestizo artfully mix Colombian traditions of currulao and cumbia with hip-swaying salsa, head-nodding rap verses, shards of electronica and jazz improvisation. Bringing the London scene’s knack for genre-hopping to bear on a new realm of kinetic sounds, Indigenous traditions are blended with British diaspora music, producing a fusion of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, UK rap flair and percussive intensity.

With her unique combination of colourful Brazilian spirit and insightful musicianship, Clélia Iruzun presents a spirited programme of virtuoso works for solo piano. Mozart’s ever-popular Rondo alla Turca sets the scene for Carnaval, Schumann’s exuberant portrait of masked revellers – depicting characters from commedia dell’arte as well as the composer’s own friends and beloved wife.

Brazilian legend Gilberto Gil performs a special show at the Royal Albert Hall to bid his musical farewell to London. The event is a celebration of Gil’s sixty-year career with a repertoire chosen from down the decades.

Learn more about upcoming cultural events at Instituto Cervantes.