The 40th Latin American & Caribbean Festival will be held on October 15, 2022 at the University of Pittsburgh!  Sponsored by University of Pittsburgh Center for Latin American Studies.

Admission is FREE.

In the year 1979, one afternoon on an average work day at CLAS, Carmelo Mesa-Lago (Director), June Belkin (Assistant to the Director), and Shirley Kregar (Assistant Director) were discussing the forthcoming year’s activities. They wondered, “What can we do to promote cultural awareness of Latin American cultures in Pittsburgh, involving the Latin American groups living in Pittsburgh and in neighboring areas?” Shirley said, “Let’s have a Latin American Festival!” At that time, no one could foresee that the Festival would grow to its actual size and that ten years later it would be considered not only of the most important cultural events at the University level, but more importantly, city-wide! Shirley suggested the idea, but Alan Adelman was the one who organized and implemented the set up for the first festival; a lot of his original ideas are still in use today.

The Latin American and Caribbean Festival has had many years of success and every year it seems to improve in the number and quality of groups that participate and the scope of media coverage. This brings us the 40th edition of the festival, and as the Latino and Hispanic population in Pittsburgh continues to grow, it makes the Festival one of the largest gatherings of Latinos in Western Pennsylvania.

The Mission of the festival is to showcase the cultures of Latin America in Pittsburgh and to inform the students and the general public of the resources that can be found in Pittsburgh.

Please contact clasfestival@pitt.edu with inquiries about the 40th annual festival.