DISTINGUISHED GUESTS
2025 Festiba Speakers
AMANDA JOHNSTON
Amanda Johnston is a writer, visual artist, and the 2024 Texas Poet Laureate. Born in East St. Louis, IL, and raised in Austin, TX, she began writing poetry while living in Kentucky. Her writing is published widely, and she has presented at numerous literary conferences and events. She is a 2024 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow.
She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection. Another Way to Say Enter. Her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications, among them, Callaloo, Poetry Magazine, Puerto del Sol, Muzzle, and the anthologies, Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry and Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism. She has received fellowships, grants, and awards from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, Tasajillo, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Watermill Center, and the Austin International Poetry Festival.
Date: Febraury 22
Time: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Location: UTRGV Edinburg Campus, Ballroom
To register, visit literacytexas.org/SouthTX.
READING ROCK STARS
Visits to Public Schools with Book Distributions
“Reading Rock Stars” program in collaboration with the Texas Book Festival, is a popular mainstay of FESTIBA. Children receive a reading and signed book by an author of national repute.
2025 Reading Rock Stars Schools and Authors:
Dates: Thursday & Friday, February 28-29
Reading Rock Stars Schools: Rayburn Elementary, McAllen; Singleterry Elementary, Donna; Stainke Elementary, Donna; Canterbury Elementary, Edinburg; PFC Mario Ybarra Elementary, Weslaco; Dr. R.E. Margo Elementary, Weslaco.
Authors: TBA
For more information about the Texas Book Festival visit: Texas Book Festival.
MARIACHI FESTIVAL GUEST ARTISTS
FESTIBA 2025 MARIACHI FESTIVAL
Masterclasses, Competitions &
Concert featuring Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández
Dates: February 28-March 1
Location: Edinburg Campus, UTRGV Performing Arts Complex
José Hernández is a master of mariachi music. An internationally recognized musician, composer and educator, José Hernández continues to break boundaries in the world of mariachi.
A fifth generation mariachi, Jóse brings the pleasure of mariachi music to audiences all across the globe. He is the founder of two world-famous ensembles: Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández and Reyna de Los Angeles, America’s first all-female professional mariachi ensemble.
José continues to advance the art of mariachi with daring new compositions and arrangements. He has composed, arranged, and provided music for 15 Sol De México albums. He sings, and plays trumpet, violin, guitarrón, and vihuela, and has performed in some of the most renowned venues around the world. He has recorded with the most respected and recognized names in the industry, including Selena, Vicente Fernandez, Luis Miguel, Bryan Adams and the Beach Boys, and has received four Grammy nominations.
Since 1989, Mariachi Aztlán has traveled throughout Mexico and the United States as musical ambassadors representing the beauty of the Hispanic music and cultural traditions. Recognitions for performance excellence initiated an invitation from the White House to perform at the signing ceremony of an Executive Order renewing and enhancing the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, performing for President Barack Obama in 2010.
In collaboration with the Houston Grand Opera, Mariachi Aztlán premiered the stage production of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, the world’s first "Mariachi/Opera" in December, 2010. A second performance of the same production took place in 2013 with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Mariachi Aztlán also premiered the mariachi opera El Pasado Nunca Se Termina with the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2015. Other national performances include guest artists at the Tucson International Mariachi Conference in 2015 and 2019, guest artists at the 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 San Diego International Mariachi Festivals, and guest artists at the 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 Chicago Mariachi Festivals. The mariachi was invited as guest clinicians and performing artists for the Mariachi Spectacular Workshop in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. For several years, Mariachi Aztlán has been invited as guest clinicians and performing artists Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza Competition in San Antonio. National performances include concerts at the Santa Barbara Bowl in August of 2019, with the famous Mexican singer, Aida Cuevas, and guest artists at the Chicago Mariachi Festival which was held at the Millenium Amphitheatre, Jay Pritzker Pavilion, June 29 th, 2019.
Other national performances at prestigious venues include Hollywood Bowl, the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Mariachi Aztlán has performed with symphony orchestras in Mexico, including performances in Monterrey, Pachuca, and Tampico, and with the Valley Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony Orchestra.
Mariachi Aztlán has accompanied other famous artists such as Juan Valentin, Vikki Carr, Nydia Rojas, Azucena, Ramon Ayala, Leo Dan, Paquita La Del Barrio, and many others. International performances include the Mexican cities of Monterrey, Pachuca, Tampico, Guadalajara, Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende, and Ottawa, Canada.
In 2022 and 2023, Mariachi Aztlán toured with the “The Queen of Mariachi”, and esteemed figure in Mexico, Aida Cuevas, throughout the U.S., performing at more than 20 distinguished venues across America.
Mariachi Aztlán released a CD, Mi Nombre Es México to commemorate their 25th Anniversary.
FESTIBA Mariachi Festival