“Twenty years ago it was absolutely, totally unheard that there was anyone making a film in Chicago – a Latino film,” says Pepe Vargas, founder and executive director of the International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago (ILCC). Still, that didn’t stop 57-year-old Vargas from founding the city’s Latino Film Festival. Twenty four years later, the annual 15-day event showcases independent local and international Latino filmmakers before packed crowds.

“The basis for our work is how we can create awareness and educate people about who we are,” Vargas says of the ILCC. “And what a better tool than cinema? It transports all of our histories.”

Latinos are the largest growing minority in the U.S., with nearly 50 million already living in the country. By 2020, the U.S. Census projects that one in every six Americans will be of Latin American descent. Chicago, with the third-largest Latino population in the nation, has been at the heart of the demographic and cultural explosion. The ILCC has helped capture and encourage that eflouressence.

The center resides on the Columbia College loop campus. It’s a pan-Latino, multi-arts facility that presents visual art, dance, music and film from Chicago-area and global Latino artists. Year-round, the Center runs internationally-focused programming that tries to unify the multi-national identities of Latin Americans. A visual arts showcase titled 3 + 3 = 6, which debuted fall 2006 and ran again in 2007, features three female artists and three male artists from different Latin American countries, exhibiting together. The Center’s music festivals follow the same, ecclectic theme, with an eye toward representing Latinos internationally. In November 2007 the Center hosted an unprecedented concert, Músicas Latinas, entirely comprised of Latina composed, a rarity for any culture’s classical composers.

But the film festival, running each spring, is the Center’s gem. Last year, about 30,000 attendees flocked to it the center averages about 50,000 people for all of its events in a year. Vargas finished making the selections for this year’s event in January.

Vargas’ efforts have won him the admiration of artists and community members. “I have a lot of respect for Pepe Vargas. He is a very humble man who has accomplished a lot for the Latino community. I admire him because someone else would have given up by now, but not him,” says Dalla Tapia, a longtime volunteer for the Center who has screened her feature film, Buscando a Leti, at the 23rd festival.

“The festival is the only platform in the Midwest where Latino independent filmmakers have a chance to screen their work,” Tapia says. “We don’t have the millions of dollars that Hollywood studios have to make their films. On the other hand, I am very happy to state that those studios don’t have what we have – the diversity, the strong stories, the passion and the courage to make films without glamorizing.”

Vargas says he considers himself an example of the the change he hopes the ILCC will encourage with audiences. Born in Colombia and educated at the National University of Buenas Aires in Argentina, Vargas still experienced discrimination when he moved to the U.S as a non-English speaker. He chose to learn English, and with the Center, hopes to prove that Latino’s can learn the language while still holding onto their own distinct culture. “I set an objective for myself that I wanted to master the language. I felt like I was not only empowered, but also armed with something that other immigrants did not have – they did not know how to read or write. They were totally unarmed. They were ready to be victimized. And that’s what they got.”

Myrna Salazar, the director of development and marketing for the Center, began her work with the Latino Film Festival two years ago, after selling her talent agency, Salazar & Navas, Inc.

In addition to the main film festival, Salazar plans, finds sponsors and promotes the “Film in the Park Summer Series.” The series, in its second year, features four films from the previous year’s festival shown in six parks located in Latino-concentrated areas of Chicago. Salazar takes pride seeing families attending the films, and “the children running and eating popcorn” in the parks.

“More people means more exposure (for the community),” Salazar says.

Despite its successes, the center has waged its two-decade cultural crusade without a permanent facility. In May 2008, the Cultural Center’s time at 33 E. Congress St. on Columbia College’s campus, expires. Columbia College has undergone an explosion in enrollment during the past 20 years. Increasing from one building to 12, the college continues fighting for space in downtown Chicago to accommodate future enrollment. Vargas plans to help the Center raise the $50 million dollars needed to build a permanent, world-class facility.

“The Center has so much of me in it,” Vargas says, “I am moved to do good. I have a responsibility on behalf of my community.”