Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This event occurred on May 31, 2026.
La Llorona (2019), directed Guatemala filmmaker Jayro Bustamante, is a fictionalized take on the the country’s genocide trials in which former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was found guilty of human rights violations and crimes against humanity. Playing with the horror film genre and the trope of the legend of La Llorona, Bustamante paints a compelling picture of how collective Indigenous memory still haunts not just the dictator, but his family and society, in the collective search for justice. The film stars María Mercedes Coroy and María Telón, two of Guatemala’s best-known contemporary actors of Maya Kaqchikel descent.
This screening of La Llorona at the Getty Research Institute was followed by a presentation by Alicia Ivonne Estrada, professor of Chicana/o Studies at California State University, Northridge, whose work centers Central American history, Maya cultural productions, literature, and radio.
Alicia Ivonne Estrada is professor in the Chicana/o Studies Department at California State University at Northridge. At CSUN, she is the director of the Center for the Study of Peoples of the Americas (CESPA) and co-director of Civil Discourse & Social Change (CDSC). Estrada has published extensively on the Maya and Guatemalan diaspora in Los Angeles, as well as on contemporary Maya literature, art, film, and radio. She is co-editor of three anthologies: U.S. Central Americans: Reconstructing Memories, Struggles, and Communities of Resistance (University of Arizona Press, 2017), with Karina O. Alvarado and Ester E. Hernández; (De)construyendo latinidades y movidas de descolonización (Casa de las Américas, 2021), with Martha D. Escobar; and Aniversarios de Resistencia: Reflections from the CSUN Chicana/o Studies Department (Casa de las Américas, 2020), with Martha D. Escobar and Melisa Gálvan. Estrada’s work has been published in Romance Notes, Latino Studies, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, and ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, among other journals and critical anthologies. Her current book project focuses on the Maya diaspora in Los Angeles. Since 2006, she has been an active collaborator with the Maya radio collective Contacto Ancestral, which has been broadcasting on the community radio station KPFK for over two decades.
Learn more about the Getty Research Institute’s Latinx and Latin American Art Initiative, which currently focuses on Central America and its diasporas:
https://www.getty.edu/projects/latin-american-latinx-art-initiative/
This event is part of the Art on Screen series:
https://www.getty.edu/whats-on/art-on-screen
Learn more about this event:
https://www.getty.edu/calendar/la-llorona/
______________________________________________________________________
The Getty Research Institute is dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts and their various histories through its expertise, active collecting program, public programs, institutional collaborations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and residential scholars programs. Its library and special collections of rare materials and digital resources serve an international community of scholars and the interested public. The Research Institute's activities and scholarly resources guide and sustain each other and together provide a unique environment for research, critical inquiry, and scholarly exchange.
Getty Research Institute: https://www.getty.edu/research/
This event occurred on May 31, 2026.
La Llorona (2019), directed Guatemala filmmaker Jayro Bustamante, is a fictionalized take on the the country’s genocide trials in which former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was found guilty of human rights violations and crimes against humanity. Playing with the horror film genre and the trope of the legend of La Llorona, Bustamante paints a compelling picture of how collective Indigenous memory still haunts not just the dictator, but his family and society, in the collective search for justice. The film stars María Mercedes Coroy and María Telón, two of Guatemala’s best-known contemporary actors of Maya Kaqchikel descent.
This screening of La Llorona at the Getty Research Institute was followed by a presentation by Alicia Ivonne Estrada, professor of Chicana/o Studies at California State University, Northridge, whose work centers Central American history, Maya cultural productions, literature, and radio.
Alicia Ivonne Estrada is professor in the Chicana/o Studies Department at California State University at Northridge. At CSUN, she is the director of the Center for the Study of Peoples of the Americas (CESPA) and co-director of Civil Discourse & Social Change (CDSC). Estrada has published extensively on the Maya and Guatemalan diaspora in Los Angeles, as well as on contemporary Maya literature, art, film, and radio. She is co-editor of three anthologies: U.S. Central Americans: Reconstructing Memories, Struggles, and Communities of Resistance (University of Arizona Press, 2017), with Karina O. Alvarado and Ester E. Hernández; (De)construyendo latinidades y movidas de descolonización (Casa de las Américas, 2021), with Martha D. Escobar; and Aniversarios de Resistencia: Reflections from the CSUN Chicana/o Studies Department (Casa de las Américas, 2020), with Martha D. Escobar and Melisa Gálvan. Estrada’s work has been published in Romance Notes, Latino Studies, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, and ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, among other journals and critical anthologies. Her current book project focuses on the Maya diaspora in Los Angeles. Since 2006, she has been an active collaborator with the Maya radio collective Contacto Ancestral, which has been broadcasting on the community radio station KPFK for over two decades.
Learn more about the Getty Research Institute’s Latinx and Latin American Art Initiative, which currently focuses on Central America and its diasporas:
https://www.getty.edu/projects/latin-american-latinx-art-initiative/
This event is part of the Art on Screen series:
https://www.getty.edu/whats-on/art-on-screen
Learn more about this event:
https://www.getty.edu/calendar/la-llorona/
______________________________________________________________________
The Getty Research Institute is dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts and their various histories through its expertise, active collecting program, public programs, institutional collaborations, exhibitions, publications, digital services, and residential scholars programs. Its library and special collections of rare materials and digital resources serve an international community of scholars and the interested public. The Research Institute's activities and scholarly resources guide and sustain each other and together provide a unique environment for research, critical inquiry, and scholarly exchange.
Getty Research Institute: https://www.getty.edu/research/
