Central American Voices Film Festival "CAVFF" 2026
This Saturday was an important reminder of why we tell our stories.
The Central American Voices Film Festival, founded and led by Alejandra Quiroz, brought together Central American filmmakers and artists for its first event in LA, an evening of short films exploring culture, social issues, food, art and the stories of our communities.
The festival was held at the historic Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, tucked into the hills of Barnsdall Art Park.
The official poster was designed by Kiara Machado.
Among the films featured was Episode 4 of Salvi Food Tour, created by Raymundo Archila. For this episode, Raymundo traveled to El Salvador to meet Chef Alex of Xolo and document his story, from his humble beginnings to his techniques and the evolution of his cuisine.
Chef Alex takes traditional Salvadoran ingredients and reimagines them through modern techniques and creativity, creating something new while remaining deeply rooted in where he comes from.
The evening ended with a panel featuring Raymundo Archila, Chef Alex of Xolo, Chef Bibi of Bibi’s Latin Kitchen, Chef René and Stephanie of Walking Spanish, Eric Valle and Alex Velasco, who helped film and document Salvi Food Tour.
Raymundo spoke about self funding Salvi Food Tour from the beginning, finding these chefs through his own research alongside Eric Valle and Hoozay, and realizing along the way that these stories were worth telling.
He also shared his vision of eventually bringing Salvi Food Tour to a platform like Netflix.
For Raymundo, food is the entry point to a bigger conversation: the personal stories of the chefs, their journeys as people, and the way culture continues to evolve.
It was a heartwarming, nostalgic and emotional ride.
You laughed. You cried. You left inspired.
We’re looking forward to telling more.
Full episode out soon. Stay tuned.
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