HARLINGEN — Family and friends are remembering Evy Ledesma Galan, who launched the CineSol Film Festival here more than 30 years ago, as a visionary who helped put Latino film making on a national screen.
She died Feb. 6 in her home in Austin.
She was 66.
Born in Harlingen, her family helped inspire her love of film.
“She was a creative and cultural force,” her brother Rick Ledesma, a Harlingen business owner, said Tuesday.
As children, they worked at the Juarez Drive-In in San Benito, which their uncle Benito Canas and aunt Olga owned.
“There, we were exposed to traditional Mexican films that were part of the Golden Era,” Ledesma said.
After attending St. Mary’s University in Austin, she launched the CineSol Film Festival from her home in 1993.
“She worked out of her family home, making phone calls and inviting people she only knew by reputation — and they came,” CineSol said in a statement. “She was able to get films, projectors, directors and movie stars — all from her home in Harlingen.”
She’s remembered a champion of Latino culture.
“CineSol was never just about films — it was about people, culture and the shared experience of seeing ourselves reflected on screen,” the organization said. “Through tireless dedication and deep love for the art of cinema, Evy created a space where Latino voices were uplifted, Latino stories were honored and a film community was formed.”
As she worked to develop CineSol, she took her love of film across the Rio Grande Valley and into Mexico.
“It was Evy who provided the Texas Border Region with its first film festival ever, including cultural art events in Matamoros and Reynosa,” the organization said. “CineSol has traveled throughout the border region, by having the film festival in South Padre Island, Harlingen, Edinburg, McAllen, Mission and Brownsville.”
Through CineSol, she met filmmaker Hector Galan, whom she married, contributing research and development to the PBS documentary “The Forgotten Americans.”
While she served as unit manager for the six-part PBS series “Visiones: Latino Art & Culture,” she served as a producer on “Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads” and “A Migrant’s Masterpiece: The Life and Legacy of Archbishop Patrick Flores.”
While serving as supervising producer on the six-hour international series “The Road from Christ to Constantine,” which was filmed across Europe and the Middle East, she produced the documentaries “Children of Giant” and “Willie Velasquez: Your Vote Is Your Voice.”
She is survived by her husband, her children Marisa, Rigoberto and Remy, and her grandchildren, Samuel, Theodore, and Roman.
She was predeceased by her mother and father, Margarito and Dorita Ledesma, and her sister Betty Diaz.
Family and friends will hold a memorial funeral Mass at 10 a.m. Saturday at Immaculate Health of Mary Catholic Church.