San Antonio's Esperanza Peace and Justice Center is brewing up a holistic celebration for World Water Day with the launch of the Todos Agua Water Festival. The three-day event, which begins on Friday and runs through the weekend, promises to blend art, poetry, music, and a hearty discussion on water's crucial importance. According to a San Antonio Report, the festival has been curated with a reverence for water, acknowledging its life-sustaining force and its spiritual and ancestral ties.

The festival will kick off with an array of local poets including Carmen Tafolla and Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, accompanied by music from Ceiba Ili and Los Hermanos Bonifacio, as well as discussions on climate change and water policy led by notable figures such as María Berriozábal, Marisol Cortez, and Greg Harman. Live painting and an exhibition of artwork by Mauro De La Tierra, the mind behind the festival's visually striking poster, are poised to add a vivid stroke to the event. Under January and February's watchful eyes, Azul Barrientos, creative director of the Esperanza Center, pulled the festival together, as reported by the San Antonio Report.

Notably, the renowned Chilean musician Julián Herreros Rivera will be taking the stage for a solo act on Saturday and then teaming up with Barrientos on Sunday for a Latin American folk music extravaganza. The Express-News noted Barrientos' awe at booking Rivera, expressing her initial doubt with "he's an unreachable artist" but she decided to reach out, and to her surprise, he agreed to come to Texas.

Sunday will commence with a cacao ceremony orchestrated by Diana Dos Santos, aiming to offer participants a chance to connect with nature, "remember nature within our bodies," as Barrientos put it in an Express-News interview. Echoing the interlacing theme, the Esperanza director Graciela Sanchez stressed that the festival is by no means a mere feel-good experience but a call to action for environmental stewardship. Art is slated to carry this message, using poetry, music, and theater to rally the audience.

Conceived during the pandemic's isolation, when Barrientos switched to online performances, the festival aims to celebrate water and its elemental role in our lives. Barrientos told the Express-News, the idea for Todos Agua was sparked from a virtual event titled 'Agua y Poesía', which featured prominent artists and moved her to realize the potential beauty in revisiting the basics of life. She envisions making Todos Agua an annual echo in the heart of San Antonio.