S.D. Festival Will Celebrate Mexican Arts : Border: Event, sponsored by Mexican government, comes as North American free-trade proposal is being debated.

With free trade a hot and divisive topic these days, the localMexican Consulate has taken a step toward expanding free cultural exchanges. Officials announced Tuesday an unprecedented month-long Cultural Festival to spotlight the diversity and depth Mexico has to offer the United States.

An exhibition of contemporary Mexican painters, a film series and an appearance by ageless crooner Lola Beltran are among the highlights of the festival planned for September. Co-sponsored by the Alba Educational Foundation, the festival will be the first of its kind locally, in scope and participation of the Mexcan government.

“Mexico, not only in the economy, but as a society as a whole is opening itself up,” Consul General Enrique Loaeza said during Tuesday’s press conference.

“The effect of a festival like this will be to open minds, in a way that they can think positively of what can be done working together.”

The festival will kick off Sept. 4 with opening ceremonies and the unveiling of a collection of contemporary Mexican painters at the County Administration Center. A mural by Diego Rivera, “Un Domingo en la Alameda” will be part of the exhibition.

Timed to coincide with “National Hispanic Heritage Month,” the festival will include a Chicano Literature Series at the Centro Cultural de la Raza on Sept. 9, featuring such well-regarded authors as Victor Villasenor and Maria Herrera-Sobek, and a mariachi concert at the San Diego Civic Theatre on Sept. 5.

Besides the cultural events, the festival will include a U.S.-Mexican Trade Conference, which will be staged at Golden Hall Sept. 24-26, featuring speakers from the United States, Mexico and Canada discussing the effects of the proposed North America free-trade agreement.

“It’s only natural that this festival should have something on this topic,” Loaeza said.

The festival, which will cost about $350,000 to stage, will be funded by corporations on both sides of the border, as well as the Mexican government, according to Martha Contreras, president of San Diego-based Alba Educational Foundation, which promotes higher education and education for Latino students.

Many of the activities will be geared toward children, which was a specific goal of the festival organizers, Loaeza said, including a special performance of “La Guelaguetza” (a traditional music-and-dance show from the state of Oaxaca), a performance by the Baja California Chamber Orchestra and a children’s mariachi workshop.

Loaeza said the idea for the cultural event was mutually generated by the consulate and Alba. For the past three years, Alba has staged an annual mariachi festival.

“They had the experience of putting on a mariachi festival, and we had the intent of setting up a major cultural event,” Loaeza said.

The festival of films by Mexican directors, which will screen on six consecutive Thursdays, starting Sept. 3 at the Bay Theatre in National City, will include Nicolas Echevarria’s acclaimed “Cabeza de Vaca” (Sept. 17) and Juan Antonio de la Rosa’s “Pueblo de Madera” (Sept. 24), as well as two films by Maria Novao, “Lola” (Sept. 3) and “Danzon” (Oct. 8).

“They are all young, creative directors with scripts of different kinds, but all expressing creativeness of something that has been part of Mexican culture,” Loaeza said.

The goal is to make the festival an annual event.

“The idea is not to just have one festival like this every other year or whenever circumstances allow,” said Loaeza, “but to make this part of tradition.”

* The Mexico Cultural Festival, Sept. 3-Oct. 8. For more information, call Alba at 299-2190.