(pronouns: she/her/hers)

​

Consuelo Alba is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Watsonville Film Festival (WFF). Under her leadership, WFF developed from a grassroots collective into a non-profit arts organization offering year-round programming. The WFF mission is to showcase primarily Latinx stories that illuminate our shared humanity and promote positive change. 

 

For years, Consuelo has leveraged the power of film to inspire, connect and shift disempowering narratives and harmful stereotypes of the Latinx community. She is an award winning-documentary filmmaker and executive producer of local films. Her short El Andalón / The Healer screened in more than 30 film festivals worldwide, received seven awards and was broadcast on Mexican public television 

 

In her role as a film festival director, she is a community organizer, multimedia producer and programmer whose work is grounded in equity, creativity and joy. Working with an incredible Board, and a small but mighty staff and volunteers, Consuelo puts together film programs that spark powerful conversations and inspire action. 

 

Consuelo was born and raised in Mexico City. Her parents instilled in her a deep appreciation for her culture. Since moving to California 25 years ago, she made it her mission to honor her cultural legacy through her work as a translator, reporter, editor, business owner, documentary filmmaker and cultural activist.

 

Consuelo graduated with honors with a BA in Communication Sciences & Journalism from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She worked as a translator for El Andar, an iconic bilingual magazine in Santa Cruz, and as an editor and reporter with Nuevo Mundo, the Spanish language publication of the San Jose Mercury News.

 

Currently, Consuelo is the Board Chair of the Arts Council Santa Cruz County and inaugural member of Rise Together. 

 

Consuelo loves to watch films, dance, commune with nature and travel with her husband John.