Multiforo Tlalpan

The Multiforo Tlalpan is an important public theater in the Historic Center of Tlalpan. The schedule regularly features musicals, theatrical works, musical act, plus important video and film screenings. It’s part of what makes the Tlalpan center a vibrant cultural community.

In fact, the theater opened as the “Cine Tlalpan” nearly 100 years ago. 1927 is just the first record of it in print. It operated as an auditorium for the reform school that took up much of the current Parque Leona Vicario. But for most of the 20th century it was a movie theater, boxing venue, and musical theater.

In the 1940s, the cinema was bought outright Matilde Landeta (1913-1999). Her dramatic story is one of struggle to direct the films she’d long been writing. Today she’s remembered especially for the films that were blackballed by the industry for no other reason than that she was a woman. She’s still one of the greats of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema.

The theater continued to operate showing weekly movies and matinees straight through to 1995. The abandoned facility was only then finally rescued by the local government. The Multiforo Tlalpan was rehabilitated (and renamed) in the late 1990s. Today it’s a much smaller and more intimate venue than the giant Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli. The Ollin is roughly a ten-minute drive to the northwest. But the space and size still make this one of Tlalpan’s premier stages.