Casa del Poeta will not have a cabaret, and director is dismissed

Mexico City's Secretary of Culture, Ana Francis Mor, has dismissed Andrés Carreño as director of the Casa del Poeta Ramón López Velarde. This action responds to demands from the cultural community, which had been protesting since June 4 against proposed changes to the cultural center. The community opposed plans to transform the historic venue, where poet Ramón López Velarde lived and died, into a cabaret.

Mor also confirmed that the "Café-Bar 'Las Hormigas' will not function as a cabaret," addressing another major point of contention. In a statement released on social media, the secretary responded to 11 points raised by the Committee for the Defense of the Casa del Poeta. She pledged to appoint a new director from "the field of letters, poetry, and cultural management," assuring that the venue would retain its name and its primary focus on poetry.

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poetry has always been and will continue to be the epicenter of the venue

The secretary reiterated that the Casa del Poeta remains open to all literary expressions and guaranteed the preservation of the libraries of Efraín Huerta and Salvador Novo, as well as the Ramón López Velarde Museum. Regarding financial transparency, Mor detailed the process of the venue's return to the city's administration. The director of the Casa del Poeta Foundation, Mari Carmen Férez, who managed the venue for 33 years, explained the legal steps taken for the foundation's dissolution and the property's handover. This process began when the City's Culture Secretariat informed the foundation of a 50% budget cut for 2025 and the complete cessation of funding for 2026.

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the nomination of a person from the field of letters, poetry, and cultural management