Latino Civic Association Spanish Puppet Show!

The Community Arts Partnership is happy to support organizations like the Latino Civic Association (LCA) through our Grants for Arts Programs (GAP).

LCA has received annual funding through GAP for the Heritage Month Celebrations and Heritage Fiesta. In 2025 they also sponsored a grant to host Spanish puppet shows by artists Leonor Lypszic (pictured), and LilySilly Puppets.

The GAP grant supports artistic programs open to the Tompkins County general public. It is through grants like the GAP grant that CAP helps keep Ithaca’s art scene vital!

Leonor is a professional Argentinian puppeteer, dancer, and actress and has been an artist for over 40 years. Her most recent project is the theater company “Los Salvatierras” (The Earth-savers). Her show, “Pedro and the Odyssey of the Parana," has won many awards and nominations from Argentinian entities, and now Leonor is adventuring into international spaces to keep sharing her art with a wider audience!

Leonor brought the story of Pedro, a character that came to life out of her giant book, to Ithaca in mid-October. Pedro has playful moments in his garden with a lama and a bunny, then took on the tale of Ulysses on the Parana River. In the midst of a terrible storm, Ulysses fell under the enchantment of three singing frogs, was attacked by a monstrous one-eyed fish, and was rescued by an unlikely hero.

LCA also hosted local puppeteers from the LilySilly Puppet Theater, who performed one of their well-loved shows, “Wanda and the Three Magic Potions,” for a full afternoon of puppet presentations. Loreto Molina and Eva Luna translated the LilySilly show into Spanish and provided their puppeteers with a script.

Hispanics make up 6.5% of the total population of Tompkins County, yet there is a lack of representation for arts programs for youth. These shows were directly targeted to the Spanish-speaking community and Hispanic youth, to bridge that gap during Hispanic Heritage Month. 

Visit https://www.lcatompkins.org/