Fred Cayetano was born into a Mazahua migrant family in 2001, on the outskirts of the big city. He graduated with a degree in Hispanic Language and Literature from the FES Acatlán faculty of the UNAM. In 2022, he was awarded the Incentive for Audiovisual Creation in Mexico and Central America for Indigenous and Afro-descendant Communities (ECAMC) for his film Dueto charanda. In 2024, he took part in the first Latin American Indigenous Filmmakers’ Laboratory at the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) with his project Mub´u o sobre poner el corazón en el lugar correcto, which went on to win the IMCINE feature film screenplay grant a year later. That same year, he took part in the Escuela Diversa de Cine Indígenas, organised by the Pre-Columbian Museum of Chile, with his work In zhungo – mi casa, which secured him a place at Bolivia Lab. This year, in collaboration with DocsMX, he is preparing his debut feature film, Estrella de Tlalpujahua, a project which has once again been awarded the ECAMC grant. At the same time, he is producing Sonámbulo, a Mazahua short film by Rubén Medellín; Francisca Ká di nekí, a Hñathö short film by Iris Esmeralda Morales (both also funded by the ECAMC); and El camino de la soledad by Fanny Navarro. In addition to his film work, Fred has staged a performance at the Toluca Museum of Fine Arts in which he combines film and poetry. His writings have been published by PROCINE and, as part of his community service, he coordinates the FES Acatlán blog promoting literature in indigenous languages. As a writer, he was awarded the prestigious UNAM 2025 Young Poets’ Prize. Fred dreams of continuing to tell his own stories.
