The Salvador Allende Arts Festival for Peace was founded in 2003 by Tamara Toledo, Rodrigo Barreda, Lautaro Fuentes and Leonardo Leiva to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the military coup in Chile on Sept. 11, 1973. The festival was built on the premises that artists can play an important role on all levels of social change through a recuperation and re interpretation of stories and histories. The festival was also established as a haven to promote the work of Latin American and visible minority artists in Canada. Since its inception, it has become a place where artists showcase politically and socially engaged work and a place for artists of various disciplines and diverse backgrounds to establish networks and develop their artistic practices.