Creative Migrations:
Carolina Alvarez-Mathies
October 2025
Interview by Panny Chayapumh
Carolina Alvarez-Mathies makes her way through the art world with a global perspective on family, community, and creative instinct. After growing up in San Salvador, El Salvador, Carolina has lived in the US, Europe, and now Mexico, where she serves as senior artistic director of institutional relations at OMR, and the first artistic director of LagoAlgo, its cultural center in Chapultepec Park.
Find Carolina at @calvarezmathies
San Salvador -> Connecticut
Panny Chayapumh: I’ve always known you to be an international woman of the world, can you tell me more about your upbringing?
Carolina Alvarez-Mathies: I was born and raised in San Salvador, El Salvador, during the civil war that ended in 1992. Looking back, I think about cultural aesthetics and the deep impact this has on how we are shaped. Moving around I’ve carried that with me, always. It deeply permeates into everything I do, so while I have moved around a lot that Salvadoran-ness is always present.
PC: So first you moved to the US as a teen, during high school. What was that like?
CAM: This move has to be one of the most significant, and defining moments of my life—there’s certainly a before and after. You go from being a teenage girl growing up in Latin America to an all-girls boarding school in Connecticut, it’s drastic. I learned a lot about “otherness” and also was exposed to a new and different culture, which to me was incredibly valuable. This all said, I absolutely LOVED it and wouldn’t change anything.
PC: Were there other Latina students there with you?
CAM: There was a girl from Panama who graduated the semester after I arrived, after that I was the only Latina there. There were a lot of other international students, from Europe and Southeast Asia, but most were American.
PC: You’ve always been very proud of your roots. How have you been able to stay so connected with your heritage through all these different movements?
CAM: That’s really a credit to my family. Family is at the center of everything I do. I was just home for my grandmother’s 98th birthday, and I still make it a point to go back for holidays and important milestones like births and celebrations.
For me, family is where heritage lives. Our businesses have been active since the 1800s, and that history keeps us connected—but more than business, it’s about the values we were raised with. Family is where I find meaning and identity, and above all, it’s what matters most.
PC: So, now you’re primarily in the arts. How did you get your foot in the door?
CAM: It really began at El Museo del Barrio in New York. At the time, I was working for fashion designer Ángel Sánchez—my very first job after college. Through El Museo, I met some extraordinary women on the board who mentored me and introduced me to fundraising. One of them had the idea to establish a young patrons board, and she invited me to be a founding member. That experience opened the door: I became close with the incoming director, who later asked me to join as Director of Communications—my first official role in a museum.
What’s special is that these connections weren’t transactional; they grew into genuine friendships that developed over time.
New York City -> Zurich
PC: Do you have any advice to younger people who are looking for mentors, like where to find these people and how to engage?
CAM: What I’m realizing is that I’m still looking for and asking for guidance and mentorship. I think it’s one of the most beautiful things we can do, to ask for help. I’ve been lucky to have incredible mentors, but I’ve also learned that they can come at any point in your life. Sometimes you just click with someone, and often it’s even outside of my own field—they don’t have to be in art to add value; in fact, that can make it even richer. And I learn just as much from younger people as I do from those with decades more experience.
I know it’s easier said than done, but try not to be intimidated—just ask someone for a coffee. Most people are genuinely flattered to take the time to meet someone new. Reach out, ask questions, and take the leap. You never know when a yes might come your way, and when it does, it can be transformative.
PC: How long have you been working in the arts sector now?
CAM: Ten years last month!
PC: With all these different places that you’ve lived and built communities around, what makes a new location feel like home, or when does a place start to feel like someplace that you can call home?
CAM: That’s a really good question. I don’t know that home is a place for me. I don’t think that it’s necessarily a geographic location. Is home where you’re born? Where you’ve lived the most? Where you eventually settle down and build a family?
PC: Mhm. Home is where your favorite people are?
CAM: Yes, for sure. That said, I don’t have many things that tie me down, and I travel so much. It’s a question I ask myself often, and one I talk about with friends who live similar lifestyles. I think it’s a big conversation for women in their late 30s and early 40s—women who aren’t married, don’t have children, and are living these unattached, very mobile lives.
PC: Yeah, it’s hard to pin down. My parents moved from the house that we grew up in and they’ve moved cities, so when I visit them I feel like I’m in this place I don’t have a lot of connection to. A lot of the comfort that I feel is with the people that I know. I think your tangible world is so expansive and you can have wonderful conversations with friendly faces in all these different countries. There’s a warmth that you can experience when not every different location is brand new to you. And I think that’s really beautiful, having a wider reach.
Bottom, Middle: A recent portrait of Carolina taken by Natalia Martín del Campo
CAM: Yeah, for sure. That’s beautifully said. I’ve felt at home in Mexico City over dinners with people that are entirely new to my life, and I get hit with this feeling of “Oh, wow. This feels like my new home.” Then I go to El Salvador to my family, my 1-year-old nephew and 98-year-old grandmother of course that’s home...Every time I visit NY where I lived for a decade, it sort of feels like a return to a home and I never left...So I am really fortunate to have many emotional homes.
PC: I really like what you said about how life is just so different for women now. I feel like it’s something that I’ve always heard as a kid, but to experience it firsthand, you know, when you’re at a certain age, you’re not married, you’re not even really thinking—at least for me—about children. And that it’s kind of unheard of from people I grew up with. To live it is a bit different than hearing that it could possibly be this way.
Whose guidance do you look up to in deciding where to go next, or is it more like following a feeling?
CAM: I think it’s a feeling—it’s my gut. At the start of our conversation, I mentioned how my family values have been such a guiding force in what I do, and how they’ve helped me hold onto my identity while living in so many different places and taking big risks, both geographically and professionally. But my personal path, in friendships, lovers, relationships in general, it has always felt innately different. A lot of it comes down to what works for me and trusting my gut in different moments. Sometimes you just know what feels right, and you have to be brave enough to follow that instinct. And as I get older, I often think: I should have just trusted myself from the beginning. But hindsight is always 20/20.
PC: Between each move, I’m sure there was logistical planning with visas and stuff. Has your workplace always taken care of this, or has that been your responsibility? Is there a lawyer who’s been your go-to?
CAM: I’ve worked with different attorneys at different points in my life. As a teenager in El Salvador, I went through the process of getting student visas—the I-20s—and the paperwork was a massive pile. I still remember lugging that stack around to every appointment. Those were the days before everything went online! You had to fill everything out by hand, and then actually go get printed photos to staple to the application. Do you remember how long those forms were? I’ve had I-20s, OPT, then H-1Bs, and now I’m on a green card.
PC: As we’re growing, as we’re moving through these different positions in life, we kind of don’t think about it all. But when you have to document stuff and look through all the things that you’ve done, what does that feel like? Does it feel like a straightforward path or does it feel more irregular with all the different choices that you’ve made?
CAM: Definitely a little irregular, but good. You know, there’s always some surprises along the way, some unexpected detours. It’s what keeps it interesting.
Dallas -> Mexico City
PC: I feel like in order for you to do your job well you have to be integrated into your community, because people come to you, they want to see art, they want to see the best of culture right now. How do you get in the know of all these spaces you’ve lived in?
CAM: Curiosity. It’s genuine interest and hunger to get to know a city. I love what I do and it’s more than art. It’s cuisine, it’s fashion, it’s people—all of it. It’s those cultural aesthetics that we talked about.
Getting to know who is creating what has been the most beautiful part of moving [to Mexico City]. People here are so wonderfully open, and their sense of hospitality is remarkable. I feel really fortunate to have been welcomed in that way and to be able to discover the city through those connections.
PC: There’s people who do a lot of research beforehand, and there are people who take the plunge and just learn as they go—and you seem to be the second of the two. Is there a place that you found more challenging than others? I’m sure each place has its different challenges.
CAM: Ha! Is it that obvious? I think every place is different. Take Mexico City, for example—it was the first Spanish-speaking place I’d lived in since leaving El Salvador at 15. I had forgotten how much I’d taken for granted the ease of arriving somewhere where you already speak the language. Obviously, when you’re living in a place where you’re not a native speaker, everything is that much harder. Spending a few months in Zurich without speaking German was definitely more challenging. Language makes all the difference.
When you’re in places where the culture is closer to your own—like Latin America, or even living in Texas where it’s warmer and the family values feel similar—it’s easier to integrate into friendships and everyday life. But no matter where you go, people response when you respect their culture, when you’re genuinely curious and invested in learning about them. Go with an open mind, be respectful, and approach it all with an open heart. I think that’s really all it takes for people to welcome you—and I hope I’ve done, or at least tried to do, just that.
PC: Do you feel integrated within your local community now?
CAM: Yeah, then again, where is my local community? A bit everywhere...
PC: Who are the people you’re surrounded with in your everyday?
CAM: Colleagues, friends. I have some family that lives here. I also get a huge number of visitors, which is fun to reconnect with friends and show them around your new city.
PC: What is something you’d love to try that you haven’t tried in Mexico City yet?
CAM: Oh my god, so many things. There’s these quesadillas from a lady named Mary at the camellón de Michoacán and corner of Pachuca that my friend Mijangos keeps talking about. Oh, and for sure the plant market in Xochimilco, I need some plants for my house.
PC: Do you think you’ll be based here for a while?
CAM: Definitely. Yes.
PC: Is there somewhere you want to visit that you haven’t been yet?
CAM: Absolutely. India. I want to spend a significant amount of time there. I have an aunt who lives in Kolkata, and has been visiting for many years. I remember being a child and loving her stories about life there.