6th Tequila Festival

Santillana del Mar celebrates the 6th edition of the Tequila Festival with three days dedicated to the historical ties between Cantabria, Mexico, and the Orient

The Diocesan Museum will be the main stage for a program that, from October 2 to 4, will bring together lectures, cultural visits, exhibitions, Mexican gastronomy, and music, featuring a concert by the Mariachi Internacional Estampas de México in the Plaza Mayor

Santillana del Mar, October 1, 2026.– Santillana del Mar will celebrate the 6th edition of the Tequila Festival on October 2, 3, and 4, a cultural event that once again focuses on the deep historical, artistic, and heritage ties that unite the town with Mexico and, more broadly, with the trade and cultural routes that connected Europe, America, and Asia for centuries.

The festival reaches its sixth edition this year, consolidating a line of research and outreach initiated in 2021, focused especially on the legacy of the "indianos" of Santillana del Mar and the mark those relationships left on the town's heritage. The City Council also maintains the 6th Tequila Festival among the cultural events on its official agenda for this weekend.

One of the cornerstones of the meeting will be the figure and lineage of the Sánchez de Tagle family, closely linked to Santillana del Mar, which will allow for a deeper look into the historical relations with Mexico and the circulation of people, wealth, objects, and artistic expressions between both sides of the Atlantic.

Three days of history, heritage, gastronomy, and music

The programme will begin on Friday, October 2nd, at 18:00, with a visit to the oriental rooms of the Museo Diocesano. At 19:30, Dr. Francisco C. Mantecón will give a lecture at Regina Coeli titled «El linaje Sánchez de Tagle de Santillana en las Indias: familia, riqueza, honores, herencia y poder (ss. XVII al XIX)».

Saturday, October 3rd, will host a large part of the activities open to the public. At 11:00, a guided tour of the town will depart from the Museo Jesús Otero to discover the palaces built during the 17th and 18th centuries with capital from Mexico and the Philippines. At 11:30, there will be a mariachi parade, and at 12:00, a visit to the exhibition «La seda China en la Colegiata de Santillana» will take place.

Gastronomy will also play a prominent role with a tasting of Mexican food at 13:00 in the cloister of the Museo Diocesano.

In the afternoon, at 18:00, Dr. Alberto Tagle will offer a lecture at Regina Coeli titled «Las consecuencias tecnológicas, culturales y gastronómicas del comercio a través del Galeón».

One of the main events will take place at 20:00 in the Plaza Mayor, with a concert by the Mariachi Internacional Estampas de México, which will bring traditional Mexican music to the heart of Santillana. In case of rain, the performance will be moved to Regina Coeli. The celebration of this concert and the festival's set of activities are also included in the official municipal programme.

The festival will conclude on Sunday, October 4th, at 18:00, at the Museo Diocesano, with the lecture «Influencias y relaciones en las artes decorativas entre China-México y Cantabria», given by Enrique Campuzano Ruiz, director of the Museo Diocesano.

During the event, a live connection from Mexico with the historian Dr. Gonzalo Sánchez de Tagle is also scheduled, further reinforcing the international dimension of the gathering. 

A heritage that continues to open new avenues of research

The sixth edition aims to pay special attention to research on luxury items of oriental origin—silks, ivories, porcelains, shells, mother-of-pearl, or furniture—preserved in Cantabria and linked to families and lineages from Santillana del Mar and its surroundings.

The study of these pieces is allowing for a deeper understanding of a history that connects Cantabria with Mexico, the Philippines, and China, and helps to grasp the scope of the economic and cultural networks that, especially during the 17th and 18th centuries, made it possible for objects and artistic expressions from very distant places to reach the region.

The festival was born precisely with the vocation of raising awareness of the legacy of the "indianos" of Santillana del Mar and turning that past into a tool for historical and cultural dissemination. As early as its first edition, the City Council highlighted this objective as one of the fundamental reasons for the initiative. 

With this sixth edition, Santillana del Mar once again reclaims its heritage not only as a monumental legacy, but as a testimony to a history open to the world, recovering the connections between the town, America, and the Orient, and bringing them closer to the public through research, culture, music, and gastronomy.

All activities are free to attend until full capacity is reached.