Juan Javier was born in 1989 in Chiapas, Mexico, in the Mayan Tsotsil village of "Sots'Leb" - "place of the bats" - known as Zinacantán since the Spanish conquest. From the age of 8, Juan Javier attended community ceremonies with his father and learned to play the Zinacanteco drum until he became part of a group of traditional musicians. He studied a degree in Intercultural Communication at the Intercultural University of Chiapas, and his first approach to cinema was through various documentary film workshops, awakening the need to tell about life from his culture. As part of the Documentary Film School of San Cristobal de Las Casas he made his first short film "Nichimal Son" (Blooming Music) and developed his first feature film "Vaychiletik" (Dreams). In 2017 he participated with this documentary project in PlataformaMX, as part of the Mexico City International Documentary Film Festival DOCSMX, where he won an award to participate in the TFI Network 2018, Tribeca Film Institute, in New York City. In 2021 he premiered "Vaychiletik" at the Latin American Film Festival of Biarritz (France), winning a Special Jury Award. The film has been screened at more than 40 festivals around the world, winning several awards, including a Special Jury Mention at the Morelia International Film Festival (Mexico) and the Living Heritage Prize at the Jean Rouch International Film Festival (France).
