Walt Disney World permanently closed the Oaxacan wood carving stand inside EPCOT's Mexico Pavilion on August 31, 2026, ending carver Alba Hernandez Santiago's 24 year run in the Plaza de los Amigos marketplace, cast members confirmed to multiple Central Florida theme park outlets.

Disney has not stated why the shop closed or what will take its place, according to reporting from Chip and Company and WDW News Today, both of which found remaining inventory marked down 50 percent in the shop's final days. The adjacent Kidcot children's activity stop was dismantled and roped off within a day of the closure, then relocated deeper inside the pyramid about a week later alongside the folk music group Mariachi Cobre, according to follow up reporting from WDW News Today, Inside the Magic and Disney Fanatic.

What closed, and what has moved since

The stand sold alebrijes, brightly painted wooden animal figures carved from copal wood, a craft associated with Oaxaca, Mexico. Chip and Company reported that the figures were individually hand carved with pocketknives and machetes before being sanded and painted by hand. By September 1, WDW News Today found the space cleared to a bare lamppost and a wooden barrel, with Disney giving no indication of a replacement tenant. A second wave of changes followed: Mariachi Cobre, the mariachi group that has performed at EPCOT since the park opened in 1982, moved its shows from an outdoor spot near La Cantina de San Angel into the pyramid, taking over the footprint the Kidcot stop had occupied. Kidcot itself was not eliminated. It reopened days later closer to the pavilion entrance, according to WDW News Today and Inside the Magic.

Who Alba Hernandez Santiago is

Santiago trained in Arrazola, a town in Mexico's Oaxaca valley regarded as a center of the alebrije tradition, according to travel outlet Frommers. She worked the wood carving stand at EPCOT for 24 years alongside her brother Marco and daughter Veronica, Frommers reported, making her among the longest serving of the resident craftspeople World Showcase built its identity around when the park opened in 1982. Disney gave the public only a few days' notice before her final shift, per that account, and has not issued a statement addressing her departure directly.

The pattern at other pavilions

Santiago's exit is not the first loss of a working artisan at EPCOT. Frommers reported that the Germany pavilion's resident egg painter, Jutta Levasseur, who had decorated eggs in the East German Sorbian style since the park's 1982 opening, left her lagoon side alcove in 2012. Separately, fan outlet Disney Fanatic has reported that when management of the Morocco pavilion transitioned to Disney in 2020, the company closed craft shops tied to the 21 Moroccan artisans who helped build the pavilion in 1984 and introduced a meet and greet built around the animated film character Aladdin. Disney has not disputed either account, and neither closure carried an official company explanation on the record.

What is confirmed and what is not

What is documented: the wood carving stand is gone, the space sat empty as of early September, and Kidcot was temporarily removed and then relocated. What is not documented is Disney's reasoning, or any confirmed plan for the vacated square footage. Fan outlets including Disney Fanatic and Inside the Magic have reported that unnamed insiders expect the space to become overflow queuing for La Cava del Tequila, the pyramid's tequila bar, which Disney's own dining pages describe as pouring more than 200 tequilas alongside margaritas and Mexican beer and wine. That queue theory has not been confirmed by Disney and does not appear in any cast member statement on the record.

What this means

The reporting supports a specific, narrow fact: a working artisan's stand is gone and Disney has not said what replaces it. The broader argument now circulating in fan press, that alcohol sales are displacing EPCOT's original cultural mission, rests on the unconfirmed queue theory rather than any company statement, and readers should treat it as informed speculation rather than an announced plan. La Cava del Tequila's popularity is well documented independent of this story; what remains unverified is any causal link between that popularity and Santiago's departure.