Vane�s Theory
05.20.02 // 7:44 p.m.

Mexicans are not supposed to and can�t dance salsa. Anyone who is Mexican and can dance is really just lying about his or her Mexican-ness.

Vane has a point, and nowhere was it more clear than on Friday night at Cal Poly Pomona LBSA�s (Latino Business Students Association) �Una Noche Salsera.� About a week earlier my cousins who attend Cal Poly, Ren� and Ernie, had invited me to the concert their organization was planning. My T�a Luisa, Mom and cousin Patty were all excited about going and making it a girl�s night out. Later, at my apartment I asked Vane to come along and she accepted.

So, we put on our dancing shoes and headed out to Pomona. As soon as we sat down at the table with the rest of our group we began to feel out of place. We were wearing too much clothes, it wasn�t sparkly enough, our shoes weren�t high enough, and my hair wasn�t big enough (Vane�s was). We just didn�t fit in.

We tried to dance in a circle with the others but the cumbia moves took over. We were kidding ourselves. We�re Mexican! The only salsa we can put up with is in our tacos. We can�t dance to the tropical sounds of Celia Cruz or other salseros. Its not like we don�t have rhythm, give us our rock en espa�ol, �80s music, cumbias, norte�as, banda, even hip hop and we�ll tear it up. But salsa, well we need more work on that part.

You see, Vane and I have an unnatural aversion to salsa. It comes from being Mechistas and has nothing to do with being Mexican. On campus there�s another raza organization we make fun of a lot. They�re not bad people, but they�re just less focused on activism and more focused on dancing their way to liberation. They really do dance a lot. They have a few dance troupes, one that performed Friday night. So, as young Mechistas we avoided salsa like the plague lest we be mistaken for members of the other group.

Vane and I sat at our table picking out the Mexicans. They were the ones with the okay rhythm, but they flapped their arms too much. We marveled at the fact that some of the folks in the contest took their dancing so seriously (a l� Dance With Me with Chayanne and Vanessa Williams).

At the end of the contest Johnny Polanco�s conjunto started up again. I sat back listening to the great music, and then some guy asked me to dance.

I tried saying no to him in Spanish, but not because I didn�t want to dance with him but because I assumed that he knew how to dance and I�d just trip over my own two non-salsa dancing left feet. But I couldn�t say no because my mom and Vane insisted that I go.

So, there I stood on the wooden dance floor slightly taller than my partner. I explained to him in Spanish that I didn�t know how to dance salsa, but he was cool with it. Homero ended up being a pretty good teacher. After we got through some small talk he showed me some fun moves and gave me some advice.

First, I got to remember to make my turns in, meaning to my left. Second, be spontaneous and improvise moves to the beat. Third, my arms should be up at about the level of my breasts so he can easily grab a hand to do a move or bring me closer. Fourth, your feet should follow what your hands are doing. Fifth, since the turns are really quick and repeated, you got to spot or else you�ll get really dizzy. I think some of my folkl�rico experience helped out.

As long as I kept the beat and followed Homero�s lead I did fine. He asked me, �de d�nde eres? I don�t know if he meant where I was from in California or the world. It�s a weird question. I just answered �de aqu�,� because it has the double meaning of here in LA and being US-born.

Vane joked later that I was dancing my way to liberation. After a few hours of dancing I still need much more practice. So, is Vane�s theory true, are Mexicans really not meant to dance salsa? I�m not quite sure. I certainly did well with Homero (I was never sure if he was Mexican or not, couldn�t tell from his accent).

Salsa�s fun for one night, but I�ll take my Caifanes (rock en espa�ol), Sonora Dinamita (cumbias), los Tigres del Norte (norte�as), and Ramon Ayala (banda) over Celia Cruz any day.

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