Mon, Jul 06, 2009
Gerardo Armendariz and his partner and wife, Lupita, met through their mutual interest in salsa.
Courtesy of Gerardo Armendariz
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RANCHO RESORT MAINTANANCE POSITION Administrative & Professional Tucson Urban League CEO/President Administrative & Professional Jorgensen Brooks Group Counselor Finance and Accounting Charles E. Gillman Company Accounting Specialist Mechanical Komatsu Equipment Co Resident Field Mechanic Sales and Marketing Everready Glass Sales Reps CalienteConcert celebrates Hispanic legacyMemorable show will pay tribute to Latin dancing, music
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.03.2006
For attendees of Saturday's "Viva Arizona: 100 Years of Hispanic Musical Memories" concert at Centennial Hall, the evening will be a vibrant experience brimming with colorful Latin dance and ear-pleasing music.
But participants get something out of it as well.
Salsa dancer Gerardo Armendariz and flamenco performer Julia Terrell, for examples, get the opportunity to show off the dance styles that have given them so much.
If it wasn't for salsa, Armendariz would have never met his dance partner and wife, Lupita.
"She was actually my student," said Armendariz, 28, who has been dancing strictly salsa for the past decade. "A friend of hers had recommended me, and she called me up. That's how we met. And after a month or two she got really good."
The duo went on to create the University of Arizona's "Ritmos Latinos" salsa club and the dance team Salsón.
"Had she not been so interested in salsa, we might not have gotten married," he said.
Terrell started her flamenco journey a little earlier than Armendariz, at the tender age of 3. She took up flamenco to build a stronger connection with her Spanish heritage. Her mom was born and raised in the European country.
What she soon found, however, was a closer connection to the dance style.
"Flamenco dancing is just so passionate and emotional," Terrell said. "You can tell by the way the dancers are performing exactly what they are feeling inside. It is a really good way to express things you can't really say.
"When I was little, I had a hard time expressing myself with words, so flamenco was a good way to show people what I was feeling inside."
Members of the longtime Tucson trio Los Hermanos Perez see Saturday's event as a reunion of sorts.
The group, which had been serenading folks around the city with romantic boleros since the early 1950s, put the band on hiatus after a death in the family in 2004.
Trio leader Frank Perez said the event is kind of like coming out of "semi-retirement." He also feels it is a way to keep the trio style of music in the public eye.
"There is a lot of mariachi talent in this town since the (Tucson International Mariachi) conference started," Perez said. "But there is no exposure to trio music. I don't want it to die. It is such a beautiful style."
For Javier Trujillo and his group, Mariachi Plata de Las Vegas, the performance is a chance to show off the ensemble to a Tucson audience for the first time.
Trujillo is a native Tucsonan, a longtime member of Mariachi Cobre and still tours with the popular Orlando, Fla.-based group. He founded Mariachi Plata in Las Vegas after being recruited by the Clark County School District to help build up its mariachi program four years ago.
Five current and former members of Cobre — Trujillo, his brother Mario Trujillo, Chris Figueroa, Frank Grijalva and Adam Romo — help make up the new ensemble.
"It just feels right to go home and be able to share with our family and friends," Trujillo said. "What we've done with the music and how we are representing our Tucson community out here in Las Vegas.
"We hope Tucson sees us as their ambassadors out here sharing the good news, that Tucson is truly a mecca for mariachi."
x Contact reporter Gerald M. Gay at 573-4137 or ggay@azstarnet.com.
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