The first time I went to meet Tony Perez, I walked right past him. There was a man standing outside Starbucks with tight black pants, an Armani shirt and designer sunglasses—an unlikely match for his scraggly gray hair and gold tooth. For some reason, I did not so much as pause to wonder whether he could be my salsa guru. One cup of coffee and an hour later, it turns out he was just the man I was looking for.
To begin my salsa journey, I needed guidance. I started contacting as many instructors in Santa Fe as I could find, and to my luck, they all seemed to know each other and be friendly enough to refer me to the next person and the next. It turns out the Santa Fe salsa community is not as big as I imagined, but we'll get into that later. Tony Perez, founder and salsa instructor of Mambo Fe, was the first interview I lined up and I couldn't have been more pleased. I needed someone to tell me everything there was to know about salsa and more. I wanted to learn the history, the culture, the people, the music, the dress, and on and on. Tony was the perfect person to lead me through this overwhelmingly vibrant, aggressive whirlwind of color and into the light.
Tony was born and raised in Mexico. He actually hated Latin music for most of his younger years, but upon turning 13, sparked a new interest in the step. And then he fell in love, with salsa of course. He danced and taught in Mexico for ten straight years, going on tour with local and national TV, even dancing with the beautiful Miss Universe, Lupita Jones. He moved to the U.S. in 1996 and to Santa Fe in 1999, where he's taught ever since. What distinguishes Tony from other salsa instructors in Santa Fe is that he dances "on 2," which is a New York Style of Mambo salsa that adds an extra inner rhythm. Everyone else dances "on 1," which involves dancing on top of the rhythms rather than blending with them.
Tony told me all about salsa's rich Afro-Cuban history, it's fusion of Latin and jazz rhythms, and how it was born in the south Bronx in the late 1960's with Johnny Pacheco and the Fania All Stars. Salsa, Tony says, is like a big pot of tomato sauce; it's a mélange of different Latin rhythms fused with reggae and hip-hop that together create the perfect sauce. The "clave" is the tomato in this sauce, the fundamental rhythm and instrument that holds the rest of the pieces together and makes the sauce spicy and unique. In Tony's words, the clave is "the life blood of salsa music."
Tony's thick Spanish accent brought the history of salsa alive. The way he talked about salsa was like the way he talked about his own Latin lover. It had become such a prominent part of him that he was eager to share his passion with someone else.
When we started talking about Santa Fe’s salsa culture, his energy fell. “It’s like a see-saw,” he said. “There are moments when we have strong solid bands and dancing venues, and then it all dies.” This saddened me as a newcomer, but it sort of made sense. Venues are hard for any kind of artist, musician or dancer around here, and for salsa dancers, who drink water rather than alcohol; it’s hard to get a bar to support that kind of community. Albuquerque, apparently, is where it’s at. With over 4,000 Cubans, there are dancing venues open every night.
This development, though a little shocking, did not deter me in the slightest. Hearing Tony speak about this niche of Santa Fe made me want to embrace it even more. Salsa was picking up with the arrival of warm weather, Tony told me, and I would be breaking into the scene at its peak. Well then, I thought, let’s put on my dancing shoes and get started
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