First there was Florico

Primero fue Flórico

The crowd cheers as we finish our traditional mexican dance performance. I breath in and out as we performed on through 4 different songs. My little nine year old self was tired of the exaggerated heel stomps (known as zapateado) and the constant spins. I’m kneeling down on one knee with one hand holding my partner. My partner has one foot on my knee and one hand holding mine as she leans back, grabs my giant sombrero and throws it up into the air holding the pose. We both tired as our faces are red with exhaustion. Us and the 4 other couples stand up, take a bow and walk off the stage. And that was that.

11 years ago I was 7 years old. I was a couple of years still new into the United States being that I am from a different country (Mexico). As a young child I was able to pick up on the english fairly quickly. During this year I was enrolled into a bilingual program at the school I went to which was the help young kids, such as myself, who didn’t speak english as their first language and teach them english with of course teaching them hints of their primary language here and there. During our free time (which we had in class) was to basically do whatever we wanted (legal things obvio). I would always ask the teacher to play some banda (band) music or something to just dance too. My teacher (Ms. Salvarado) being from Mexico as well knew just what songs to play. I would dance and move to these songs, but I wasn’t the greatest dancer. I had no idea what I was doing but me and a couple of other kids will just dance till our free time was over. One day Ms. Salvarado asked me why I wasn’t in her flórico (folklórico or folklore) dance program like my two sisters were. Well 1) I had no idea my sisters (who are older than me by the way) were even in that program. 2) I had no idea a program like that even existed. And 3) My uneducated self had no idea what flórico was in the first place. Ms. Salvarado explained how it was a traditional mexican dance that they would always seem to do in villages back in the day. Where the girls would wear nice big flashy dresses and the guys will wear flashy suits with a big sombrero on her head. I asked her as curious as I am what was the program for. She said that originally it was for fun but that now they perform at big mexican and american holidays and that I should do it since I love “dancing” in the first place. Of course I said yes with no hesitation. When I got home I asked my parents if I can do it too. They said “Yes!” with so much excitement that I wanted to go with my roots just like my sisters were (so was i shamed before?). The next day luckily they had practice and it was going to be my first time. I was so excited and ready to begin that I couldn’t sit still. Which got me in a lot of trouble that day but as a kid I could care less. I wanted to get to practice already. As the day ended and it was time for practice to start. I was so ready that I ended up running from my classroom and ran to one of my sister’s classroom and waited for her to get out so she can show me where the practice was. I was so happy, so giddy. It was as if I was on a sugar rush mixed with some sort of adrenaline drug. I couldn’t contain my excitement. Oh I can remember my sister’s face when I said I was going to join her in practice that day. She was in shock and little sad that now her little brother was going to be joining her. She got over it but who would want their little sibling doing the same thing they do. As we walked over to practice we walked into a room that was meant for upperclassmen. I saw other people moving the desk in order to make a big space in the center of the classroom. I watched as I realized I was the youngest one there and that everyone else was in 3rd grade or higher. I was fascinated but at the same time I was intimidated by all the tall bodies looming over my tiny body. I can remember Ms. Salvarado starting to direct people to get into positions. Me being my first time I was clueless on what to do. I just stood in the back and waited for more instructions.
“Estan Listos, Orale, empezamos”

Of course I wasn’t told what to do and I just stood there as a burst of loud trumpets start off into a song that just starting playing from a tiny box with holes in it. I just stood there while everyone started moving, stopping their heels on the ground and doing spins around each other. I just stood there still clueless as ever trying to figure out what exactly I should do. Then I noticed the pattern. After a couple of different set of dance moves, they would always return back to one main set of moves. I tried to do it myself. Of course I failed miserably not being able to copy down the stopping rhythm of the heels properly and the spins were just too much for me. I would either spin to many times or too fast causing the earth to tilt and me tilting with it. Of course the earth isn't supposed to tilt so I would stumble trying to regain my balance. Next was a partner song. Where basically you hold hands or dance with a specific someone for the entirety of the song. I saw my sister’s partner up with what seemed to be their usual partners. I was to stand their like the weirdo that everyone shuns out. Until Ms. Salvarado called me over.

“Maybe she wants me to sit this one out,” I told myself since I didn’t have somebody to dance with. I walked over to where she was and realize there was another little girl who looked like my age. Which was strange cause I didn’t notice her before. I smiled at her and she smiled back.

“Emmanuel, this is going to be your partner [Eva]” I remember Ms. Salvarado saying. I stared at her and asked

“How old are you,”

“7” she responded back

That was the same age as me!!! We walked out on the dance floor and Ms. Salvarado finally gave me a spot on where I should stand. This was a new routine that nobody really knew yet so I had a better chance at being able to be as good as the others. But of course there was one thing I completely forgot about. I had no rhythm in my hips and I could not follow a count of beats for the life of me. Eva was already a pro through. She’s been doing this as long as my sister’s have supposedly been doing it. So I guess it was more practice for me. But it wasn’t something I’m going to regret.

Weeks and weeks of going to practices over and over, learning the steps to the routine and the constant yelling from my Sister’s to get the steps right. It’s all be a thrill and tough. I learned that the heel stomping was called “Zapateado”. Where it's practically tap dancing except most of the tapping is coming from your heel. And it's not really tapping its stomping. More or less it’s a type of dance. I finally reached the level where I mastered zapateado and I’m getting to the point of mastering the basic flórico dance movements. I started to get the hang of which types of choreos go with which types of songs and remembering which types of moves go fast or slow on certain beats. I finally mastered counting beats as me and Eva whisper it to each other during practices when Ms. Salvarado doesn’t. I grew to have a great friendship with my partner as we are in sync with each step and each hip move. Usually never missing a beat or stepping on each other accidently like we used to when I was a rookie. Of course when we did mess up we just laugh it off and try to quickly pick up back to the routine and continuing dancing with the others. But soon everything changed for me when Ms. Salvarado finally announced one thing. That we will finally be performing for an audience. But not just any audience, it will be a greater audience in front of many people at a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival. Of course my heart skipped a beat. It never caught my attention that we will be performing for others rather than just dancing just to know how to. I stared at Eva, my sisters, and all the other dancers in the room. They seemed so calm and relax while i'm over here freaking out over the idea that thousands of people were going to see us dance, or worse, mess up. After this announcement we added a new element to our practices. For the guys, a sombrero has been added into our practices so we can practice utilizing it. Such as swinging it around and “cleaning the dirt” for our beautiful partners to dance on. And the girl got the bottom part of their dresses where they can manipulate it with the motions of their arms in order to make it look like waves in their dresses. Of course Eva already knew how to do this since she’s done this before. But I never had. I never realized how hard it was to swing a sombrero. Especially since it was practically half my size. I struggled moving the sombrero. I sometimes would swing to hard and end up hurting my hand or even hitting Eva. Or I would swing it to slow and I miss the next coming beats. It took me so long to perfect the swinging a sombrero. Which now in the present sounds so idiotic to say. I struggled swinging a sombrero. It would seem like such an easy skill but at the time is was such a difficult task for 7 year old me to pull off. Soon enough with enough practices I managed to perfect the skill of swinging just in time for my first performance.

A week later, on November 1st, 2007, I remember I was in a regular single language class in order to keep up with the kids in math when suddenly I was called out of class. I was so excited I jumped out of my chair nearly knocking it over. I can see clearly in my memory everyone staring at me in confusion when the teacher told me to leave. It wasn’t normal to leave during class in elementary. I rushed out the door, met up with my sisters and Eva, and we set off for the event. We arrive at the event and it was just a sight to see. There were many decorations all around the place. Skulls covered the walls and streams of strategically cut paper hung all across the ceilings. The floors were covered in carpets of vast dull colors that made it look bright as the stars. I was quickly pulled out of my trance for it was time to change. I put on blacks slacks which held several conchas (sea shells) along the side. I wore a small mariachi suit that was outlined with silver lining. My sombrero had strings of Red, White, and Green, to represent Mexico. I felt awkward wearing the outfit. It felt kinda stiff and difficult to move smoothly around considering i was use to dancing in a shirt and jeans. I step out into the dressing with my outfit ready to perform when I see Eva stepping out as well. She looked absolutely beautiful. Her hair was braided into two parts both passing over her shoulders and tied with ribbon. Her dress was absolutely huge but beautiful. So beautiful it was difficult to describe. She wore a pink puffy outfit all around. On the bottom of the skirt was outlined with multiple rows of colors followed by the top half where it was again outlined with rows of colors repeatedly. She flashed a smile at me and I flashed one back. We waited in a line by the stage waiting for us to be introduced by an announcer. As soon as we heard our group name, we held our hands high shoulder length. And walk onto stage into position. I stared at the crowd and the lights that shine on us from the ceiling.
“Relax, i can feel your hand shaking,” said Eva. I calmed my breathing and steadied my hand. I smiled at Eva and she smiled back. I looked at the crowd and thought to myself.
“Never miss a beat, never miss a beat,”

The music played and we began our performance.