{"id":235391,"date":"2025-09-17T11:03:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=235391"},"modified":"2025-09-18T18:51:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:51:05","slug":"national-hispanic-heritage-month-celebrated-at-viva-la-salsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/09\/national-hispanic-heritage-month-celebrated-at-viva-la-salsa\/","title":{"rendered":"National Hispanic Heritage Month Celebrated at Viva la Salsa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UConn Hartford campus community brought energy, flavor, fun to the Hartford Times Building Courtyard on Sept. 16 with\u00a0Viva la Salsa!<\/em>\u2014a lively celebration of Hispanic heritage.<\/p>\n

\"salsa<\/a>
Pictured in center, Rey Bermudez, educator, dance instructor, and founder of The Relational Dance, taught participants how to salsa. (Olivia Drake\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students, faculty, and staff gathered for an afternoon of cultural connection featuring a salsa dance class with instructor Rey Bermudez; a salsa tasting; and a creative career vision board activity to inspire future goals. The event also included a raffle and networking opportunities through a Career Center pop-up, blending culture and career readiness in one engaging program.<\/p>\n

UConn held the event in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month\u00a0(Mes nacional de la herencia hispana<\/em>), which is observed annually from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 in the United States to recognize the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans on the nation\u2019s history, culture, and achievements.<\/p>\n

Lisa Werkmeister Rozas, professor in the School of Social Work, SSW Puerto Rican\/Latino Studies Project, and a first-generation Peruvian-American, participated in the salsa lessons with other UConn SSW colleagues and students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe event was a vibrant way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and bring our community together through dance, food, and creativity,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Sponsored by the UConn School of Social Work, UConn Hartford Residential Life, the SSW Puerto Rican\/Latino Studies Project, and the UConn Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills,\u00a0Viva la Salsa!<\/em> highlighted the Latino community while encouraging career exploration and connection. In total, 78 people attended including 63 students and 15 faculty and staff.<\/p>\n

Additional photos of Viva la Salsa!<\/em> are below and on Facebook<\/a>. \u00a0(Olivia Drake\/UConn Photo)<\/p>\n

\"dancing<\/a><\/p>\n

\"viva<\/a><\/p>\n

\"viva<\/a><\/p>\n

\"viva<\/a><\/p>\n

\"viva<\/a><\/p>\n

\"viva<\/a><\/p>\n

\"viva<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students, faculty, and staff participated in a salsa dance class, sampled Hispanic snacks, and made cultural connections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":235385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1870],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2514],"class_list":["post-235391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ssw"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 06:31:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235391"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235493,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235391\/revisions\/235493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/235385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235391"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=235391"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=235391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}