This year, Echoing Green recognized Rafael Cancel-Vazquez for the amazing work he is doing in launching Asociacion Nacional de Derecha Ambiental (ANDA), the first environmental law center in Puerto Rico. But that’s not all Rafa has to offer. He’s recently been recognized by El Nuevo Dia, the largest circulation newspaper in Puerto Rico, for his salsa dancing skills! You can check out a translated section of the article below, or click here to read the original in Spanish.

Like many in his generation, Rafa would wait to dance at the club until meringue or bolero was played.  He did not dance to salsa nor did he consider himself a dancer in general until in 2000 another student at the University of Puerto Rico invited him to take a salsa class with the master dancer Tito Ortos.
 
Later while studying at The School of Law he realized that young people didn’t know how to dance salsa.  “I would go dancing and those dancing salsa would be upwards of 50 or 60 years old because the young people of my generation didn’t dance.  When they would see me dance, they would ask me how I learned to dance salsa and if I would teach them”, remembers Rafa.   “To humor them, one day I sent 30 emails announcing a salsa class at Studio C, thinking 20 cats might show up but that night over 175 people came to the class”, he explains. 
 
Since then, thousands of people of varying levels and ages have attended his classes and many have improved their self esteem through dance.  Though he doesn’t consider himself a teacher, his method of instructing is fun because it promotes the joy of the process and social interaction, over all else, to people of his generation that grew up with Atari and cable TV.  “I’ve never considered myself a salsa instructor, I’m just another friend.  This has become part of my life to the extreme that people have begun to call me ‘Rafa Salsa’, but my true passion is the environment”, he confesses.  Rafa describes his love for nature even as a 13 year old staring with fascination at the island’s landscapes.