An interview with...

Part 3 of 4

I was just visiting my brother, can you believe it? You know every summer we would go somewhere and my brother, an American, said, "Why don't you come over for the summer?" So my sister and I came.

He said, "Why don't you stay here? There's a lot of flamenco going on here."

"Flamenco in the United States? There's NO WAY!"

"Yeah, there's some lady that does shows in a restaurant."

I said, "What?" because we don't do that [in Guadalajara]. You know what restaurant I'm talking about? The one that just closed, El Bodegón. It's how I met guitarist Paco and dancer Ana Martinez and danced with them the first time. And then I met dancer Alejandro and then Alejandro introduced me to Raquel Peña. But really I didn't come to the United States to stay. It was my vacation and by August and September I hadn't returned. I left about 7 or 8 groups of students and I was supposed to go back. I never came back. I saw the girls recently in a concert in Guadalajara last year. Ten years ago, the girls that were five, now they're fifteen and they are all in the performing group that I used to be in. It's called Grupo de Función. The ones who did all the shows everywhere. So all my students are in that group and oh my God I was good for them! (laughs) I was a good teacher because I taught them for three or four years before I came here. They got something I guess. And here I am in the United States ten years later.

So what did you think of Paco and Ana?

When I met them, actually, I didn't meet Ana [at first] because she was in Brazil. So what happened was that I met Paco and I saw him playing guitar and I said, "Wow!" And then I later saw Ana doing a Caña thing. I don't remember the name of it. I thought to my self, ah, it's not so bad here so I can stay. And so I thought that if Ana Martinez is doing it here in DC, the flamenco's here too. Not just in Mexico.

Then came Raquel Peña. I was really lucky to be part of the company. I didn't do shows with Ana Martinez actually because I was in Raquel Peña's company and later in Joana's Danza del Río company. The first show I did with Joana was in 1989 and that was at the Kennedy Center. It's going to be ten years next year. I remember, Mike, when you [first] came to Joana's, you didn't know how to play tanguillo, remember that?

When Raquel Peña left DC, it was June 1988 then I had to go back to Mexico because I was just on a visitor visa, so I had to return. So I went to Mexico and when I came back to DC, someone said to me, "Why don't you call Joana? She's always looking for dancers."

I called Joana and that's when I started with her. And that was the next year in 1989. I got married. And then that's it. I stayed with Joana for ten years. A long time.

And then there was a time when we were [both] pregnant. Joana said, "You have the first and I'll take care of the company and then when I get my baby, you take care of the company." And so that's how we were going to work it out.

When it was Joana's turn she called me and said "Put your shoes on and start dancing 'cause you're going to take care of the company now!"

I said, "Fine." So then a couple of days later, I found out I was pregnant too! (laughs)

[Editor's note: Stay tuned for further excerpts. In the meantime, visit Alma's website at http://hometown.aol.com/flamenco99/page/index.htm]