A Letter from the Founder
My name is Luis Salgado, and I am the founder and director of this organization that serves as an advocate and forum of growth for the Latino community. I am the result of the impact of being exposed to the arts. I can tell you that the values, perspective, and self confidence I have today come from my exposure to theatre, dance, literature, and music at an early age. I have performed on Broadway in the Tony Award Winning musical, In the Heights, Rocky the musical , and in the adaption of Pedro Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown, in films such as “Step Up 2: The Streets” and “Enchanted”, and alongside well-known artists Olga Tanon and Thalia. However, my most memorable performance was Esto es Puerto Rico at age 9 in my elementary school, where we created a makeshift curtain with my bed sheets and transformed my community center into a theater.
It was my contact with ART that brought me to this moment and inspired me to initiate a movement to inspire people just like me to benefit from the power of art and so R.Evolución Latina was born.
Through educational and collaborative programming, R.Evolución Latina utilizes the arts to empower the Latino community to discover their full potential.Since our beginnings in 2008, we have been able to build a team that is committed to making a difference through the arts and believes they can empower individuals to create a better today and build a brighter future. We have created an artistic community – an army of soldiers – who share the best of their talent to inspire and support the gaps we see in our community and in the development of our children. Professional artists, young artists, our children and partners such as Antonio Banderas, Nike, and In The Heights, Dare to go Beyond!
In 10 years of growth, R.Evolución Latina has attracted more than 500 volunteers, empowered hundreds of artists through our adult educational programs, received over 2,000 youth and children through our educational programs, and reached 326,895 views views on youtube. We have reached the 5 boroughs of NYC, and expanded our mission to places like Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and even India. More importantly R.Evolución Latina has inspired hundreds of thousands of lives with our message of daring to go beyond through events, collaborations and productions around the world.
Our focus for the next 10 years is to solidify each piece of our circle effect to see the impact of our mission and our work expanding within NYC and abroad bringing the Latino community together as a whole, uniting people through the universal language of art.
For our next step, we need you, as soldiers of art and people that believe in the power of inspiration. Our donors and partners protect, defend and take a stand for our growth to support a healthier community. As we continue to grow to be that change we committed ourselves to be from the very first step we took, we require your action, your time, and your talents to continue.
As an affiliate of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA), the nation’s leading theatre industry-based non-profit organization, we are inspired day in and day out by the work they do and challenged to take action and continue to serve our communities.
Steve Jobs said, “Non-profits should run more like businesses and businesses should run more like non-profits.” Today, we expand the possibilities of businesses we trust through collaboration, and partner to support one another to be the change we can only achieve together.
Luis Salgado
Founder/CEO, Artistic Director of R.Evolución Latina