Debi Budnick leads the class in high-energy dance with instructors Allan Hennessey and Clare Brown on either side of her. “It had joy, ease and celebration,” Brown said.
Participants of Baila Sin Parar after the class. Sotolongo hopes to hold more Latin music & dance events at NK Studios.
Emma Renly photos
Debi Budnick leads the class in high-energy dance with instructors Allan Hennessey and Clare Brown on either side of her. “It had joy, ease and celebration,” Brown said.
BINGEN — “Latin music makes you want to move,” said Jen Sotolongo, the event organizer of Baila Sin Parar, a Latin-themed dance fitness class. Taking place at NK Studios on April 11, a full house showed up at the garage-turned-dance-studio following the steps to move it to the music.
Under the lights of a disco ball, Sotolongo was joined by instructors Jill Catherine, Debi Budnick, Allan Hennessy and Clare Brown at the event, who were each given one requirement — all songs needed to be by Latino musicians, preferably in Spanish.
“There are artists representing Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Haiti,” Sotolongo said. “It’s a real tour of Latin America.”
As instructors rotated from song to song, drawing from mixed backgrounds in salsa, cumbia, samba, reggaeton, merengue and hairflip dance fitness, it was easy to spot smiles across the room.
“With dance, I just feel like there’s this community and collective energy to celebrate different cultures and different music,” Sotolongo said. “This event makes me feel like I am bringing joy and light when everything else feels really dark.”
She pointed to the growing presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), both locally and nationally.
In July 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law, allocating federal funding — approximately $81.4 billion — for immigration enforcement. In the following months of the legislation, Uplift Local reported a spike of ICE arrests in Oregon and steady increase in Washington.
Sotolongo says it’s been heartbreaking to see.
“I can vote, I can protest. I can shop with my dollar or vote with my dollars,” she said. “I still feel like it’s not enough. This event feels like I’m doing something.”
All proceeds from the event are being donated to the Hood River Latino Network (HRNL).
Director Martha Verduzco-Ortega says the organization’s focus is on social justice, immigrant rights and advocacy for Latino community members.
“Over the past several months, our efforts have specifically focused on protecting community members from ICE throughout the Columbia River Gorge,” Verduzco-Ortega said. The organization operates an immigrant help center, organizes rapid responses and coordinates with community volunteers across Oregon and Washington.
Sotolongo, acknowledging the current juxtaposition of Latino culture in the news, looks to music for positive moments — Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl, Karol G headlining Coachella and Shakira’s world tour.
“They have made me feel really proud to be Latina,” she said.
It was through music and dance that Sotolongo became curious about Latin culture. Although the daughter of two Cuban immigrants, she remembers feeling a disconnect with the culture while growing up, unable to find Latino community in Seattle or speak the language.
“I would be at the table with everyone speaking Spanish and not understand anything that my family was saying,” she said. “I felt Cuban, but it didn’t feel like I could call myself that.”
Jennifer Lopez and Selena Quintanilla changed that.
At 13 years old, she can distinctly recall watching Lopez dance as a “Fly Girl” on the 90s sketch comedy show, “In Living Color.”
“She had my name, Jennifer, she’s Puerto Rican and she grew up in the U.S.,” Sotolongo said. “I could relate to her, I saw myself in her.”
Selena’s music, with her signature choreography, stood out as well to a young Sotolongo. The Mexican-American musician also didn’t learn Spanish until adulthood.
“I thought — if she can learn it, so can I,” Sotolongo added.
She’s since studied Spanish in high school, minored in it in college, and lived in Spanish-speaking countries. Now she says, without hesitation, that she is Cuban and that it is her culture.
During her dance set at the event, Sotolongo could be seen singing along to Selena’s “Techno Cumbia,” the lyrics which she used for the event name. “Baila, baila sin parar — no hay tiempo para descansar.”
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