(distant chatter and salsa music)
- We learn as kids, in all these parties,
you eat, you dance, and enjoy the culture
and what it brings to you.
(salsa music)
(sizzling)
- Hey, I'm Enrique Reyes,
It's our Tropicana Cuban Restaurant in Austin.
I was born in Cuba, in a bay
they call Regla in Cuba, Havana.
My father used to be one of the Marines for Bautista.
He went in jail when Castro came power.
So when he left the jail, we all left Cuba.
In 1967 I was five year,
when my family flew down here to Miami.
Now when Cuban people see me,
say, "Oh, you speak real strange,
"not like a Cuban in reality," I was raised here.
(laughing)
This original Cuban sandwich,
we use Cuban bread, we make it with lard, not oil.
That what make it crispy better.
My family always used to have a business,
bakery, restaurants, so I grew up with them, learning.
There you are.
(sweeping)
I started in my uncle's bakery when I was real young.
I used to go to school, and from school
my father used to take me to the bakery.
I learned how to bake, how to do cakes,
imagine, I saw a lot of friend of mine
playing baseball, meanwhile, I was baking.
If it wasn't for them, who put me
in work in a young age in the bakery,
maybe I won't be here.
I put my own bakery here,
'cause I saw that we have Cuban community,
but we didn't have Cuban food,
or Cuban pastries, or Cuban coffee.
(metal rattling)
'Cause in Miami, you go anywhere in Miami,
you come in and say, "Let me have a shot of coffee,"
by the window, everywhere in Miami,
and when I came here, I said,
"Where am I gonna get my coffee now?"
So, that's what make me open the store.
Only because of the coffee. (laughing)
- [Man] One, two, three, five six, seven,
(speaking foreign language)
One, two, three, five six, seven,
- People were asking me, "Where can we get classic dancing?"
I thought, "Well, we can start here."
- Lead go under.
- My name is Nelda Lopez.
- I'm Edmond Castro.
We are the owners, and we are also the instructors
for our dance school, it's called Calle Son.
- Warm up, get your partner!
- So, Don Enrique used to have parties on Saturday nights,
we got to know the Cuban population,
all of the dancers and some of our students would go
and we knew the DJ, so I approached him
and asked him what he would think about
us teaching Cuban style Salsa, at his restaurant.
He loved the idea.
(Salsa music)
- Sometime you like to go somewhere
where you can have a good meal,
Cuban style, and after that, dancing.
(big band music)
- There is two major styles,
one that is in line, the dances from ballroom from Europe,
which everything was more formal,
from the Cuban Salsa,
- Sabor, it's got more
flavor to it - a flavor to it.
(salsa music)
- We're more Street Salsa, so it's very social.
As we're doing a call, the leads
are constantly switching follows.
A lot of the Caribbean is that way,
and so it's very informal, as he said,
it's more, it's got flavor.
(laughing)
(clapping)
- I think it's important that
when you get out of your country,
you know, one of the things you miss is your food.
It's nice that you come and you see that you
not in your country, but you can still
get the food here in Texas.
- So I think that it's part of the culture,
when we go dancing, we go dancing because there is a party.
That means that there is food, there is drink,
and in the middle of all that, is also the dancing.
(salsa music)
- Our community, we need to socialize with dancing.
I think food is like dancing.
You need to have it good till you can't keep on moving.
(laughing)
(salsa music)
- [Dancer] Whoo!
(salsa music)