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September 15th to October 15 marks the
celebration of the Hispanic and Latino
community through National Hispanic
Heritage Month the history and cultures
are vast and unique spanning from Mexico
South America the Caribbean and Spain
yeah and today we want to highlight and
celebrate the stories that come from our
local community joining us to talk more
we have Catalina Jimmy and marina thank
you so much for being here for having us
oh my gosh this is so great writing so
Bruce tell us a little bit about
yourself yes so I'm Catalina smalls and
I come from Venezuela that little
country on the top of South America that
looks like a rhino okay I came here like
15 years ago or more and I'm an engineer
but I am an artist by heart I always
play music in the living room with my
parents and my brothers and so I am
trying to keep my tradition moving so
the next generation you know my children
and people that I meet can actually know
you know what I'm coming from I am very
proud of my roots my Hispanic roots and
I try to you know embrace that and I try
to plan cultural programs I guess for
the community so people also has the
opportunity to do that through my
program so we have a lot of Education
but we also have a lot of entertainment
and as I said I'm an engineer so I do
other things on the side what cultural
development is a big part of it my
company's called personality with su n
instead of Sol yeah the Sun comes
because I feel that everybody has
something brilliant to really give and
so I feel that we had different skill
sets we have different you know arts to
show and to share with people so I have
a platform of professionals and artists
that would really just to give what we
have to others and hopefully you know
improve our communication improve our
empathy for each other
yes stands in exactly and I think a big
part of what we're doing is we're trying
to get together more than ever
Latinos Hispanics you know from
different groups and different countries
just so we can actually you know have a
better voice like a stronger voice in
the community and not just me real quick
ya know about
background how heritage yes I'm Jimmy
I'm from Haiti and the background of
Haitian is is pretty interesting because
I was just telling Karolina that Haiti
actually held Venezuela to when their
independence that's right
European Spanish and I was pretty
awesome and when you reach out to me I
was like yes it's the same we find
common things Jimmy actually found out
that and that was new for me and I just
found that that our differences always
bring us together what it didn't just
keep us apart but do you know what about
you today your background hi my name is
marina and I'm four from Mexico and I am
a dancer a choreographer as well and
fitness instructor - okay and I've been
the United States for quite a while and
one of the main things that I do is I
teach young woman young girls who are
getting ready for the kids in yet us
yeah they can see need a background on
the history of it it it's a whole lot of
meaning we have the crown we have the
doll the last doll that it actually
means is the last dog that they were
ever get before they enter into their
womanhood also the high you know it's a
very important thing the high here is a
very important thing because it they
don't get to where their first high heel
to actually 15 years old really really
yes so a daddy comes in and they switch
from flats to high heels and then they
enter into a woman who are you go huge
upon the dresses are all custom-made as
well the dress is all custom-made and
this one was bora by elegance young
Williamson wrote uh-huh she is she has
pointed out with us to let us use all
her dresses ok well we mentioned that
music and dance is part of this so we
want to get to a performance real quick
you
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that is this side let me so close the
Jordanians
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[Applause]
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[Applause]
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- winner Jonah
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gracias muchas gracias thank you
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today we have been celebrating the
history and culture of the Latino and
Hispanic community in our area through
music dance and even a traditional drink
yeah and we are excited to welcome back
Catalina to share more about their
culture traditions and you have
everybody everybody familiar you have a
business tell us about your business yes
so personality is my business and it's a
company that I created because I wanted
to create a platform for people that has
different skill sets and different
artists to chair you know what they have
to give and so I have a from engineers
to educators social workers you know
people in health and I also have a
tremendous team of artists from
everywhere so Wladimir from Cuba so
hello from Mexico marinas you know his
Colombian even though he was singing
with mariachis soon from mariachi has
been denominated like one of the
generous that is more super-sensitive
from Hispanic so that's why I had here
this is my dad
my papa from Venezuela I'm my very good
friend and producer of everything I do
artistic and this is Mary Gonzalez my
friend so I have part of my family here
there are many other collaborators and
people that helped me bring my concepts
together but I'm very thankful for them
now what comes from personality in terms
of community is a program that I created
called joy joy of interaction I work
with health so I analyzed population
health data and over the time I've been
working for like 10 years with health
care and over time I realize that people
has a lot of concentration on physical
health and mental health maybe that's
what we know the most about but in
reality there is an aspect of health
that is a little bit neglected and you
can only see it when you have you know
terrible things happening which is
social health
so social health is part of the
definition of health and so I create a
joy of interaction because I want people
to be motivated to interact more with
one another especially in this very high
technological era yeah you know I've
heard about that yeah like if you're
with people that you know your friends
or family you're gonna live longer
that's right yes
search prove it again if you have
friends if you have you're gonna have
much chance there was a competition
recently yeah and tell us about the
winners yes and so that was part of the
joy I created a competition that was the
Hispanic culture competition to
celebrate our Hispanic heritage there
were four universities participating so
we have Ferrum college runner college
Radford University and Virginia Tech
they did amazing it was very hard to
choose a winner because they all really
blew us away right it was incredible the
students really represent in Latin
American countries that we assigned to
them and they had to do a based on
decoration of a house that you can see
here that run a college house so they
have to represent Mexico and Guatemala
and you can see how they decorated you
know once I like Mexico on the other
side my insides are ordinary yes
and just like rana colleges so the other
universities did it as well Virginia
Tech did Venezuela Colombia and Brazil
and then we had right for the Cuba the
islands they had a lot of fun doing this
and firm college did Honduras Nicaragua
and El Salvador so we had you know them
working in a concept where they had to
use a lot of creativity but I also
brought a bunch of dancers to tour
around Latin America and I had a
tremendous help from J&K tours it's
actually a tour company here and they
sponsor the competition so they took my
team touring around Latin America
representing Southwest Virginia
it was so lol this has been great thank
you and your website one more time that
people are curious
personality calm as un remember okay
your personality as um personality that
thank you so much thank you thank you be
right back