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Our popular BAILA Community Dance Party keeps going strong: put October 21st on your calendar and get ready to feel how fun life can be when you’re dancing!

GET YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE! Super Early Bird: $15  |  Early Bird: $20 | General Admission: $25  |  Door: $30

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SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER AND COME TO BAILA FOR FREE! Each volunteer shift includes free food and beverages. Thank you for supporting us!

The night will include:

• 7:30pm: Doors open with Ritmos Tropicales Dance Party in our Lounge!
• 8:00pm: Gender-inclusive Bachata & Salsa Dance Classes in our Theater (no partner or experience necessary!)
• 9:30pm: Dominican Bachata Party with DJ Ron in our Lounge & Dance Party with DJ Jose Ruiz in our Theater!
• 10:00pm: LIVE Salsa Concert on our mainstage!
• Party goes until 1:00am in our Lounge (Dominican Bachata), Theater (Salsa y más) and Community Room (fundraising bar and hang out)!

The vibe of this party will be like a spontaneous dance party that broke out in your kitchen, only if your kitchen had big wood floors, a great live band and sound system, and 200 of your friends, chosen family, and a few intriguing strangers…

Like all events at La Peña, this gathering will be beyond inclusive of all cultures, ages, orientations and identities so you can bring your whole self to the dance floor and be properly celebrated.

PLEASE NOTE: We will require ID & Proof of Full Vaccination at the door. Booster shots and the use of masks inside will both be encouraged but NOT mandatory. See our most updated Covid-19 Policy here.

SAVE THE DATE! “Walks Through Memories of Oblivion“, a book written by beloved community member Fernando “Feña” Torres will be launched at La Peña on October 7th!

This book is a collection of short stories and essays about resistance, prison, and exile; a creative nonfiction narrative based on true events. This is a debut book by Fernando ‘Feña’ Torres, who at 18 years old was a political prisoner during the military regime that, with the help of the United States, overthrew democracy and established a brutal civic-military dictatorship (1973-90) in Chile.

Next year, 2023, will mark half a century of the first 9/11; an event that shocked the world and ended with the thousand-days of Allende’s autochthon peaceful Chilean way to socialism, “and turned my world upside down forever,” Torres recalls.

Looking back into his memories, Torres continues: “In a few months the dreams of a more just society were smashed into bloody pieces… The dreams were shattered but not destroyed… an underground Resistance Movement spread throughout the country spearheaded mostly by women, relatives of the prisoners and of those who disappeared. One year after my first 9/11, I re-joined the Revolutionary Student Front… ”

“ … powerful stories of political repression, unfathomable cruelty, and transcendent solidarity… Written against the vast burials of history in human terms, this book insists on exhuming what rarely emerges from the routine of lying silence. No history of Chile — or of the world as a whole — can be anywhere near complete without the truths that Torres intensely reveals in these pages.”

Norman Solomon, Journalist (Executive Director, IPA Institute for Public Accuracy Washington DC).

The event will have the special appearance of:

• Former LP Executive Director Paul Chin
• Poet Arnoldo Colibrí García
• Educator Alisa Peres

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ABOUT FERNANDO ‘FEÑA’ TORRES

Fernando Andres Torres is a short-story writer, poet, musician and a freelance journalist currently contributing in English and Spanish to various San Francisco Bay Area media.

Under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Torres joined the Chilean resistance and in 1975 he was arrested by the regime’s secret police. While imprisoned, he recited poetry and hand-wrote messages with quotes about optimism and hope to pass among fellow prisoners. After being expelled from Chile and exiled in 1977, Torres continued to write poetry and short stories. His first book of poetry, co-authored with Victoria Miranda; On the Edges of a Countryless Weariness, was published under his pseudonym Camilo Feñini by Ism Press in 1986. Some of Torres’ fiction and non-fiction stories have been published in many magazines including ME: Multicultural Echoes, the magazine of the Department of International Languages, Literatures and Cultures of Chico’s California State University.

Torres has also been awarded fellowships by the New America Media in San Francisco. In 2018 his story Head Stew was selected as The Best New Writing 2018 by Hopewell Publications. In 2019, Scenes of Exile, a story based on Torres’ exile, was published by The Bare Life Review Magazine, a journal of Immigrant and Refugees Literature. Other literary works by Mr. Torres have been published by Somos en Escrito Weebly; by Nobrow Fiction (2020); and by Lonely Cryptid Media (2020). Currently he is a member of the Advisory Board of ExposeFacts.org, and of the review panel of The Intrepid News Fund.

As a composer and musician, Torres was a founding member of Latin American music ensemble Grupo Raiz, and have collaborated with many international musicians such as David Byrne, and shared the stage with American jewels like Pete Seeger and Holly Near.

SAVE THE DATE! ☆ La Peña Hall of Fame ☆ Honoring Paul Chin’s Legacy! We are so pleased to be honoring Paul Chin’s contributions to the community since he began volunteering at La Peña in 1977! Come learn about his life and legacy at this special reception and gathering at La Peña on Saturday, October 15th 4pm-7pm. The evening will include a reception, a special performance by John Santos, and much more in honor of Paul Chin’s contributions and also to celebrate his 75th birthday.

ABOUT PAUL CHIN: Paul was born in Guangzhou, China in 1947. His parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1948 and settled in Isleton, CA to work in the canneries. After attending junior college, Paul transferred to S.F. State and became involved in the Third World student strike to establish a school of ethnic studies. After graduating in 1971from SF State, Paul traveled to Chile where the people had elected a socialist president, Salvador Allende. There he volunteered with students to build the new Chile. He began volunteering at La Peña in 1977, where he served for 35 years doing granting writing, volunteer coordination, events coordinator, and publicist. He also served on arts funding panels for the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Paul retired from the organization in February of 2013 and went on to serve as La Peña’s board president until 2018.