The habits and enthusiasm built by having a program tailored to their needs appeared to have lit a fire under the group, with some women proudly showing off the loss of up to thirty pounds.
Salud Por Vida’ s initial spring session in 2007 reached four school communities in San Jose, California. Success at Washington Elementary school in East San Jose proved particularly profound, inspiring the approximately thirty or so women to continue meeting religiously throughout the summer, even though the official program had paused for the break at the end of the school year. The habits and enthusiasm built by having a program tailored to their needs appeared to have lit a fire under the group, with some women proudly showing off the loss of up to thirty pounds by the beginning of the fall.
Despite the success of Salud Por Vida’s first spring, Armenta continued to seek new ways to engage the women and build their self-confidence. She remembers of her introduction to Zumba, “I was working at Adobe (the software company, located in downtown San Jose), managing the fitness center. One of the other instructors recommended the Zumba site for a resource for upbeat Latin workout music. It so happened that there was a training conference in San Jose coming up and I figured it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. They have instructors who travel all around teaching, but the founder of Zumba was teaching this one, and it was really cool to learn directly from him. We pretty much danced for two days straight, but I knew right off the bat that it would be perfect for our women and girls.”
Within weeks, the local Mexican American Community Service Association (MACSA) partnered with BAWSI and Armenta to write a grant to support a Zumba program in East San Jose. The grant didn’t come through, but Armenta persevered to find space for the classes anyway. “It is important because there is a huge connection between the women when they have something of their own, the music being something familiar to what they know. You could assume they know some of the dances, like salsa and merengue, but they don’t and here they are really learning. The energy is so amazing—you might not get that in a regular exercise program.”
By December, Armenta was teaching two sessions each Saturday morning, with over 100 women moving alongside their friends and neighbors for an hour of new beats and moves, shedding calories, and increasing confidence. Women who participated in the Salud Por Vida program while their daughters had their own program now began to bring the girls with them to the previously all-adult Zumba.
