Listen to Edwin’s Story

“One thing that came out of this situation was the fact that it's confronted us with the fact that we cannot be neutral. We have to take sides.”

- Edwin Roa

Edwin Roa 

Hi, my name is Edwin Roa. I'm the director of the Dance Spot and also the Charlottesville Salsa Club. On the week prior to the event, which, um, you know, the whole incident happened, we decided that it was important for us to, to reclaim our identity as a peaceful location. One of the things that really motivate us to do this gathering was the fact that Charlottesville, for as open minded as it is, and became kind of iconic with this idea of the Alt Right movement. And to me especially it’s very important to to make sure that everybody knows that we’re an inclusive community. And we're actually standing for, you know, equality, human rights and, you know, promoting the idea of unity and love is far more relevant and probably more more pressing than the idea of isolation and uniqueness. So, um, that is freedom of speech, right? So we felt a little bit underrepresented at that time because all we hear in this moments is people that were stand up for the radical ideas, you know, talking about the KKK and all these groups, they were very diligently actually making sure that they present their opinions. But very few people were talking about what I consider to be the most common feeling, which is actually unity. In a democracy, it's important for all of us to have a platform to express what we feel. So I think having an opportunity to showcase love, community, and unity was important. So we decided to take over the downtown mall and do a mob flash. 

One thing that came out of this situation was the fact that it's confronted us with the fact that we cannot be neutral. We have to take sides. Like, and that's the thing. We try to be so politically correct that we don’t express our opinions. And the thing is, like, you know, the fact that we are kind of like censoring our own way of expressing is already damaging the community too. Dancing is a very, well, is a great expression form for us to learn how to empathize with people because in dancing it is not about, you know, showcasing your identity it’s about actually reaching somebody else's opinion, too, and harmonizing amongst each other. So it's kind of like teaching us how to listen to each other and hopefully work out our differences. So I think we have a long way to go, but at least there is an icebreaker already. So, we keep going.

Music credit: Hampus Naeselius / Rise to Be Your Hero / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com