Current Members (2006-2010)
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Vice-President), an original founder and former Executive Director of LAFI, is also an arts management consultant with several non-profits in Washington DC, Baltimore and the New York City area. Before founding LAFI, she worked as an Arts Program Coordinator with the organization Partners of the Americas and worked with other non-profits such as Conservation International and FINCA International. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Communications & Visual Media and a Masters in Arts Management from American University in Washington, DC. Ms. Ulacia is a Cuban-born graduate of the prestigious Amadeo Roldán Music Conservatory in Havana, Cuba, where she studied music education and classical guitar. She first taught music and dance in Cuba while studying dance at the prestigious National School of Art (Escuela Nacional de Arte). Upon graduation, she performed with several professional troupes at Teatro Nacional de Cuba and Teatro Carlos Marx. She also leads LAFI’s Afro-Cuban music and dance ensemble Ashé Moyubbà, a project designed to teach and present the fundamental aspects of Cuban traditions, aesthetics and dances. She has also performed with the Latin American folk ensemble Areíto and the Washington DC-based Afro-Cuban group Havana Select. She has developed children's educational materials with the prestigious DC-based ensemble Cantaré. Marietta was responsible for the creation of the Afro-Cuban curriculum at the dance hub Joe’s Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier, Maryland. She was also instrumental in developing the arts curriculum for the “ArtVentures” after-school program at the Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. She was a producer and radio host for “Sophie's Parlor,” a women jazz program produced by the women's collective of WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC. Marietta also co-hosted of the Wednesday edition of “Latin Flavor,” a popular radio program on music and commentary from Latin America and the Caribbean, on WPFW 89.3 FM. In New York City, Marietta served as the Executive Director for the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation, and currently works as Manager of Institutional Giving at the prestigious Dance Theater Workshop in New York City. For a more comprehensive curriculum vitae, press here.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Member) was born in Havana, Cuba, and lives now in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the D.C. Bar and a former Assistant Attorney General of the District of Columbia. Mr. Rumbaut has been a writer and commentator on cultural matters for a number of Spanish-language newspapers. He was the editor of Clave, LAFI's former magazine, and now edits a nightly Cuban-American electronic newsletter. Mr. Rumbaut plays the guitar and two of its Latin American variations: the Cuban tres and the Puerto Rican cuatro. He has been a member or a founding member, including of two Puerto Rican folk groups, of several Latin American music groups over the years, playing pop, folk, and traditional music. He was a founding member of “Esto no tiene nombre,” whose members came from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, together with the late Cuban bassist Luis “El bonco” Salomé. He also played with the LAFI-affiliated band Areíto, and Andean music with Bolivian and other South American musicians. In 2008 he was the editor of the Latino Cultural Guide to Washington, a publication of Fiesta DC, the organization that sponsors the annual Latin American Festival and other cultural and social events in the nation's capital.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Secretary) Andrea Thompson is a native of Trenton, New Jersey and a graduate of Howard University. She has worked as an arts and education consultant, dance instructor, stage manager and traveled extensively. She has extracted organization, self-motivation and cooperativeness from her talent arsenal to bring to the position of Secretary for the LAFI board. She currently teaches Afro-Cuban Dance at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) where she was the first instructor for Afro-Cuban and is the Advisor for the university dance program. Andrea has studied and continues to study Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian, Capoeira Angola, and North African Belly Dance. She is a Producer for Sophie’s Parlor Women’s Radio Collective (one of the nation’s oldest women’s formatted radio programs) on WPFW, a Pacifica Network Station. She’s been a recipient of a Folk and Traditional Arts Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, a participant in the DC Dance Festival, a WPAS Artist in Residence, a Port Discovery Children's Museum Resident Artist, and has presented at the CORD National Dance Conference. Andrea has allowed her politics of movement culture to take her from Ghana to Brazil to Japan and back, fulfilling the roles of dancer, dance instructor, student, researcher and patron. LAFI is a place she calls home for many reasons.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Treasurer) is a Houston-based marketing specialist, with a particular eye towards cultural presentations of Latin American arts. She is a former member of the Washington DC-cultural group paraesolapalabra. She’s currently a Faculty member at the Community Education Department of Brazosport College in Lake Jackson, Texas. Creative, fully bilingual and goal oriented, Carole Juárez is a savvy vision actualization professional with 25 years of experience in private industry, as well as the non-profit and public enrichment sectors that target underserved communities. Boasting superb verbal and written communication skills, she has excelled in the areas of public relations campaign design and implementation, marketing campaign planning and execution, media relations, corporate communications, fundraising, volunteer coordination, event structuring, branding, team leadership and strategic planning. Carole works with clients, across the country and internationally, to craft communication vehicles, engineer new product launches and shape initiatives to achieve desired goals, to mention a few projects. A particular focus of her work is in program development, events planning and audience cultivation for the arts. Throughout her career Carole has strived to expand the parameters of each role taken on, always achieving results far beyond expectations.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Member) is an instructor of English as a Second Language at the Baltimore Community College in Baltimore, Maryland. Carydad is a native of Cuba and a graduate of West Virginia University, where she earned a Master of Arts Degree in TESOL & Linguistics, and a Master of Arts Degree in Secondary Education. She currently works as the Ethnic Minority Outreach Associate for the Baltimore County Department of Health. She also provides language consulting services for many groups and organizations in the Baltimore, Maryland area. Carydad is currently pursuing a Certificate program in Leadership for School, Family and Community Collaboration at John Hopkins University's School of Education in Baltimore, Maryland.
Former Members (1999-2006)
A native of Washington DC, jazz vocalist and social activist This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it is a prominent jazz vocalist and community activist, who has been performing since the 1950’s. She has a long history of community activism, especially engaging in volunteer work with children. In 1975, she began her career as a self-produced and promoted concert/rally/performing artist, and since that time, has visited Cuba for the World Youth Festival, China just before normalization of relations with the U.S., Palestinian camps in Lebanon, and Brazil for a grass-roots organizers conference. To reach the underprivileged in varied and diverse countries, Luci sings in ten languages: English, Spanish, French, Kreyol, Portuguese, Nguni, Arabic, Hebrew, Cherokee, and Kiswahili. She draws on the folklore of these cultures, employing their musical idioms, as well as her own roots in blues, jazz, and spirituals.
Luz Segura is a bi-lingual native of Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia and worked as a staff with LAFI since its early inception in 1999. She is a graduate of Mount Vernon College where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts & Communications. She specializes in graphic and art designs for cultural organizations and artists. She currently works as a Production Manager at the prestigious cultural organization The In Series in Washington DC.
