FHS Oral History Project – Silvia Huddleston

Description:

Silvia Huddleston was born in Lima, Peru, in 1969. She recollected memories of her upbringing in Lima, particularly the challenges growing up with terrorist attacks across the city during the 1970s and 1980s. Silvia also remembered her curiosity as a child, yearning to understand her roots, as her grandparents spoke Quechua—the language of indigenous peoples in Peru and across South America. In this pursuit, Silvia discovered dance as a way to gain a deeper understanding of her native culture, one in which, as she explained, Peruvian schools did not teach and overlooked. She recounted her early dancing career, particularly her performance at the opening ceremony of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and her subsequent tour across Europe in 1991. She shared the multicultural exchanges that occurred in each of those instances. After serving as a social worker for a few years following those international dancing experiences, Silvia attended Jose Maria Arguedas, a folkloric university in Peru, to deepen her knowledge about the cultural meanings and significance of the dances she had learned and performed previously. Economic difficulties and safety concerns prompted Silvia to leave Peru and emigrate to the United States in 2003. She initially landed in Miami and then quickly settled in Orlando, as Miami reminded her of the city she had just left. Despite living in Orlando, Silvia visited Miami frequently to perform with a dance group called Perú Expresión as a way to reconnect with her Peruvian culture. In 2015, Silvia founded Raymi Dance School in Orlando as a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing Peruvian heritage and culture through dance, music, and storytelling performances. She outlined the inspirations and early challenges with establishing Raymi Dance School. Silvia also discussed how the organization has evolved over the past decade, including what she hopes to see in the future. She recalled performing at the Orlando Fusion Fest, Immerse Festival, Doctor Phillips, Steinmetz Hall, and the Florida Folk Festival as critical moments in the development of Raymi Dance School and in achieving its mission. Lastly, Silvia shared her broader observations about Florida and how the state has changed culturally and generally over the past twenty years.

 

Transcription:

00;00;00 - 00;00;16

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: [This is Sebastian] Garcia interviewing Silvia Huddleston on May 27th, 2025, in Clermont, Florida, for the Florida Historical Society oral History Project. Can you please restate your name, date of birth and where you were born?

 

00;00;17 - 00;00;25

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: My name is Silvia Huddleston, born and raised in Peru in 1969, in Lima.

 

00;00;25 - 00;00;35

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Can you tell me about your childhood growing up in Lima, Peru, during the mid to late 70s, early 80s?

 

00;00;35 - 00;02;36

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I come from a middle-lower class family. Mom did not work. She always was a stay at home mom. And my dad was an accountant. It was a nice family then I used to have, like every child and it was beautiful. My parents were from the Andes in Peru. My grandpa was from Apurímac and my grandma from Ancash, so those two cities, close by the Andes area. So when I start growing, I start to understand when my grandparents come from. And also find out that they speak another language, not the Spanish also used, just the Quechua words. You know, the Quechua language. So that kind of threw me off a little bit about it because you cannot learn in school or in any other place, just Spanish. So, when I started growing up, I was a very shy person, and I always was in a school for girls, never with mixed schools, so in one of the schools, it was a teacher showing me to dance. And that was how I started, getting a little more into my roots. And I started to find out more [about] what is Peruvian culture. Because then at school, my time of childhood, they never teach you nothing about historic approaches. Maybe by battle of emancipation when Peru fought against Chile or countries or territory and they speak not much about the Inca Empire, Inca civilization that Peruvians are from. So I think through the dance I started learning more what I was supposed to be learning in the school.

 

00;02;36 - 00;02;41

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And we will definitely get to that. But were you an only child?

 

00;02;41 - 00;02;54

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: No, I have two—we were three, but one passed away in 2020 with cancer and now we only two. I have one brother and myself.

 

00;02;54 - 00;03;01

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Were there any particular challenges that your family faced during this time growing up?

 

00;03;01 - 00;03;45

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: A lot. One of them was the economy problems, that every family in South America go through, because in Peru you used to work hard and you do not make enough money. You know, you always need support or someone. So it was little hard, always was in— this is going to sound a little funny. If you do not have money, you are going to community school. If you have money, you go to private school. So private school was a dream. But my parents worked hard. And when we started going to middle school and high school, all of us finished in private school.

 

00;03;45 - 00;04;10

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And I am curious, you know in this theme of challenges, in 1968 Peru experienced a coup. And I know you were born in ’69, so I know you may not have memories of it, but did you feel the legacy of that, the aftermath of that, or did your parents tell you sort of passed down stories of that transition?

 

00;04;10 - 00;05;18

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Well, the transition there was always present everything. But as a child and growing in Peru, it was very difficult because my generation went through of terrorist attack. We live many years with, so seeing an explosion in the street and I am talking Lima and not even talking about areas far away from Lima. I have friends that die. And the last thing that shocked me was the worst attack that we received in actually Miraflores. And they put a car bomb that destroy a building. And I was at that point in a friend's car, and we saw the light in the sky, and we did not know what was it. And then we found out it was a terrorist attack. So, yeah, I have many Christmas with no power, many New Year's Eve with no power. And it was you see, a car in the middle of the street, you run away because you know that was a bomb. So it was very sad. Very, very sad.

 

00;05;18 - 00;05;24

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So coming back to how you were introduced to dance through this teacher.

 

00;05;24 - 00;07;03

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: So I live with both things. I was going to school, and I was living in the time of the terrorism. So both things. And at one point you learn to live like that. So you need to go out. You go out. We have a curfews and you have to be at home. There were police and military people all over the streets, you know. So, at one point I learned to live like that. So it was very hard. In the school, I think it was a little before it started terrorism, that teacher gave me a little more confidence in myself because I did not feel valued for some reason. I think, in that time in Peru, it was so hard. They judge you so much where you live and what is your last name. It was kind of stupid, thinking now, but that what it was because my grandfather his last name is Aymara. Aymara is one of the civilizations that live in Peru by the Alto Peru or Altiplano. And the Amyaras, they race between, Bolivia, now is Bolivia, but it used to be Peru. In Peru and Titicaca does the sections that were there. The Aymaras. So in the beginning, I feel a little ashamed because everybody make fun of my last name. And then I start understanding how power my grandpa last name it was. So that kind of pushed me a little bit more to keep going in and learning a little bit more about who I was.

 

00;07;03 - 00;07;17

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And what else did you learn during that time or as you got older with school and through dance, what else did you learn about Peruvian culture through dance?

 

00;07;17 - 00;09;23

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I learned about how I called “real people” live because we as a living in modern cities, you have your kitchen, you have your blender and forks and all that. When I start learning about every dance from Peru, everything has a meaning. And what I like when I start learning is that the professors, they start teaching me how people live, how people wake up in the morning, how they do, how they cook, and then why they go the process to the dance. So in Peru, and specifically that culture, every dance has a meaning like we have in the carnivals is dances for looking for a partner. But you celebrate carnival. But the main thing is you are to find your husband or your wife and then, at the same time, you greet or be greeting to or thank you to the Mother Earth for the products, for the rain, for the sun. So everything has a specific a meaning and connection. But what most amazed me was the Incas that at one point   people think is only in Cusco. I started learning the Incas used to be from entire Ecuador, part of Colombia, whole Peru, a little bit of Brazil, the entire Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. That used to be the Inca Empire. So then when we got conquer and then really start fighting for independence, we start moving and creating the new countries. So that amazed me a lot and if you go to Peru is so much thing to learn because it was not just the Incas. They have a different groups like the Aymaras, Quechuas, Kaxinawá, Chacas. So it is a lot. It is a lot to learn and sometimes years and years trying to learn all that.

 

00;09;23 - 00;09;33

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And at this time, were you just learning a general overview or did you specialize in a certain type of dance?

 

00;09;33 - 00;10;47

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I mean, I started with learning dances for the Altiplano, for the puno specifically that was in the school. I wanted to continue doing that. That happened in high school, and then they told me, “okay, now you have to go just study something else.” And I say, “okay, but I want to keep doing dances.” And they told me, “well, that was not going to pay your bills, so you need to do something else.” So I went to the university in Peru and finished my career as a social worker. I did five years social worker, but at the same time I was dancing. I find a group and this group was one of the best. And they used to have a lot of invitations going around the world and I went from a simple dancer to a professional folkloric dancer. So I have to do an audition for they grab me for the groups and travel for them for many years. And that gave me the opportunity to be in Europe for months, because I have a lot of festivals in Europe, there for a month and you can go every single country you will meet all countries around in those festivals. It is a very nice.

 

00;10;47 - 00;10;51

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So the I was going to ask if your parents encouraged or voiced opposition about this dancing.

 

00;10;51 - 00;13;19

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: In the beginning actually my dad told me, “Yeah. Dance is over” and I said, “but dad, I am good with my notes and my qualifications” And he said, “okay, okay, let's see. If you fail one, you stop dancing.” So at the time that I remember that I have my typewriter machine. So I have to go to perform because they have a lot of invitations to perform and come back. And I come back home around midnight, and I have to present projects next day, I start working on my projects, typing all night, finish, take shower, breakfast and go back to the university and present. And then my dad just to look at my notes and said, “okay, how are you doing? How are you grades?” And I say, I am good. So finally, when I was on my, I think first year or second year at university, I had the invitation to perform at the Olympic Games in Seoul in Korea. So I told my dad, I said, “dad, they want me to go there for twenty days. And it is almost in the middle of the classes, and I say I have to stop the semester,” and he look at me said, “no, you do not. You got to go to class.” And I say, “daddy, I am going to Korea. You cannot afford that”. And he said, nope. What helped me was, because everybody have to get a specific permit to leave the country, so the government of Peru signs to everybody, a letter, that they have to let us out for, I think two weeks or three weeks, if you are to work, you are going to get pay, if you are in a class, they are going to stop for you. And when you come back, you retake the classes, take the exam even as semester has gone. So I had to show that to my dad. I said, listen, “look, I have this agreement so I can go.” And he said, “okay, just because of that.” So that was how I went to Seoul. I got the letter, actually it was all over the news, and my name was there, this is Silvia Portias, my single name, Portias Amyaras and all the names of the group and we were able to go to Seoul.

 

00;13;19 - 00;13;21

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Was that the first time you left Peru?

 

00;13;21 - 00;13;27

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: It was the first time that I was leaving Peru. I was eighteen when I left Peru for the first time.

 

00;13;27 - 00;13;32

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And just talk to me about that experience performing at the Olympics. What was that like?

 

00;13;32 - 00;15;40

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Oh, my. It was crazy because, TV was not like an everyday thing in our countries. So when they say we want to go to Korea, so it was far away. And it was like nineteen hours flight because we have to make some stops in LA, Miami and then go directly to there. So I just so amazed their organization and cleanliness of the people. The city was impeccable. You do not find nothing wrong. You know, everything super organized. Whatever we need, it was there. Security was awesome. And also, I always have some funny stories about political problems. So I think a week before the Olympics, North Korea did something to South Korea, like attacked South Korea. So it was security all over the city. So even when we went to go shopping, we have a bodyguard, without working. We were simple dancer and we sometimes run away from them because we do not know what was happening and we finally know there was bodyguards go wherever you go, you need to go with one. We were [children]. My younger friend was fifteen, so we were fifteen, sixteen, eighteen, nineteen was the old ones. They were playing around the city. And then when we finally arrived to the Coliseum, to the stadium, that was amazing. The power of the people, the music, and for some reason, when we start in the middle of the stadium, the group that was next to me was USA. I was like, everybody dressing like a cowboys and dancing like, oh, there was USA, and look at me now I am in USA. I never thought it was a click, but yeah, the USA was next to us. We take a lot of pictures. We finish performing there, and we come back to the country.

 

00;15;40 - 00;15;46

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So when did you perform exactly?

 

00;15;46 - 00;15;46

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: At the opening.

 

00;15;46 - 00;15;47

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: At the opening ceremony.

 

00;15;47 - 00;16;16

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: At the opening ceremony. So actually if you go to YouTube and look for the video for the opening on Seoul, you will see the Peruvian group there and I am there in a blue scarf. Yeah, that was me frozen into the cameras because we are televised. Yeah. So you will see it, if you [search] that.

 

00;16;16 - 00;16;32

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: That was remarkable. And did you get any reception, from just anybody, does not matter who, like people asking about your culture, like Peru.

 

00;16;32 - 00;16;33

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Yeah. Yes.

 

00;16;33 - 00;16;35

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: I just talk about that multicultural exchange.

 

00;16;35 - 00;17;17

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: It was a multicultural exchange, and I think all of us feel in shock because nobody know much about our country. We knew they were dressed in custom from Cusco and that was it. I think the level of knowledge of folklore in Peru was very poor at the time. You know, nobody taking care of that. Nobody cares if you do folkloric dance. When I was eighteen in 1987, 86, not important at all. Right now it is so huge. But before, no. We always said we are from Peru, and I am dressed in a custom outfit. I could not say because I did not do more.

 

00;17;18 - 00;17;21

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And then after Seoul, you came back to Peru.

 

00;17;21 - 00;17;22

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: We came back to Peru.

 

00;17;23 - 00;17;25

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: You finished your degree?

 

00;17;25 - 00;17;33

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I finished my degree and then, finish the social work career.

 

00;17;33 - 00;17;35

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: What year?

 

00;17;35 - 00;18;43

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I ended in ’92, but in 1991, this company told me, “Silvia, we want to go in a tour for two months. We want to go to Europe. Do you want to go?” And I was in my third year of a study. And here we go again, I go “Daddy. Daddy, I got an invitation. It is like a month and a half. Can I go?” And he said, “Honey, I never going to pay a trip to you for a month to Europe. So just go. If the university let you do, then you go.” And I said, “Well, they will not let me go. I have to cancel the semester. And start all over when I come back.” He said, “okay, whatever, because I cannot pay that. I cannot afford a month for you to go into Europe.” And that was how I did. So I missed one semester, and I finished in 1992. I should have ended earlier but I got to travel.

 

00;18;44 - 00;18;46

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And it was a two month in Europe?

 

00;18;46 - 00;23;30

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Yes. It started in August, and we went to Greece. We went to Hungary, Italy and the last stop was Russia. So when we were in Greece, because it was sort of the last country that we stayed there. The next trip was to Russia, and I can see the director talking with the sponsor and representative for the people that take us to Russia and, the only [thing] I hear “everybody is going to be safe?” “Yes.” I did not know much English; all I heard was “safe.” And I said, okay, I do not know what is happening.

 

So we are off to Moscow. And it was completely opposite of what we were doing. So we went to Moscow. It was end of August. Beginning of September of 1991. And it was cold already. We were in Greece and Italy. Milan, Venice, Hungary, and it was hot, and we were like, freezing in there. So when we arrived to Moscow, we were expecting a bus and this old bus showed up at the airport. So, okay, we went to the airport, we went to the bus, and we started driving. You know, they said we go to a campus to college campuses. Had no idea what a college campus at the time. You know, I said, okay, so everybody get into, and we start driving twenty minutes, half an hour, and everybody was freezing because the bus did not have heat. So we had to open the luggage, keep all our costumes from Cusco because they are very thick and use the ponchos, and we have to dress that to be sitting on the on the bus. And we drive for two hours with no heat. I do not know what kind of degrees it was, but it was freezing. So finally we arrived to the campus. It was super dark. And they put us in a building for all of us, no hot water. Crazy. No hot water. So at that point, we were so scared, you know? And I say, okay, all the girls living together, all the boys sleeping together. And so we always had somebody to watch there. Oh thank God the school was a little warm. No super. But it was a little warm compared to the bus.

 

So they gave us a schedule for food, for lunch, for dinner. We have to walk from the site of the bed to the cafeteria, probably twenty minutes in the middle of the trees and all that, walk to the breakfast every single day. So we spent twenty days in the college. We did not perform. And then at one point we wanted to find out what was happening. So a week previous that, it was people fighting for the freedom of Russia. And the students were dead in the street by the military. And it happened a days before we arrive, we already were there. So we have to go there. So, we were like, what? You know, and then we stay twenty days later kind of incarcerated because we have to be protected. And then finally, after all that, we were able to go to the city, go to Moscow, see all the beautiful church there and, the president is mummified there too. I forgot his name—[Vladimir] Lenin is still there. So the Red Plaza, you know. So, yeah, it was very interesting to see all how real Russia was, but it was very hard for them, and we saw the first McDonald's and Pizza Hut opened. The lines were crazy so we could not even stop. You spend three, four hours trying to get in there because there was a change in from the country.

 

00;23;30 - 00;23;41

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah. I am glad you brought that up because I was going to ask you that you were there at exactly the time when Russia, the Soviet Union.

 

00;23;41 - 00;23;41

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: The Soviet Union.

 

00;23;41 - 00;23;44

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Union fell, and Russia came back.

 

00;23;44 - 00;23;46

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I am sorry. The Soviet Union. Yes. That is what I mean.

 

00;23;46 - 00;23;59

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yes. So that is very interesting. So you throughout your Europe, your European tour, you performed at festivals, venues, where?.

 

00;24;00 - 00;24;42

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Yeah. Europe has a huge intuit to culture. So they realize amazing festivals. It is like the stage is, imagine the Doctor Phillips theaters, but there are an open. So the stage, they are amazing. They are dances around the country and that was where we perform. So it was three weeks in one country, three weeks and another one, two, three days—we were on a tour of the entire countries going all over little cities before we perform in the main place.

 

00;24;42 - 00;24;53

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And do you think people like—kind of similar to what I asked you in Seoul—after the shows, did you engage with the people? Did people come up to you? Talk to me about the reception.

 

00;24;53 - 00;25;21

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Yes we were there sharing everything because it was very beautiful. And I think it was the main opportunity that you can meet somebody for far away and learn the dance, the music and we spoke and talk, you get pictures. We share music. We teach our dance, they teach us their moves. And yeah, it was very nice.

 

00;25;21 - 00;25;24

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So after your European tour, you came back to—

 

00;25;24 - 00;25;37

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Came back to Peru. I finished my social worker. And then at that point, I started thinking, I mean, the social worker career was nice, but it was not what I want.

 

00;25;37 - 00;25;41

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah, well, yeah, I was and asked, why did you select social work?

 

00;25;41 - 00;28;09

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Yeah. I did it because I like the contact with people. And I had no issue, but I like to help. Trying to find solutions. But I thought in my head, “they give them money. It was a solution. But the solution is just the money, there is more things in the back.” And then when I was doing my last year in social work in Peru, I started doing more like, practice in life in the real problems. And I feel like the governments [were] doing nothing for those people. I was thinking, this is a joke. How am I supposed to help somebody, I tell you what we need and the papers go to one office. Another office and another office. In another office. That never happens. So I feel a little disappointed with a career. No other career was [that] situation because, at least over here somebody is going to listen to you, over there is “okay, just give me your send your documents.” That was the only answer they give you, “Okay, send your papers.” I was like “Really? These people need help like right now.” “Yeah. There was nothing we can do. So just drop your papers and we take care of that.” And I was a student. So they do not listen much to me right. But in the meantime, I am still doing my performance and all that, and I said, I need to do something better. And a friend of mine told me why you do not go to the university of Folklore, Jose Maria Arguedas, and I did not know what it was because normally you learn to dance for somebody. And they told me, “No, you should go there. You are going to learn a little more deep about what you like.” And that was when my mind opens completely, and it was not just the performing on stage. It was the meaning of the dances that I did not knew much. Every city has a style of living that the university brought people from the specific city and place and bring it to us and we can learn from somebody that really live the real life of that and that was how I learn.

 

00;28;09 - 00;28;20

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Before I ask any questions about that experience, what was the name  the dance group that you went to Seoul and Europe with?

 

00;28;20 - 00;28;52

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: There were two different. The first one that I went to Seoul was Ballet Asi Es Mi Perú, the founder of the group is in Peru. And then I went to the trip in Europe with Compañia de Danza Folkorica del Perú and then, because I was hired from those groups, and then Ballet Asi Es Mi Perú hired me back again because they missed me, and I went with them to that, on tour.

 

00;28;52 - 00;28;58

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And what year did you begin that other university? The Folklore University.

 

00;28;58 - 00;29;01

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I started in 1995.

 

00;29;01 - 00;29;02

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: ’95?

 

00;29;02 - 00;29;03

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Yes.

 

00;29;03 - 00;29;05

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And how long did you—

 

00;29;05 - 00;29;33

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: It was supposed to be five years, but I started traveling again. You know, I have to interrupt, because in 2001, I went to Seoul again for another month. And this was like a private event with a museum and that was why I went there. So I have to again stop the classes, semester, and graduate a year later.

 

00;29;34 - 00;29;43

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So again, what did you learn in attending that folklore university about the meanings of each dance and of each city?

 

00;29;44 - 00;30;43

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: How value is my culture because I did not [know]. I love the costume a lot, but I did not know how value they are. I learned that everything that every sing piece am wearing is not because of style, it is a meaning, you know? And I can show you in a few pieces that you can see because most of the costume come from Peru. And to bring it here is  a lot because sometimes we have to bring, actually—I have one of my costume that has feathers from the jungle, and they are real feathers. And I do not think right now they allow me to bring that. But I was able to do it. It is very detailed everything they make for the costumes and in some cities they do some rituals before me the make the customs. It is overwhelming, you never end the learning. It is a lot.

 

00;30;43 - 00;30;54

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So can you give me one example, like break down the meaning of a certain costume you wore a lot like what each detail means.

 

00;30;54 - 00;31;38

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Yes. I can show you the skirts the most of the, the handcraft people, they represent the life flowers in birds on the skirts and the color represent the place. Like I have Cusco, is probably the woman's used to dance, and they call candunga, and that was made by lamb hair. And then there have different colors, dyed naturally, and they represent the colors of the Cusco flag or represent the rainbow. So, yeah, there is a lot of meanings on it.

 

00;31;38 - 00;31;48

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So once you finish this folklore university in 2002, you said?

 

00;31;48 - 00;31;49

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: 2003.

 

00;31;49 - 00;31;53

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: You emigrated—

 

00;31;53 - 00;31;55

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I am sorry I finished in 2001.

 

00;31;55 - 00;32;10

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Okay. What were the circumstances that led you to leave Peru around that time in 2003?

 

00;32;10 - 00;34;41

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: At that time, I just finished two careers. I was actually working by the Peruvian Air Force. So I was in the cultural section, and I was teaching all the guys that are going to be officials to learn a little bit more about Peruvian culture, deeper you know. So then I created this class where the officers learned to dance, play instruments, like a traditional instrument or like a band. Sing Peruvian songs or international songs. And that was my job that I was doing. I was doing classes in the school, and I was working with an artist in a show every weekend. So I used to work from Monday through Sunday from eight in the morning, and I was coming back from midnight, and I was living with my grandma. I could not pay rent, I could not pay nothing, nothing. And every single sol—Peruvian money—every money that I was receiving [was] to pay cash or pay food. But I could not pay rent. I could not live my grandma house. So, at that point, my mother was living here, and she told me you should come. And it was so hard for me to leave in what I was doing because the way that I felt that I was sharing or telling people we have to be proud to be Peruvian is to the culture through the dance, through the music. So we started teaching people in Peru how value this is, it is not like I use imitating somebody. I tell you how the people who show in on the country. So Peruvians open their eyes and like what they see, and then leaving that because I start, I start learning dance since I was, fifteen, it was so hard. And one day I decide I am leaving. I did not even think twice. I did not say goodbye to no one. I said, I am leaving. And I close my eyes, and I wake up in Miami and then close my eyes, and I have been in Orlando.

 

00;34;41 - 00;34;42

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So you never envisioned leaving Peru?

 

00;34;43 - 00;35;16

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: No, never. Never, never. I mean, it was just the situation. Besides that, I was single, I was alone. I got robbed all the time. They pulled my purse from the streets. And it was insecure. I was like, there was no point, no point. At one point, I got tired, and I said, “Oh my God, I keep working and I do not see a future.” My career, as much I love it, it was not doing anything at that point.

 

00;35;16 - 00;35;29

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So, obviously when you got to Miami in 2003, that was not the first time you were in Miami because it was a stop in your trip to Seoul. How long did you stay in Miami?

 

00;35;29 - 00;35;33

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: One day. Only one day.

 

00;35;33 - 00;35;34

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: You did not like it?

 

00;35;34 - 00;35;35

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: No.

 

00;35;36 - 00;35;37

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Explain why?

 

00;35;37 - 00;36;00

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Because Miami reminds me so much [of] Lima. It is the city. I see the busses, the people screaming, the horns, the stores, people crossing in the middle of the road, I was like, “No, this is this is Lima to me, so I need to find another place.”

 

00;36;00 - 00;36;02

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So how did you discover Orlando?

 

00;36;02 - 00;36;38

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I discovered Orlando—actually I was in Orlando in 2000 [for] the Celebration of 2000 in Epcot. It was only five days. It was from the Disney Hotel to the Disney Place. So I never went out of Orlando, so I only knew Disney. But then when my friends that live in Orlando [said] “[come] over,” and I saw the open on the city, no buildings, very country I said, “Oh my God, this is beautiful.” And that was how I decide to stay in Orlando. And I love the weather. That weather was the best.

 

00;36;38 - 00;36;51

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: So, how did you acclimate yourself or adjust your life once you settled here more permanently in Orlando?

 

00;36;51 - 00;41;33

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Well, it was super hard. Since I arrived in Miami, I was crying. The entire plane, I was crying, I was in Miami crying, and I went to Orlando crying because it was something new, something different, and I was alone. So I spoke my mother, my brothers, and then for the first days, I keep talking to them, and I still crying. And then I took the hard decision, and I said, I do not want to talk to anybody. Do not talk to me about Peru. Do not talk about nothing. And I closed the door of Peru for one year. I did not want to speak Spanish, only with my mom and my brothers. I do not want to speak Spanish for no one. I said I need to learn the language because I do not know English. I thought that I knew, but I did not know nothing because I was in a few classes in Peru. And when you come to real life is not the same. And since I closed my door, I stopped crying, and I say I need to learn everything. And thanks to the Lord, everything was fine. I started getting adjusted to the place, to the language, [there] was a lot of people that healed me at the point. Believe it or not, in 2003 there was in a lot of Spanish people here. It was very little. And I am very thankful to this old guy there. He passed already. His name was John Miller, very American, John Miller. He taught me English. At that point, he was probably seventy-five years old. And my friend told me that he know him for a long time. He only was sitting on the TV, watching TV and smoking. Since I show up to his house, he feel more interesting in life. So he started leaving the chair to teach him English, cooking for me because I did not know how to cook, even though I am Peruvian everybody thinks that I know how to cook, I did not know to cook at the time. He cook for me. We make dinner for my first Thanksgiving. You know, that was another thing.

 

My first year, “they said, we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving.” I was working in a fast food, at the time. And my assistant manager was an American native. And she was telling me about, “What are you going to do for Thanksgiving?” I said, “Well, I do not know what Thanksgiving means.” She said, “What do you mean? You do not have food; you do not have nothing?”  “No, I do not know that we have to celebrate.” And she explained to me. And I said, “Oh, that is so beautiful. But no, I do not know, I do not have a car, I cannot do grocery shopping. Nothing.” So next day, “Silvia, look over the table.” And I saw the turkey, the stuffing, mashed potatoes. And I said, “What is that?” “This for your dinner. You cannot have Thanksgiving without dinner.” And I start crying and I say, “Oh, thank you so much.” I bring all the food to my friend's house, and we cook my first Thanksgiving dinner. I remember that.

 

So then that year end and I did not know they had a friend that lived in Miami. So they have a music group there. And they have a performance, and they find out that I was here. “Silvia, you want to perform with us?” And I said “Yes!” in a heartbeat. So I grab my car. I drove for the first time four hours out of Orlando because normally I was driving inside Orlando. And at time there was no GPS. You only follow the signs that set and the map. So I drove to Miami, I found them, and it was July because it was a Peruvian Independence Day celebration in the park called Tamiami Park. At the Tamiami Park, it was one day of Peruvian Independence celebration, and I saw them, and I danced that day like I was out of jail because I did not want to hear music because I [cried]. Of course, after performing, I was crying because I feel that I have a little bit of Peru again and it was pretty amazing. After my whole year healing, after that, I feel a little better because I have my friends that I came back and forth to Miami, performing, come back to Orlando. I never left Orlando. Even though they told me “Silvia, why don’t you move to Miami?” I said no, “I come back four hours, it is okay. I will stay in Orlando.”

 

00;41;33 - 00;41;36

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And how long did you perform with this group and what was the name?

 

00;41;36 - 00;41;54

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Perú Expresión. I performed with them since 2004 or 2005, probably three years later, 2008 until I met my husband.

 

00;41;54 - 00;42;07

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: In what ways did your perceptions about Florida but the United States generally changed or remained the same once you settled here more permanently?

 

00;42;08 - 00;42;38

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Well, I can speak for Orlando because is what I live the most. I never have the opportunity to live in another state because I do not like the cold weather. So I will not go to nowhere. Miami is beautiful, but I do not like the congestion of the traffic. I do love the cafecito [coffee] and Cubano sandwich. Oh my God, the Cuban sandwich. I used to drive just to have breakfast there because it was super good. I am sorry say again your question.

 

00;42;38 - 00;42;52

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: If you had any notions about the US while you were living in Peru and when you came here, did any of those notions sort of change or stay the same, if you had any?

 

00;42;52 - 00;44;31

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I always heard in Peru that the United States is the country of opportunities. I always heard that because having a house, even in a small house, is no compared to somebody that do not have a house in Peru or living in a house in Peru. It is a big difference. Since I came to 2003, I used to live in an apartment. For me, my apartment was my palace because all the apartments here have carpets, they are AC, they are windows. In Peru, there was not even floors, no bathrooms. You do not have money. Working in a fast food, at that time you cannot spend, you cannot pay rent, as a fast food person. And the big change that I felt it was that they made me feel valued here in general. They made me feel that I am a person that, I said “you work hard, and when you go home, you feel peace.” Sadly, in our country, you go home and there is always something wrong. It is a big difference. You know, United States is a huge country compared to all the countries in South America. That is the sad part of, I think people leave the countries more for the governments than anything else.

 

00;44;31 - 00;44;59

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: You know, you performed in several places in the world before you finally came here as an immigrant. So I am curious how different was your performance experience here? How different was your experience performing here in the United States or in Florida or Orlando, Miami, compared to some of those other places?

 

00;45;00 - 00;45;30

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: It was a little different because when I was performing before, it was more for the Peruvian community because I want to feel the like I was still in Peru. I was looking [for] that Peruvian connection. When I was in Europe, I was representing my country. It was completely different. I was more proud like, “Oh my God, I am from Peru.” But when I was performing here, I say, “I want to see a Peruvian. You are Peruvian? Yeah, we are together.” Something like that. Yeah, that is the difference.

 

00;45;30 - 00;45;33

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And I am sure the reception was different too. Like the exchange.

 

00;45;33 - 00;46;02

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Yes. The exchange [was] different because we speak the same language, whatever you do, Peruvians know what you are doing. It was more like dancing in a private party with your friends than when you go to talk to public, it was different, you know. You feel like you are representing someone. So that is the difference. They are more like friends compared to artists. That was the big difference.

 

00;46;02 - 00;46;15

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah, that is a good analogy. So you were telling me before we recorded how you have a day job. So talk to me about your day job and how did you arrive to that?

 

00;46;15 - 00;50;24

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I think that was part of this country. I think I dreamed the American Dream. I live the American Dream. So I was working in a fast food, and my English got a little better. I met this manager her name is Maya. She passed last year, a lady from India. She was beautiful to me. She felt hurt on me. So she helped me as much as she can. And when I was getting promoted to be an assistant for the store, I find another friend that I did not knew he was here, he was a performer, he performed with me in Peru. And he was working at Millennium Mall. And from this store that I never heard in my life before, Neiman Marcus, never heard about the name. And [he] said, “Silvia, what are you doing?” And I said, “Well, here in the fast food.” And [he] said, “You do not want to work at my store?” And I said, “What?” He said, “Selling.” “Selling? No, I do not like to sell. I am okay [with] what I am doing.” I was getting into my comfort zone, and I am thankful for what happened that day. He yelled at me. He screaming at me and he said, “Are you crazy? You want to stay here? You can make more money. You can meet more people. You can do more things better at this place. You know, obviously there was nothing wrong with this place, but you can do better.” [I replied], “But I am okay.” “No!” And I was living by the airport. I do not have a car. And he said, “You will have an interview at the store.” I think it was two days later. “So I am going to meet you in the parking lot, and you better go.” So I have to pay a taxi. It was the most expensive taxi ever that I took at the time, and I went to the store, and I find out this store is a luxury store, that the associates are more like a stylist, to help people to create outfits. Like, you go to the store, “I have a wedding, what I can wear?” We put you all together. Suit, shirt, socks, shoes, everything that you need. And I said, “Okay, which position [is] open?” And he said, “We will start from receiving.” “Perfect.” I want to be back in the house. I want to see nobody. I do not want to talk English with no one, because I need to practice more. So I got to the store, and they said, “Well, you hired, but we need you in the sales.” And then looking at me, “Sales?” And my manager at that point said, “Silvia, but you are a teacher, you are a dancer, you can do it. Sales easy.” You know, she got me for that point. And I said, “Really?” “Yeah. So you teach the dance, right?” That was exactly [how she worded it]. “You are going to teach somebody about the handbag. You know, the leather, the quality sizes and materials. You can do it.” And I said, okay. So that was how I started in luxury retail. And that was how I start working for Neiman Marcus, and then I left Neiman Marcus in 2016, and I start working in diamond store, selling diamonds. I think nice experience, but I miss my retail. Before I did not want to, and now I miss it. I miss being in sectional clothes, shoes and all that. So I went back and worked with Bloomingdales, and then from Bloomingdales, Emporio Armani hired me as an assistant manager. So that has been my full time job. And always dancing was my part time job. So now I am working since 2022 as assistant manager for Emporio Armani.

 

00;50;24 - 00;50;31

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And in 2020, you founded and established a dance school, Raymi Dance School.

 

00;50;31 - 00;50;32

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Yes.

 

00;50;32 - 00;50;39

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Can you just talk to me about what inspired you to create a dance school at that time?

 

00;50;39 - 00;55;10

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Actually, Raymi was created in 2015. I did it because traveling to Miami back and forth and with a full time job and also retail is very on point, you have to work weekends because that is the day they are busier, they work the holidays. So I start working through the retail schedule and because I was missing that was part of going to Miami, I decided to look for more Peruvians around. And I started with friends—I call my friends now— but it was people that I never met before. “Hey, do you want to dance? I am a dance teacher, and I have to do everything. And I am also from Peru” because for some reason, nobody thinks that I am Peruvian, when they are looking at me, even people think I am from Thailand. And I said, “Okay, no, I am Peruvian.” I do not know what the Peruvian face meaning. So and then we created this group, and we start performing again with Peruvians, little by little. And then we met another person. His name is Luis Zapata. He was born in USA, Peruvian parents. And he liked my work. “I love what you do. This beautiful. Why don’t you keep growing?” And I say, “Well, I do not know people.” So he introduced me to Orlando City, and there were a few festivals in Orlando and then in Apopka. So we were showing Peruvian culture there. We were little at a point. And then we got a surprise as probably every nationality, everybody said, “so proud of who they are. Oh, yeah, they know about my country. Oh, yeah, they know.” So I start making questions and nobody know about Peru. And I was like, “What?” Because [I thought] “Peruvian, they know us. Everybody know us. We are super famous.” And then I realized that we are not that famous. Even I think that the Peruvian community is the smallest one in Orlando. So I start thinking, I said, “I think we have to do something better,” and we do not know what it was. And then I got my brother, [who] live in Orlando, I say, “I need your help. You want to build with me in this?” He says to me “Again? I escaped [from] you in Peru. And now here?” It was so funny. “Yeah, let's do something together.” And then when one of my students, her name is Genesis, we start talking and I say, “I think we should do something stronger and better.” And then somebody say about the nonprofits. Nonprofits United State, we start checking, and it was super expensive to create it. So when I started doing my classes, I have a student that he was thirteen years old when he started with me. His name is Andre Graves. So he started learning from Peru, mother [is] Peruvian, and his stepfather from Bolivia. So again he start performing in Immerse from 2018 I think, it was the first, Immerse Festival in Orlando. And we do Fusion Fest after that. And we ended the year doing our Peru Independence Day in the Orlando Museum of Art. We packed the Orlando Museum of Art. We got more than 500 people in the museum. The AC collapsed. It was hot because they did not expect that much Peruvians going to the first Independence Day celebration. So after all that, his stepfather Andre said to me, “Silvia, why you are not a nonprofit?” And I said, “Because we do not have the money. I do not have the money to spend in that.” He said, “I do all the legal part. You do not have to pay me because I love what you guys are doing. You only have to pay the fees.” So that was what we did. We put the money together and we pay the fees. And we created, thanks to Rolando Sanz, is his name, this guy, he is amazing. We created Raymi Dance School as a nonprofit.

 

00;55;12 - 00;55;19

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And how has it grown over the past ten years? You know, it has been ten years now since 2015.

 

00;55;19 - 00;56;20

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: From 2015 to 2020, I think we were rehearsal, it was a lot of rehearsals because now in 2020 when you start being legal and we call legal because we did not have all documents for the nonprofit. The [perception was] completely different, how the people see you because they realize that we are not a simple group performing. But we have a mission that is sharing Peruvian culture to everyone, not just to Peruvians. And thanks to the nonprofit and of course, by the support of performing at Fusion Fest, performing in Immerse, in all the little festivals in Orlando, that we did it for the first time. We got the opportunity to knock the door at Doctor Phillips in 2022.

 

00;56;20 - 00;56;37

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And you just mentioned the mission of Ramey Dance School. Why is it important for Raymi to exist? Why is it important to serve out that mission?

 

00;56;37 - 00;57;16

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: It is important because we are sharing the culture not just to Peruvian, but to everyone that [does] not know about Peru. So sometimes you need to go to the country to know about it, you know? And I think having Raymi is like bringing a little bit of Peru to the Orlando, so you do not have to go that far away. And we do not bring only dance, we do also music. We hire musicians from all over the United States to perform with us. And you can listen how Peruvian music sound because it is beautiful and completely different to other countries.

 

00;57;16 - 00;57;18

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: But why is that important?

 

00;57;18 - 00;58;09

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Because we keeping the culture alive. Yes. We keeping the culture alive. It is far away. And also I am passing this through to every students. You know, I tell my student, “Listen [to] what I am telling you, what you learning from me because I am not going to be here forever.” And the point Raymi is to stay and continue for generations. So sometimes I have to explain the value of the costume. Some costume that I have they are thirty years old and those costume are going to last forever. They do not have a price. You cannot pay for it. So you have to show why you wearing—proud of why you wearing to somebody that they do not know about it. And that is the mission, just have to be forever, God willing. Ever. Ever.

 

00;58;09 - 00;58;14

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: And what do you teach to your students specifically? Can you give me some examples?

 

00;58;14 - 00;59;31

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I teach a little bit of history. The meaning of the dance is very important because through the meaning, you able to not just dance, but perform. Because many of the dances, like we have one that is about love, and this dance from Cusco, they call Carnaval de Tinta, the dancers flirt singing in Quechua, in the Peruvian language. So I learned to them to sing in Quechua. And then I said, “I need you to the singing to look on your partner face and acting like a you getting in love with him. Same thing, you to her.” So I know sometimes it is hard because there are not professional dancers [who] know how to do that. They are students. But for me, they are my professional students. They are growing and they understand that and it is going to be different than you just move and turn without expressing what they mean to the dance, so that somebody can understand, “Oh, that is why they doing,” so that is why it is very important to learn a lot about story, history, and all that.

 

00;59;31 - 00;59;36

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Besides Future Fest and Immerse and these other festivals, where else do you perform and why?

 

00;59;36 - 01;00;38

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Every year at the Orlando Museum of Art, we celebrate Peru Independence Day that we have the free event to the community. Everybody can learn and celebrate with us. We perform since 2018 at Florida Folk Festival in White Spring. Every May, the weekend of Memorial Day, we go over there. Since three years ago, we doing Aquisito Nomas! Carnavales en Peru, and we do a story behind the carnivals so they can understand why we performing. Because we now decide to make a story and utilize the dancers through the story, so you understand it is a good and evil. It is romance. It is sadness, so [it makes] more sense because if I make you just perform and tell you the story, you are like, “Okay. And that is it?”

 

01;00;38 - 01;00;46

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: How do you envision your Raymi Dance School to change in the future?

 

01;00;46 - 01;02;01

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: We have so many goals with Raymi. One of those is to have our own place because I think that will be the better. Two, to keep more people coming to us because renting a space sometimes depends on the owner. That is the goal, having our own space. And also we have a lot of books because my brother, you see this room full of pictures. My brother Eric, he passed away and he was in anthropology in Peru. And when he passed, he left a lot of books about traditions and cultures from the Altiplano, from the jungle, from all over Peru. So those books, I have it here. So we want to create a library, a Peruvian library, like you [who] studies history, you can come to our library instead of the one in Peru and read Peruvian books in Spanish, learn the Spanish, and understand and see everything you want to learn from the Peruvian culture. So that is the main goal. If we do the library and the place, we are not going nowhere.

 

01;02;01 - 01;02;09

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Yeah, absolutely. That is fascinating. Explain what Raymi means.

 

01;02;09 - 01;03;12

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Raymi is a Quechua word that means festivity. So Raymi Dance is a celebration, all the time that we dance, we celebrate Peru, we celebrate culture. I forgot to mention something about Raymi. We are a diverse and inclusive group because most of my guys, they are from America, Puerto Rican, Honduras, and I used to have one from El Salvador, but he moved to Washington. So I teach them Peruvian culture and for me it is like, wow, they like to learn, and they feel amazing about Peru. And if you see perform, you think they are Peruvian, and no, they are not Peruvians. They are married to Peruvians, but they are not Peruvians.

 

01;03;12 - 01;03;34

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: You have been here in Orlando since 2003, so over twenty years. And you have [traveled] even from Central Florida, South Florida frequently. How has Orlando, Central Florida, Florida, changed since you have been here culturally, generally?

 

01;03;34 - 01;05;37

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: A lot. A lot. It was a huge change. When I came in 2003, I remember seeing the orange trees and a lot of forest. And now since, I think since COVID, 2020, the city blooms like amazing. You know, they are constructions all over. They are more houses, buildings. I-4 used to be I think four roads. I do not even remember now. It was two south, two going north. Highway 27 used to be two lanes. 50, was two lanes. And you see now 50, how big it is. So, yeah, it is a huge change. And also this growing make more people to come from different places. So in Orlando, I can find people from India, Pakistan, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina, Venezuela, Indonesia. One of my friends is from Indonesia and he has a group too, like, “Wow, where do these people come from?” Before it was an old town, a forgetting town. Nobody looked much about Orlando and the main thing was the [theme] park. But now is not just the park. We have Doctor Phillips and downtown. One of the theater, the Steinmetz Hall, actually we performed for the opening for the hall, we were so blessed to have performed for the opening. And that was ranked [in] the ten best theaters in the world. So people know about Orlando. They have the Grand Bohemian. That hotel was never was there. So much to grow in the city. And I am so proud of Orlando. I love it.

 

01;05;37 - 01;05;47

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: You know, you mentioned all these other different places, and, to that point, you have you seen an increase of Peruvians in Orlando?

 

01;05;47 - 01;06;49

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Yeah. A little bit. There more Peruvian restaurants for sure. And I think more events because—we are very proud that we originate all that because [in] 2018, we started with Peru Independence Day, that no one celebrated. And then, two years later, there were more events, little, in Orlando. We have a celebration in the Halloween that we called Día de la Canción Criolla, every October 31st. We did our first event two years ago, it was a sold out place, and now there are more people celebrating the same thing on Halloween. So we were like, “Oh, that was nice.” The more events, more Peruvian events. They are growing and they see, the Peruvians, that Orlando is a good place to maybe try to see something new.

 

01;06;49 - 01;06;53

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Do you think you have increased the awareness of your Peruvian culture?

 

01;06;53 - 01;06;54

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Definitely.

 

01;06;54 - 01;06;56

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: How?

 

01;06;56 - 01;07;58

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I think they see us as inspiration because being the first Latinos and Peruvians in Doctor Phillips that was like a “Oh, I want to do that too.” And if you follow us, we are doing something good. Like at the festival this past weekend, we were there since 2018, the first Peruvian institutional group, and this year we find the musicians that were doing classes for Peruvian music. They came from South Florida. And they know about the festival because we promote everywhere we go, as a Peruvian, we are there, as a Peruvian we are over here. So, yeah, this is good. Our mission is working. We sharing Peruvian culture, not just us, but we are allowing people to do the same thing too.

 

01;07;58 - 01;08;03

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: What challenges does Orlando face today?

 

01;08;03 - 01;09;12

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Challenges. As a city, the traffic. It is hard. It was not like that before. But traffic is getting a little crazy. It is more people moving to Florida. You are right now in Clermont. 2017, it was maybe fifty percent less traffic than is right now. And there is more new constructions all over Clermont. So we are growing a lot. As Orlando’s challenge, I think it is like a every other city, when you grow, there is more problems to come. You know, the bigger you are, the bigger problems. But I think Orlando is unique. It still keeps the old town heart. And that make the city still moving. So we are not the cold hearted city that we do not care what happened around, but still we are like a sort of family together, pushing us together. And everybody know each other in Orlando, all the institutions, we know someone.

 

01;09;12 - 01;09;23

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: From your perspective, how do you think Orlando will change in the next twenty years since you have been here for around twenty years?

 

01;09;23 - 01;10;52

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I am a little afraid this is going to be a city like Miami. Yes, because it is part of the progress. A lot of people investing money. In all those year things happened that never happened before like, the last time we were playing at UCF [University of Central Florida], the NFL [National Football League] [was] in a UCF— never happened in my twenty years here. That is big. They are coming to Disney, big concerts here, and the Millennium Mall, is a mall that I think used to have four big stores. If you never been there, one half of Millennium Mall is full of luxury stores, before you did not see that. So we growing as a cosmopolitan city. So fashion is coming big time to Orlando and sometimes people do not see it, but my other side of career, retail is growing, that is part of the cosmopolitan city's growing. So somebody come from LA, Beverly Hills. [finding their] boutiques here, they find it in a Millennial. So they are like, “Oh, you guys have it too?” It is like we are from another planet. “Yes, we do have it.”

 

01;10;52 - 01;10;55

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: As an immigrant, what does Florida mean to you?

 

01;10;56 - 01;11;36

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Florida is my home. Florida is my home. With all the issues and everything the people can see about it, Florida is my home. Florida, I think, is the perfect weather in town that can receive everybody because you go to New York is beautiful, is very strong and a hard city. But Orlando is something only that involves you, gets you—you trying to be mad, but you cannot be mad in Orlando. I do not know what it is. You know, it is something weird. But people get mad and then everybody [gets] mellow, [maybe] the weather, I do not know.

 

01;11;36 - 01;11;48

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: How has your Peruvian heritage influenced your perspective on life generally and living in Central Florida specifically?

 

01;11;48 - 01;13;11

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: I am going to be honest with you. My Peruvian heritage, I share only through my dances. Not through my style of life because it would be hard, you know? My job as a teacher, as an artist, is to show you the main reason to be Peruvian culture, the roots of the Peruvian culture. Not the part of the modern Peru because that modern Peru, you find it all over in different countries. But the main reason is who you are. Who are your roots.? Your Incas culture, your dances, your music, what you eat. You know, that is very important, and I share that through that in Orlando and Orlando opened the door for me big time. And the main example is Doctor Phillips. When explained to Doctor Phillips, what I am doing, and what Raymi is doing, you know who we are, they love the idea and that was why we are there, and this year is going to be our fourth show at Doctor Phillips.

 

01;13;11 - 01;13;21

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Lastly, if someone is listening to this recording fifty or a hundred years from now, what do you want them to know about your culture and the state of Florida?

 

01;13;21 - 01;14;27

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: Oh, you are going to make me cry. I want you to know that Peru is a beautiful country. The main reason why we are alive is because we have the Incas blood on it. The culture is huge, and people need to know who we are, where we come from and that need to help us to unite because there are many countries in South America that were Incas, and we have to think that way and think that Peru and everybody they live far away from Lima is still living and sharing that culture. And we have to keep continue that even the city is going to grow, everything is going to change, but we have to share that with them and keeping stronger and continue little by little because everything they will learn cannot die.

 

01;14;27 - 01;14;33

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Silvia, Thank you so much for taking some time to share your life story. I really appreciate it.

 

01;14;33 - 01;14;40

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: No, thank you for the opportunity and I wish you the best. And I hope that I have the library, and you can come and learn Peruvian history with us.

 

01;14;40 - 01;14;41

SEBASTIAN GARCIA: Absolutely. Thank you.

 

01;14;41 - 01;14;42

SILVIA HUDDLESTON: You are welcome.