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The Key West International Latin Arts Festival ¡Esperando Nacer!, offers a unique opportunity to immerse in the soul, color and passion of traditional Latin American cultural arts, while enjoying the charms of North America’s Southernmost City,” the tropical island of Key West, Florida. Held in November, the weekend-long multidisciplinary celebration showcases the unique artistic folk traditions of countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico with dance and percussion workshops, Latin American artists' exhibits, poetry readings, and a main-event theatrical concert that spotlights local and visiting musicians and performers. The festival was launched in 2012 by partners Valerie Carr and Christián Monzón via their company ValnChz Productions. Carr, a clinical social worker by day, interpretive vocalist by night, was raised on cattle ranches on the Western prairies of South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming in the US. Monzón is a singer-songwriter and Key West eco-tour captain, born and raised in the Gregorio de Lafererre section of Gran Buenos Aires, Argentina. The two formed the band InnerNacionalSound (INS) in 2008. The historic San Carlos Institute, located downtown on Key West’s famed Duval Street, is the main venue for workshops and the festival’s cornerstone event, a theatrical concert titled ¡Esperando Nacer!, (I am Waiting to be Born), which features InnerNacionalSound in company with an outstanding line-up of local and visiting musicians and dancers. Entertainers associated with the festival from its inception include musiciansRolando Rojas, Andrés Cisneros, Christian Noguera, and Melody Cooper; Miami-based folkloric and Argentine tango dance luminaries/Tango Times proprietors Roxana Garber and Oscar Caballero; the ¡Eu Quero Dancar! (I Wanna Dance!) Troupe featuring Judith and Zurima Cisneros, and Brazilian Capoeira martial art/dance master Jan Czerny. The 2012 and 2013 festivals have been supported in part by Cultural Umbrella grants from the Monroe County Tourist Development Council. In recognition of the festival and the contributions of Latin American cultures to the art and culture of Key West, Florida, Mayor Craig Cates has proclaimed November 10 to be Día de la Tradición, titled after a famed Argentine holiday celebrated on the birth date of José Hernández, that nation’s most famous poet.