Barbara Leininger
Bloomington, Indiana
ph: 812-334-0553
I was born in West Virginia & moved to Miami, Florida with my family, when I was 9 years old. I saw Miami change from a sleepy southern town to an international community with a lot of ethnic diversity.
I remember being very frightened during the Cuban missile crisis, but I also remember the pride & support for our country that our city had. It was as if, even as children, we were willing to stand tall & support America. As Miami became more & more Latin, I came to embrace & love the Cuban culture. (Of course, there was a huge difference between the original Cuban refugees & the Mariel boat-life refugees. Even relatives of these refugees had trouble getting along with them. They had been indoctrinated by Fidel for too long, & it was true that Castro put some of the worst Cubans on those boats.)
Some of my favorite things about the Cuban culture is, of course, the food along with their love of music & dance & the fact that they value & respect family. The elderly are respected & taken care of in the Latin culture. Not always, I hate to say, in the American culture.
I grew up, got married, had 3 children, & worked in Miami until 1992, when Hurricane Andrew blew through & destroyed my house. What the hurricane didn't take away from me, looters did. So, I decided to move to Indiana, open up my business, Arthur Murray Dance Studio, & start over. The story of why I chose Indiana would require a little more time, but it involved a man & a mission. (I later settled on the mission.)
Anyway, I have been here teaching the Bloomington community how to dance since 1993. It is marvelous to see all those people out there enjoying themselves!
~Barbara
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