STUTTGART, Germany – U.S. Africa Command held its first Hispanic American Heritage Month Celebration on 23 September 2011 at Kelley barracks.

More than 100 guests attended the celebration, which was themed, "many backgrounds, many stories –one American spirit" and featured music, dancing, speeches and a food tasting.

U.S. Africa Command Headquarters Commandant Lieutenant Colonel Susie Lewis, thanked everyone for attending and emphasized the importance of ethnic observances in bringing diverse groups together.
Event coordinator, AFRICOM Equal Employment Opportunity Manager Yasmin Rosa followed Lewis and introduced the dancing demonstrations, "There's one thing that brings Hispanics together aside from language –we all love music."

Alejandro Holguin and Andrea Holguin demonstrated traditional Salsa, Bachata and Merengue dances.

Next Navy Lieutenant Theresa Adair and Shariah Gibbs, demonstrated Zumba, a popular exercise program that combines aerobics with traditional Hispanic dancing. The recent fitness craze was invented by Columbian Aerobics instructor Alberto Perez when he forgot his aerobics music, substituted his personal tapes of Salsa and Meringue music and improvised a class. Zumba currently has 20,000 instructors in 35 countries and each class burns between 500-1,000 calories per session.

After the Zumba demonstration Lewis returned to the podium and joked about having to follow the dancers, before introducing the events two speakers.

Rhonda Diaz, acting J1/J8 Director of Resources for U.S. Africa Command and a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) since June 2003 spoke about her family, which included two Hispanic grandfathers, one Mexican and one that was half Puerto Rican and Italian. She credited her father with instilling her with a solid work ethic. Diaz also spoke about having a child at an early age, earning a General Education Development (GED) certificate, and ultimately earning a Bachelor's and Master's degree and reaching her goal of becoming a SES.

Diaz concluded her speech by urging the crowd to embrace diversity, "Having people with diverse experiences and ideas are useless if they aren't used, so please embrace diversity."
Deputy Director for J2 Operations and Plans Division, Colonel Gloria Rincon who graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, before being commissioned through the Officer Candidate School program spoke about her family as well. She is a first generation American and neither of her parents finished school, yet they instilled the importance of education in their daughter.

Rincon also spoke about her experiences as a Hispanic woman serving in the Army's intelligence community. "My career has been full of opportunities, adventure and making history. To me being a service member is the highest calling and will always be the highlight of my life."

Rincon went on to say that she never felt she had limitations. "I've grown up believing I can do anything and that the things that I can't do are the exception."

A food tasting featuring more than 20 different Hispanic dishes and beverages capped off the event. Members of the AFRICOM community prepared all of the dishes for the food tasting.

The celebration was produced as part of the special emphasis program under the Equal Employment Opportunity program. The special emphasis program is designed to highlight the diversity of various ethnic groups represented throughout the workforce.