Once upon a time a young girl embarked on a solitary journey from an isolated island nation traveling southwest across the Atlantic to a gigantic landmass in the southern hemisphere.

She immediately fell in love with the locals whose many ethnicities came from a great melting pot of cultures and regions as different as they were many.

Enchanted by the sensual movements of the Samba and the incantation of beautifully pronounced words in the incomprehensible but vibrant conversations, a shy girl gradually transformed into a lively and self-confident young woman.

The barriers and obstacles were many and often sprang out of nowhere. But as the year passed the loneliness and linguistic isolation became a distant memory in the new-found life in the beautiful state of Goiás in Brazil.

Contaminated with a severe case of Latino hips, a new family and friends for life, she returned to the little island in the North where she found herself a part of the spirited Latino community in Iceland.

That girl is me and the journey I describe is the year I spent as an exchange student in a small interior city named Rio Verde with a wonderful host family I have unfortunately not been adequately in touch with for quite some time.

For me, as a national of an isolated island-country such is Iceland, the exchange year with AFS (stands for American Field Service)  was life altering.

I grew up in a small town where I didn’t quite fit in and never really belonged. I suppose it would be fair to say I was the odd kid in the corner who never spoke and couldn’t wait to escape.

But after my year in Brazil, I was invigorated with a sense of self and couldn’t have cared any less of how people in my small town perceived me or what they thought of me.

One of the reasons was my volunteer work with the local AFS exchange student organization where I made new friends who shared my passion for the Samba and the Salsa, and with whom I would go out dancing at a local Salsa club every single weekend.

Sober or drunk, dancing was a bliss and the Latino community in Iceland embraced the quirks of newly-returned exchange students, some still struggling to adjust to their native homes after a year abroad in the hot-tempered and passionate states of South and Central America (I always think of Central America as a continent in its own right although geographically it is not).

The exchange students from those regions joined us and one of them, a girl from Venezuela, became very dear to me and continues to be a friend and a spiritual sister in the present day.

Of late, my thoughts often drift back to that time in my life when I felt a part of a very special community, and to the club that once housed dance-craved exchange students still buzzing from the year abroad.

The club was called Tres Locos and it was located on 11 Laugavegur. It was on two floors and to get to the second floor, one had to climb the narrow staircase to the smoky upper deck. Downstairs and upstairs we danced until the bell rang 3 a.m. and we were forced to conclude a night dancing with local residents from the terrains known as Latin America and Icelanders who couldn’t shake the bug.

After almost two years of working with AFS, I left Iceland and for half a decade I lost touch with the Latino community in Iceland.

Most of my exchange student friends from Latin America have drifted to all corners of the world and even though I stay in touch with them, I did lose touch with many before Facebook became my source to reconnect with many of them.

It might come as a surprise but quite a few Icelanders speak Spanish, some with great fluency. It is one of the few languages where our capacity to roll our “Rs” is beneficial.

Thankfully, the Latino community in Iceland – as invisible as it is in my own life for the time being – is deeply rooted in Iceland, and thanks to a strong sense of self in the heart and soul of South and Central Americans who have made Iceland their home, not just one but two salsa communities meet on regular basis every week in the center of Reykjavík to teach and enjoy the caliente Salsa in the company of like-minded spirits.

Salsa Iceland is a well-known group that started in 2003 with a simple goal: to spread the salsa bug. Today they host a range of courses for interested parties and meet every Thursday at 8 p.m. at Thorvaldsen, a local bar in the city center.

The second group Salsafélag Íslands or Club de Salsa Islandés is a more recent addition to the flora of Latino communities, and their goal is to bring Icelanders and Latino Americans closer together. I seem to recall members and non-members alike meet once a week for a dance session in a local but I have to admit I am not sure where. It is however in the center of Reykjavík and information should be available on the group’s Facebook site. 

Personally, I think we need a bit of caliente and calor (both meaning heat) in Iceland, especially in the height of winter. We need to feel out hearts pumping blood to all vessels of the body, invigorating the spirit with the movements that bring us closer to our partner and bring us the ray of sun so rich in Latino cultures.

Had I not chosen to do an exchange year in Brazil, far away from the safety of my beloved family, I would not know the pleasure that derives from dancing the Salsa and the Samba, or even have the confidence to do so.

Participating in an exchange program is not cheap and in the current economic climate, fewer and fewer can afford to send their children to distant countries and continents to become citizens of the world.

It is a travesty, because young people raised in an isolated country like Iceland are at risk of becoming narrow-minded and isolated from the international community our world has become.

I look forward to the day when participating in an exchange program becomes an essential part of growing up.

Júlíana Björnsdóttir – julianabjornsdottir@gmail.com