Puerto Vallarta - The first step of Professor Enrique Barrios y Limon’s project to build a Dance Academy, that can be at the same time a center anyone can visit to further his or her knowledge of the culture from each of the Mexican states, was recently taken.

City Hall’s Secretary General Jesus Sanchez Guerra, on behalf of Mayor Salvador Gonzalez Resendiz, was charged with placing the first stone of what will be the Xiutla Regional Academy of Mexican Dance.

In his address, Sanchez Guerra said Puerto Vallarta is grateful to Professor Barrios for the important efforts he has made to put this municipality in the limelight in many places around the world with the folkloric dance group he founded 15 years ago. On every stage where the group has performed, it has proven that in Puerto Vallarta things are done right, with feeling, passion and honesty.

Jesus Sanchez commended the Xiutla folkloric group for the large number of children that it has formed as good citizens, bringing them close to the vast Mexican culture and teaching them the beautiful art of dance. "It is only left to us to say thank you Professor Barrios," he said in closing.

Prof. Barrios y LimonIt was an emotional ceremony with civil and military dignitaries, as well as some of the founding members of the Xiutla, to whom Professor Barrios paid homage, and reminisced of their participation in the group.

Likewise, Barrios y Limon thanked not only the current municipal administration, but all previous governments throughout the group’s 15 years of life, as each has contributed “their grain of sand” for Xiutla to stay current and increasing the number of children interested in cultivating this beautiful art form.