Salsa fans feel the heat and move to the beat

FOR 73 YEARS, THIS COMMERCE DANCE FLOOR HAS KEPT THE RHYTHM GOING. NOW YOUNGER ENTHUSIASTS ARE POWERING A RESURGENCE.

- BY KATERINA PORTELA

Guests receive dance instruction at Stevens; dance teachers Jennifer and Miguel Aguirre show some moves; two dancers participate in a class; and Miguel Aguirre, right, mans the DJ booth.

Photographs by EMIL RAVELO For The Times

IN THE WORKING-CLASS city of Commerce, where cars speed past on highways and the Citadel Outlets tower over neighborhoods, there is a steakhouse named Stevens. By day, it’s a classic and charming old restaurant where working people go for quiet, hearty meals. But every Sunday night, the outside world disappears. As waiters whisk about in starched button-ups, couples lead each other by the hand toward the dance floor in the restaurant's ballroom, where Stevens’ tradition of Salsa Sundays has been bringing the community together for 73 years. An eight-piece band plays brass, electric guitar, bongos and timbales, filling the room with music as dancers twirl in a dizzying array. One attendee, 29-year-old Amy Hernandez, greets a few familiar faces before she steps onto the dance floor, spinning in confident steps with a wide smile on her face.

Hernandez is part of a revival that’s been getting younger people excited about salsa music — and flocking to Stevens. She grew up watching her father dance salsa but started diving back into the genre on her own to find comfort during the L.A. wildfires earlier this year. She credits Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” for re-sparking her interest.

“It was very healing for me,” she says of the album, which blends old-school Puerto Rican boricua samples with Latin dance and reggaeton influences for an emotional imagining of Puerto Rican identity.

When college friends recommended Stevens as an affordable place to dance, Hernandez mentioned it in passing to her dad.