Hanler Perez Nieves was born in Cuba and from an early childhood had a devoted love for the Latin culture, arts, music, dancing and singing. He successfully graduated with honors in Hospitality & Entertainment Management, and worked in the Entertainment Department at top Hotel Resorts, and in just 6 years, he was promoted to Entertainment Manager at Cuba’s #1 Hotel Resort.
In 2010 in Port Credit, Mississauga “Salsa Sundays” was born with roughly 30 people at the first event. With marketing and word of mouth, Salsa Sundays experienced rapid growth in participation and quickly developed a reputation as the fun and friendly place to meet new people, learn about Latin culture, music and dance. Shortly after it started, Hanler took steps to formalize and further develop this Latin dance initiative into other cultural aspects such as cultural celebrations, live Latin music and festivals.
Over more than a decade, Hanler has built collaborative relationships with Latin-Canadian professional artists and talent, and has brought Latin culture to small business owners, cities, restaurants, weddings, schools, festivals, private parties and more, across Ontario. In 2022, since so many non-Latin born Ontarians had grown to become passionate about Latin culture, he started a cultural appreciation awareness initiative to help others learn about Latin history and culture as well as when misunderstandings of Latin culture may give an inaccurate perspective, misplace Latin cultural roots or create a fad that devalues Latin culture.
Today, as Managing Director of The Salsa Club Inc., Hanler has managed approximately 3200 presentations and events from 50 to 3000 people and has over 5,000 online followers and an organic reach of 30,000 Latin and Latin culture lovers in Ontario monthly.
