This year at the 2020 Latino Talent Awards, at the request of many of its followers, Latinos En Michigan TV included a special recognition to the Hispanic LGBTQ community, because it is a very vulnerable but very important community in Michigan.For this reason, in the second version of the awards, Lorenzo López, a Latino and LGBTQ activist from the city of Lansing received the “Latino LGBTQ Activist” award for his contributions not only to this community but also for his leadership among the Hispanic community in causes such as immigration and civil rights.Lorenzo was born in Lansing and his family for several generations has participated in different initiatives to preserve the cultural richness and contributions of Hispanics and Mexican Americans in Michigan.Lorenzo is an experienced bilingual professional with more than 20 years of experience in various administrative areas and he is also a fervent defender of civil and human rights for vulnerable populations. Lorenzo graduated from the Michigan State University School of Education and studied for a year in a master’s program in bilingual education, allowing him to share his knowledge as an educator. He is currently the president of Suits and the City, a professional networking group for the LGBTQ community and is the program coordinator for the Michigan Alliance for Latino Education and Culture. For decades Lorenzo has been an advocate and activist on issues related to the Latino community. But apart from his social activism,another of his great passions is dancing. Lorenzo began to dance Mexican folk dance at the age of six and one of his great inspirations apart from his mother was his sister Rosa López Killips, who passed away last August and who for many years was not only his dance partner, but his partner in the social justice movement. For Lorenzo, his passion for dance made him obtain additional training in flamenco, a dance that his sister also loved. And precisely that love for dancing made Lorenzo also study Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap at Lansing Community College and Modern at Michigan State University, all these disciplines have been used to strengthen his mastery in Mexican Folk Dance and Flamenco. And precisely using his knowledge in dance, he developed and performed Latin dances such as Bolero, Cha, cha, cha,Cumbia and Salsa. For years his experience as an instructor and also as a dancer of various styles of Latin dance, gives him the opportunity to share the broad spectrum of what has become Latin dance today. In fact, Lorenzo was able to share his knowledge as a dancer by creating the choreography of a Colombian cumbia dance,that was the opening show to the second edition of the 2020 Talentos Latinos Awards. For his contributions to the Latino community through dance and social activism, Lorenzo López received the “Activita LGBTQ Latino 2020 Award” from the Talentos Latinos Awards from Latinos En Michigan TV.
