DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – The sound of salsa music and Latin culture work in harmony to strike the perfect chord, and the Dayton Salsa Project makes sure all of Miami Valley is able to hear it.

According to their website, the group’s mission is to “use music as the means to break barriers and promote inclusion by showcasing how musicians from diverse traditions and cultural backgrounds can get together in one accord.”

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, and many local groups work to continue the celebration and awareness all year long. The Dayton Salsa Project aims to become ambassadors of Dayton’s diverse community while sharing the rich history of Salsa at local, state, and national cultural events, their website states.

Daryll Rosa, lead singer and founding member of the Dayton Salsa Project, said the band is composed of a diverse group of musicians, both from close connections and from across the globe.

“Half of the band is my family, and from Puerto Rico,” Rosa said. “We have sometimes people that come from Columbus to sub in, and they are from Colombia, from Venezuela, but the band itself, mostly is from Dayton, and Puerto Rico.”

Kareem Powell, Dayton Salsa Group Keyboard Player, said the education and promotion of diverse music and culture is something to focus on during this month, and all year round.

“This country is made of many different groups, many different cultures,” Powell said. “{These cultures} are part of us, if we don’t celebrate that part of us, we’re not complete, we’re not whole.”

Powell said getting to know the heritage and background of fellow community members is beneficial.

“I grew up in Miamisburg, and at the time, it was significantly less diverse than it is now,” Powell said. “And now there are more diverse people, so it’s just good to get to know our neighbors and where we came from.”

Rosa said curiously enough, while he has been a musician for all of his life, he didn’t play much Salsa when he lived in Puerto Rico.

“But Salsa is something that I have in common with people from Venezuela, with people from Cuba, people from Mexico, people from other Latin American countries who love salsa, and they are here, in Dayton and Troy and Columbus and Cincinnati, and they travel from the city to see our presentations,” Rosa said.

Rosa described it as something that connects him to his Latin roots as well as other local musicians.

“It’s some of the music that I grew up with, and it was some of the music that my mom would play while cleaning the screens at home and cleaning the floors and everything,” Rosa said. “So I have it deep in me.”

Rosa said it’s important to be exposed to culture and music from all around the world.

“We are a population that is increasingly growing in the United States, not only in this area,” Rosa said. “So this is a little bit of ourselves coming up and showing ourselves to the world.”

Rosa describes their music as happy music for happy people.

“This is just a little bit of of happiness and energy that we can bring to this area,” Rosa said. “We really didn’t do it for everybody, we originally did it for ourselves and our community, but everybody loves it, and we’re in Dayton, so we’re for everybody.”

Dayton Salsa Project works to bring people together from all over the world, all while celebrating Latin Culture.