When we emigrate from one land to another, it’s often not possible to carry with us our most prized possessions, but we do arrive at the land of our destination with something of great value--what we have within--such as our art, culture and music.

Like many cities that have received immigrants, Toronto, Canada has been transformed with each wave of new citizens that arrived. The city is, in fact, recognized as a welcoming environment to immigrants worldround. More than 140 languages and dialects are spoken in Toronto neighborhoods, and the 2006 census documented that although the city has only 8 percent of the land’s population, it has 20 percent of all Canadian immigrants and 30 per cent of all recent immigrants.

Historically, Toronto has had a substantial and well-established Portuguese community, formed as of the 1950’s. Latinos, however, are also becoming an important cultural force in the city and today are the fifth minority population in Toronto and are almost 70,000 of its two million inhabitants.

The Toronto Latin music playlist, includes, for example, Mexican multi instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Quique Escamilla, Cuban pianist Hilario Durán, experimental Colombian artist Lido Pimienta, jazzy ballad singers like Amanda Martinez and even musicians who play Mexican folk music in Veracruz’s jarocho tradition like Alec Dempster and Café con Pan.

At the epicenter of much of this Latin music activity is Lula Lounge, a nightclub and restaurant in the Portuguese neighborhood. Ecuadorian visual artist Jose Ortega co-founded Lula Lounge in 2002 with partners Jose Nieves (of Portuguese and Spanish background) and Tracy Jenkins from Canada.

After a decade of Lula Lounge with regular salsa nights and its now expanded role as Lula Music and Arts Centre, Ortega notes that more than a dozen salsa bands have taken root in Toronto. These include the Lula All Stars, a twelve-member orchestra that emerged out of the salsa nights. He and his partners have also leveraged their passion for music and the Lula Lounge brand to create Lulaworld Records, a record label that now boasts of four CD’s in its roster so far. First, they released Lula Lounge Essential Tracks, a compilation of live recordings of the many extraordinary musicians that graced the Lounge’s stage. The label also produced Quique Escamilla’s CD 500 Years of Nights, which this year won the June (Canadian Grammy) for Best World Music Album. Last year, Lulaworld Records also released Brasstronomical by the New Orleans-inspired Heavyweights Brass Band. And, just weeks ago released the debut CD of Lula All Stars.

Lula Music and Arts Centre now also curates Lulaworld, a world music festival that evolved organically from what had been the club’s annual anniversary celebration. The festival takes place for a month from May to June, and presents music from around the globe with a necessary emphasis on Brazilian music, the Latin counterpart to the Portuguese community.

In this year’s 10th edition, for the third year Lulaworld ended with a day of free music outdoors as part of Dundas West Fest, a festival in the Portuguese neighborhood that highlights the music and the cultures of the area that straddles the street of Dundas.

As part of Dundas West Fest this year, Lulaworld also organized and coordinated a magnificent parade called “Grand Batería Express”, which brought together perhaps the largest group of Brazilian drummers ever assembled for a Toronto parade, with the participation of more than ten drumming groups.

This year’s Lulaworld also included several magnificent concerts of Cuban-style jazzed-up salsa in an ensemble of thirteen musicians led by the great trumpeter Jesús Alemany. This ensemble, titled “La Reunión” for these concerts, included several former members of Jesús Alemany’s own Cubanismo orchestra who when they emigrated to Toronto amped up the city’s Latin music scene, acting as musical anchors for a variety of bands with other Cuban and Latin musicians.

As if these weren’t enough accomplishments, this year Lula Arts and Music Centre is playing a pivotal piece in the curation of a series of concerts related to the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games celebrations which will include a concert on July 22 led by brilliant Panamanian jazz pianist Danilo Pérez.

In the final analysis, says Ortega, it’s about having built ground-up a cultural center where the audience becomes informed about the richness and values of Latin culture. It has to do with much more than just having fun, he declares with great passion, “Of course, there’s a lot of party music, but we want people to understand that this is sophisticated and complex music, and we want the musicians to be respected”.

You can check out this Beat Latino to get a taste of the richness of the Latino Canadian musical scene.