Our Founders

Ruben Pachas - Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Center of Peruvian Arts // MA in Art Education

Jessica Loyaga - Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Center of Peruvian Arts // Peruvian Arts Educator

Rubén Pachas and Jessica Loyaga began to learn the dances of their ancestral Peruvian cultures at a very young age from family roots and in art education classes at their schools in Peru, and continued to learn and practice them into adolescence. They later joined the Matices Peruanos Folkloric Cultural Institution, directed by Laly Varillas and Jesus LaMadrid, where he began to research dance and to perform as a dancer on stage.  

Having carried out in-depth research on the ancient cultures of Peru, Rubén and Jessica graduated with a degree in Art Education from the National Higher School of Folklore Jose Maria Arguedas. After winning national dance competitions with their students' work, and Ruben participating as a teacher in teacher training courses in folk dance, and both making two tours to the United States as a cultural artist representing Peru, in 2005 Rubén and Jessica arrived in Chicago, Illinois. Here they have had the opportunity to work as a guest teacher for 8 years in the National Louis University program for Chicago Public Schools, directed by Maestro Polo Garcia, an expert in Mexican dance.  

In 2009 Pachas and Loyaga created the Peruvian Folk Dance Center, an institution dedicated to the promotion of the folkloric dances of Peru in the world. In 2010 Ruben developed Latin American Folk Dances, a program that he brought to Oak Park School District 97, Crystal Lake's District, Bellwood District 88, and to Chicago Public Schools. He has also taught at the University of Chicago in the Music Department, at Roosevelt University as a Cultural Dance Teacher, at the University of Illinois-Chicago as a Cultural Dance Teacher and at Northeastern University.  

In 2020, Pachas received an MA in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, presenting his thesis on the teaching of Peruvian Indigenous dances to non-indigenous people as a way of recovering ancestral values and culture. Currently, he is working on the project "For ALL teachers in ARTCORE and ARTEC schools," which trains teachers from Chicago and Waukegan in ancient dances of the world.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

  • RUBEN PACHAS : President

  • JESSICA LOYAGA: Vice President and Treasurer

  • ALMA ALMANZA: Director

  • WILLY CHUMBIMUNE: Director

  • ALEX ESCOBEDO: Director