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11 Year-Old Carries On Family’s Aztec Dance Tradition

San Francisco Mission District resident Connie Xochiquetzalli “Xochi” Peña has been an Aztec dancer all her life.

As a 2 year-old, she danced an entire parade route. Now 11, Xochi sometimes steps in for her mother and teaches dance class at the Mission Cultural Center.

She comes from a long line of Aztec dancers. Her great-grandfather on her mother’s side was also a dancer in her family’s native Toluca, Estado de Mexico.

Xochi has big plans for herself, ones that include practicing either law or medicine. If dancing parade routes as a toddler and teacher classes while still in the sixth grade is any indication, we’re sure she can do anything she sets her mind to.

via SF Gate

Photo: Rod Yip/The Chronicle