Queen of the Rumba

Inspired by a true story – Alicia Parla – a 21 year old virgin Cuban girl set the world on fire with the Rumba back in the 1920s. This story begins when Alicia, now a mature woman of 89, is diagnosed with cancer and she refuses to stay in the cancer ward because she claims she is ready to go, because she had a happy and full life. The doctor insists she stay overnight for observation. At night she hears a young girl crying because she too has a terminal illness with just a few months to live. She tries to cheer her up by sharing her story of how she went from a precocious girl who came to the US from Cuba and ended up introducing the US to the Rumba and had an amazing dance career that took her to Paris and many other exciting places. She teaches her that when you live in the moment, and that’s what she did when she danced, that you can live forever. In sharing her story she reveals her one true regret – not following her heart and not going with the man she loved because he was poor and a black Cuban. She had to marry well in order for her white Cuban family to accept her. The young girl realizes that although she is going to die she can do it peacefully now because she will not die with regret because she knew how to love. She asks Alicia to teach her how to dance the Rumba and she gets everyone in the cancer ward to dance the Rumba as though their life depended on it.