Kansas City Rumba started in the early 1980s when Agustín Romero-Diaz, a native of Cuba, immigrated to Kansas City bringing a unique voice and sound to the Midwest. For three decades, he shared his passion for Afro-Cuban music each Sunday afternoon at Loose Park. Agustín passed in 2014 but his spirit lives on in the rumberos he left behind.
For the past five years, Miko Spears has been leading rumba on Sundays in the very same space inviting a new generation of artists to contribute their gifts to the circle. Kansas City Rumba Collective began two years ago in an effort to preserving Augustín Romero-Diaz memory through poetry, dance, painting and the preservation of the Afro-Latinx spirit through its folkloric rumba sounds.
