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34
January – March 2014
www.deltalivingmagazine.com
By Charleen Earley
charleenbearley@gmail.com
I
f you’ve never met Beto Gal-
lardo, Zumba exercise in-
structor of Brentwood, then you
are missing something special in
your life. You’re missing out on
knowing one of the most energet-
ic, happy and inspiring young man
you’ll ever meet.
Born in Mexico City, Mexico,
Beto came to the United States
12 years ago. One of the young-
est of six brothers and four sisters,
he earned his BS degree in bio-
chemical engineering in Mexico
and became a teacher in the U.S.
“I love to do research; steroids
and anabolic are my professional
areas of focus. I did research for
nine years for a pharmaceutical
company in Chicago, Illinois,” said
Beto. “I also worked as a teacher
atTriton Community College and
taught algebra, science and social
studies. One of my future plans is
to get back into research.”
In addition to teaching difficult
courses for most people, ironically,
he taught citizenship classes.
“I had a lot of students from
India, Poland and Mexico, and
after they passed the citizenship
class, they would invite me to
their houses and prepare their tra-
ditional dishes for me!” said Beto,
who also taught GED classes at
West Chicago High School.“I was
helping a lot of people earn their
GED.”
The joy and happiness that
exudes from Beto comes from
knowing who he is – a Hispanic
gay man – and what he’s passion-
ate about – dancing.
“I love dancing and always
wanted to be a ballet dancer,” said
Beto, who married his long time
boyfriend Brian Neubaum, in
Davenport, Iowa in 2011. “I am
old, and I know you have to start
ballet when you’re young, but my
father never approved of a danc-
ing career. I found Zumba as my
dream, where now I have the op-
portunity to follow my talent and
my love for dancing.”
There was a time in his life
when he didn’t feel like dancing
though.
“I knew I was gay since I was
five-years-old, and experienced
bullying in elementary school and
my first year in middle school,”
said Beto. “It was a difficult time,
Another name for
Zumba is BETO
but it didn’t affect me in the long
run. My father and family always
supported me.”
Support comes from Zumba
and music too.
“As a Latino, I love music in
Zumba. I love the fact that I can
be myself, and I like to see my stu-
dents happy,” said Beto.“Zumba is
a lot of fun and it doesn’t feel like
you’re exercising, it just feels like
you’re dancing.”
He says most people are dis-
couraged from working out at
gyms, because they don’t feel
they’re reaching their goals.
“Zumba is a great cardio work-
out,” he said. “It works every part
of your body with abs, legs, up-
per body and all your muscles.
And you don’t have to be coor-
dinated either. I had a student say
she didn’t have ‘moves.’ She took
my Zumba class and now she’s ad-
dicted to the class!”
“It doesn’t matter if you have
moves or not, just as long as you
are moving and enjoying the mu-
sic,” he added.
When he’s not teaching Zum-
ba on Fridays at 5:30 p.m. and
Sundays at 9 a.m. at Delta Valley
Athletic Club, Beto finds himself
looking for new music for his
classes, creating new choreogra-
phy and watching horror films.
Photos by Maria Tavares