Cesar Salas mixes styles and languages to expand access to yoga
Yoga hasn’t traditionally been the most diverse of environments. But now Cesar Salas is welcoming the Greenville Hispanic community into the ancient practice. Landing in the city in 2001, he started teaching yoga in 2017, becoming a Lululemon Yoga Ambassador in 2022.
Salas is a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient whose status allows him to work legally in the United States. He noticed that there were studios everywhere, but no one was designing classes for the Hispanic market in Greenville. Additionally, the Hispanic community was often intimidated due to pricing barriers and language difficulties, so it was his goal to make yoga approachable and inclusive. Classes are held in English or Spanish, with smatterings of Sanskrit combined into his particular mix.
“I wanted to make it accessible to the community, so I reached out to the Hispanic Alliance for resources, and they actually requested I teach a class for them. In 2020, I started teaching outdoor classes in partnership with local businesses such as Yee Haw Brewing, the Courtyard Marriott, and Cycle Bar, and now I hold classes every Sunday at Woodside Mill under my brand, Buena Vida Yoga,” he says.
Born in Durango, Mexico, Salas moved to the US when he was eight years old, unable to speak English. He knows firsthand the challenges people face and the struggles they have to overcome. He now works on staff at the Hispanic Alliance in fund development and public relations, where he advocates for Greenville’s Hispanic residents and connects them to a large variety of education, health, financial, and legal services.
Whether he’s teaching power yoga, chair yoga, restorative yoga or SUP (stand-up paddleboard) yoga, Salas brings practitioners together after class for a lively hour of community building and coffee. Next year, he hopes to host a yoga retreat on a coffee farm in a Spanish-speaking country, with the goal of sharing the love of yoga, a sense of wellness, and of course, a delicious cup of coffee.
