Dancing For a Dream: Meet Andre Calihua  

Andre Calihua is a 16-year-old who attends Southwest High School in Imperial Valley. He is one of the participants for this year’s Dancing for a Dream. 

At the age of 11 Andre was diagnosed with Acute lymphocytic leukemia.  

Calihua remembers the moment when he was first diagnosed at such a young age. 

“When I first found out it was leukemia I  was freaking out because I was like wow leukemia thats a cancer so you know I never thought I had cancer, like you see all the saint jude commercials and I was like wow, I couldnt imagine myself being one of thoes children and I was one of thoes children” says Calihua. 

Dancing on behalf of Andre and his family is Daniel Meza and shares what it was like meeting the family for the first time. 

“Oh really nice family he’s a young kid he’s 16-years-old and he’s a little taller than me so he’s a big kid and he likes playing , I believe the drums. He’s in band” Says Meza. 

Andre is part of the Southwest drumline and plays the bass drum. 

“Originally I wanted to play the tenor which is the four drums but there was already two way better people trying out for it so I was like I’ll get something what I think is fun which would be the bass drum because with the bass drum you hit it and you dont just hear the bass you feel the base which is what I love about it” says Calihua.    

Calihua has been seeking treatment at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego for years and still continues with his treatment. According to his mother Marisol Escobar, she remembers the moment she had to break the news to her son about his diagnosis. As well as the time they spend living in San Diego for their appointments.  

“I myself had to tell him about his diagnosis…and it was tough..for him it was tough news because he would tell me before the diagnosis he would ask me ‘Mom this Friday would we be going home right’ and I told him no they say we still need to run a few more studies,” says Escobar.

Dancing for a Dream will be taking place on October 20th at Cheval Farms in Imperial. 346 Larsen Rd. Imperial, CA 92251. Tickets for the event can be purchased on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Dancing4ADream