LYNN – It may be approaching sub-arctic temperatures outside, but the auditorium at English High School was red-hot Tuesday morning as the traditional Latin American music group Manguito had students and faculty dancing in the aisles.The five-piece band was on hand as part of the school’s Black History Month festivities, exploring and demonstrating traditional music from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.In between energetic songs, the band members introduced traditional instruments and explained the history behind the different rhythms and beats they were performing.The goal of the performance is to show how slavery and exploration inadvertently merged the styling of African, European and Native American music to create Caribbean and Latin American music.”What is amazing is that despite the difficult things (African Americans) have had to endure, coming over to the Americas against their will as slaves, they were able to maintain certain elements of their culture,” said Alex Alvear, bass player and band leader. “Those traditions can be found in the traditional Latin American music. It came from a foundation of European, Native American and African traditions.”Sponsored by LynnArts and the Young Audiences of Massachusetts, the performance brings with it a Black History Month curriculum, where students learn about Africa and Latin America in a variety of classes, including music, history and geography.Manguito appears at schools statewide as part of the Young Audiences of Massachusetts program, but the individual members are world-renown musicians specializing in a variety of Latin instruments and styles.Alvear, from Ecuador, is a composer and arranger; he leads the band, sings and plays the stand-up base along with other percussion instruments.Gonzalo Grau, a keyboard player and percussionist, comes from a family of musicians in Venezuela and leads his own band called La Timba Loca.Columbian percussionist Ernesto Diaz is a music teacher at the Berkeley School of Music, and fellow percussionist Angel Wagner, from the Dominican Republic, leads his own band called Groupo Fantasia.Finally, percussionist Manolo Mairena from Costa Rica is one of the most sought-after Latin American musicians in the state.With each song played Tuesday the audience participation grew, with students and teachers dancing in the aisles and in their seats as the music played.Loud cheering and clapping often interrupted parts of the performance, and eventually students took the stage to try the instruments first-hand their classmates cheered along.When Alvear invited two or three couples to dance to the final song on the auditorium stage, a makeshift Latin dance-party erupted as over 20 audience members jumped up on stage and shielded the band in a line of dancing students.