Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlight: NEA Heritage Fellow Suni Paz

"When I came to the United States and started singing for the children, I said 'These children have to see their world open like a map in front of their eyes so they can see themselves who they are, how important they are, how vital their function in this society.'"

2020 NEA Heritage Fellow Suni Paz was one of the first artists to bring the nueva canción tradition—the “new song” music of the 1960s and 1970s—to North American audiences. For more than half of a century, her work as an American songwriter and performer of Latin American folk music has resonated as a cultural force, engaging people of all backgrounds and ages. Born with the name Elsa Calandrelli Solá, she was raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by a family with Italian and Catalonian roots, all lovers of music and art. When she came to California in 1965, she chose the stage name “Suni Paz,” which means “everlasting peace” in the Quechua language of the Andes.