Susana Baca is a performer, composer, and researcher. She was Minister of Culture;

she holds the Order of Merit of the Sun, awarded by the Presidency of the Republic of Peru; the Juan Pablo Vizcardo y Guzmán Medal, awarded by the Congress of the Republic of Peru; an Honorary Doctorate from the Enrique Guzmán y Valle University of Education; an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music; an Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina; the Palmas Magisteriales y Artísticas (Teacher and Artistic Palms) from the Ministry of Education; the Order of Knight of Arts and Letters of the Republic of France; the National Culture Prize; the Gabriela Mistral Order of Merit for Teaching and Culture, in the rank of Commander, from the Republic of Chile; and she is a Cultural Ambassador for various cities in Peru and for institutions dedicated to child protection.

Susana Baca de la Colina is a prominent Afro-Peruvian artist, a four-time Grammy winner, and a leading advocate for her Afro-Peruvian roots. Susana, along with her husband and manager, Ricardo Pereira, is responsible for recovering the historical memory of Afro-Peruvian communities, as well as their almost forgotten harmonies and rhythms of African-derived music.

In the late 1990s, they traveled along the Peruvian coast collecting testimonies and documents from Afro-descendant communities. The result of this work was later published as the book *Del fuego y del agua* (Of Fire and Water) in 1992. Three years later, they founded the Experimental Music Center, Negrocontinuo, which continued with a similar objective to the book: to keep Peruvian tradition alive. And in this new century (2014), they published their latest book, *El amargo camino de la caña dulce* (The Bitter Path of Sugarcane). Currently, she manages a Hidden Memory Cultural Center in the town of Santa Bárbara in San Luis de Cañete, south of Lima.

Susana Baca was born on May 24, 1944, in the city of Lima. Susana descends from one of the most illustrious families in Afro-Peruvian music: the De la Colina family, originally from San Luis de Cañete, south of Lima.

She spent her childhood in the Lima district of Chorrillos, a place she holds dearest memories of, as she herself has stated in various interviews with both the national and international press. From a very young age, she was surrounded by musicians; her father played the guitar, her mother danced, her aunts sang, and her cousins, among others, were the creators of the emblematic music and dance group Perú Negro (an Afro-Peruvian cultural association founded in 1969 with the aim of preserving Black culture in Peru).

Over time, after completing her university degree as a primary school teacher, Susana began studying music and formed an experimental music group that combined local music and poetry. She won scholarships from the Institute of Modern Art of Peru and the National Institute of Culture. In 1973, she won first prize as a performer at the first Agua Dulce International Festival.

Susana studied education and pedagogy at the Enrique Guzmán y Valle University (La Cantuta), where she graduated in 1968 with a professional teaching degree.

Susana dedicated several years of her youth to teaching. She traveled throughout Peru as a teacher, but music held a stronger pull, and in the late 1970s, Susana worked alongside Chabuca Granda, the composer of "Fina Estampa" and "La Flor de la Canela." Granda saw Susana as her successor, to the point that she hired her as a personal assistant and housed her in her own home. Another highly acclaimed musician, David Byrne, with whom she developed a constructive friendship that has been fundamental to Susana's career.

Susana's extensive discography (18 albums) boasts four Grammy Awards and Lifetime Achievement Award that speak to her character and the beauty of her voice in transforming poems into songs and rescuing Afro-Peruvian roots.

2025. Lifetime Achievement Award

2002. Best Folk Album: Lamento Negro.

2011. Record of the Year: Latin America.

2020. Best Folk Album: A Cappella.

We could say that Susana Baca is a key figure in Latin American folklore and in reviving Afro-Peruvian music. Considered the best poetic singer of our time, her importance has influenced many singers around the world.

Susana Baca is planning the biggest concert of her life, cradled by the magical ancestral memories of her origins; to transcend in the faces of the young people she welcomes into her home, continuing to recite, sing, and educate; forging in her legacy the recovery of identity, which is the story of her own life.

This “fighter with soul” and sweet voice has already written her name in the history of

Peru and the world.

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