I was born in Lima, Peru two months before the military coup of Juan Velasco Alvarado, a turning point in Peruvian history that impacted my schooling and childhood in many ways. During my teenage years I became a National Dance Champion and started performing widely during the turbulence of the Shining Path. Dance became a hub for self-discovery, the safe place for self-expression where I nurtured my creative force.

But dancing was (or is) never enough for me. I wanted to understand the who, what, where, when, why and how, and dove deeply into the Afro-Peruvian community. The cajón drum had been the heartbeat that guided my dance and wanted to learn how to play it. That journey led me to cross several societal barriers starting with the opposition from my parents given that the cajon was a male exclusive instrument back then. As a result my musical skills were mostly self-taught because men also did not share across gender lines. These are some of the early life experiences that shaped my drive to self-reflect about my own positionality as a middle-class light-skinned Afro-Euro-Indigenous Latina practicing Afro-Peruvian music and dance, and to understand social dynamics and the multiple identities that crossed me and others. Then is when my intellectual, artistic, and activist journey to explore art as a tool for social change began.

DE CAJóN Project is one of several projects I’ve launched during my journey in the Pacific Northwest to remain connected to my roots, to continue the work I started in Peru, to express myself and activate others in their own self discovery. The main mission of my artistic and academic work is to highlight the contributions of people of African descent and to center the voices of those who have been historically silenced. The arts can unlock our own stories and the multiple identities embodied in each one of us to walk in this world making better decisions and build together the world in which we want to live.