Lourdes Pérez

Lourdes Pérez (born Bernardita de Lourdes Pérez Cruz on February 12, 1961) is a Puerto Rican contemporary recording artist, songwriter, composer, arranger, poet, contralto vocalist, oral historian and guitarist. She is also one of few female decimistas (writer of décima, a specialized form of Spanish poetry). Often conjuring comparisons to the soulful world music genres of cante jonde, morna and fado, Pérez' body of music has been characterized as folk opera ("opera of the people") that honors her jíbara (Puerto Rican mountain) roots and the legacy of Spanish/pan-Latin American nueva trova or nueva cancion.