This post is also available in: Spanish
Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy is a Nicaraguan singer, composer, poet, and social activist. From a family of musicians, Mejía Godoy began his musical career in Costa Rica in 1968 with the group “Los Rufos”, and in 1970 he began a career as a soloist, composing his first socially-oriented songs. From 1973 to 1979, he was responsible for the Student Life Culture Office at the newly founded National University of Heredia. In 1975, along with other musicians, he founded the New Costa Rican Song Movement. After the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in 1979, Mejía Godoy returned to Nicaragua to join the Ministry of Culture alongside Ernesto Cardenal. In 1980, he founded the Nicaraguan Cultural Recording Company (ENIGRAC) which he directed until 1988. In 1981, he founded the Mancotal Group with which he traveled performing international concerts and recorded several long-playing albums. After 1988 he was director of the “Association of Nicaraguan Singers,” and is co-founder of Nicaragua’s first concert café “La Buena Nota.” In 1997, together with his brothers, he established the Mejía Godoy Foundation, which promoted cultural development and also founded “La Casa de los Mejía Godoy” – a center that promotes Nicaraguan art and culture, until 2018, when he had to close operations due to the sociopolitical crisis in April of that year.
Mejía Godoy has received numerous honors and awards which include: “Order of Cultural Independence Rubén Darío,” the highest cultural recognition of artists in Nicaragua; and Honoris Causa Doctorate from the National Agrarian University (UNA), The National University of Nicaragua (UNAN), and the National University of Engineering (UNI). Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy has recorded 25 albums and has set Nicaraguan poetry to music. Mejía Godoy’s songs address Nicaraguan social issues and have had a significant impact on the country’s cultural history.
Mejía Godoy was an event speaker at the Dialogue.
