Southwesterner Nelly Juarez draws from grandfather’s musical legacy, pays tribute to grandmother in Costa Rican concert

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary student Nelly Juarez draws inspiration for much of her music from her grandfather, a well-known musician and composer in Costa Rica. For her most recent concert in her native land, however, Juarez focused on her grandmother.

While living in Costa Rica, Juarez became interested in the music of her grandfather, Sacramento Villegas, who passed away in 1997. She “decided to sort of rediscover his music and make it known to people in my country.”

Juarez and a friend who played percussion performed her grandfather’s arrangements, which are a type of folk music from the northern Costa Rican province of Guanacaste. While the traditional music of the region reflects the indigenous and African heritage of many people there, using a lot of marimba and guitar, Juarez said she and her friend did a more contemporary version but kept the melodies of her grandfather’s songs.

After feeling the call to ministry, Juarez moved to Fort Worth to study at Southwestern Seminary. She earned a Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree in worship leadership in 2024 and currently is  pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in church music and worship at the seminary. During breaks between semesters, she often returns to her homeland to work on a project or perform a concert based on her grandfather’s music.

In May, Juarez performed in the National Theater in San José, the capital of Costa Rica.

“They invited us to do a concert there, and I put together sort of like this production of songs from my grandfather, songs from my uncles, and my own songs, but the theme of the concert is actually based on my grandmother,” Juarez said, adding that her grandmother, Amalia Grijalba, has Alzheimer’s and forgets things that happened recently but remembers the past.

“So I love to just sit with her and talk about her husband and her childhood, and the town where she grew up, and things like that,” Juarez said. “I’m inspired by her story, her life story, which has not been easy, and thankfully she is a woman of faith. So, I’m very thankful of that, but, you know, you see her memories slip away, and that strong woman that you once knew is now very dependent, and that has drawn me closer to her in a way, and the way that I express it is through music.”

The theater where she and her partner performed, Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica, is 100 years old and located in downtown San José. The duo was invited to perform in Theater at Noon, a series that offers cultural events for people on their lunch breaks. Many friends came to her show as well as tourists from Mexico and Puerto Rico “and some people that have been sort of following what we do musically,” Juarez said.

The concert, “Hija del Tempisque,” or “daughter of the Tempisque,” the main river that runs through Guanacaste, also is the title of an album Juarez has been working on with friend and fellow Southwestern student Nelson Ramirez, a composer who did the arrangements of the pieces.

“He has been helping me … in the musical part of the arrangements, so that I can go back and record them,” Juarez said. “So this time it lined up that I was doing the concert, and at the same time I was finishing the recording of the album.”

The songs on the album reflect her grandfather’s experiences.

“He was a very simple man that loved his town, his family, so he takes from his surroundings,” Juarez explained. “So there’s one song where he talks about the childhood town where he grew up and his school, and his memories. It’s very nostalgic music. Or he talks about love, or he talks about the river, and about what it is to live in Guanacaste, or about the celebrations that are typical of those regions. So that has inspired me to write about similar things.”

Her grandfather passed away around the time she was graduating high school, Juarez said, “so it has been sort of like a way of getting to know him in the way I couldn’t, through his music. But what has fascinated me is finding out more about his story, you know, his life story, the way that he influenced the people in this small town that to this day still remember him.”

A few years ago, Juarez produced a documentary about her grandfather during a break from the seminary. She returned to Costa Rica and interviewed people who had known him, “just trying to put together his legacy as a musician, but also as a pedagogue, as a friend, as a grandfather, as a husband. So his figure … inspires me a lot, because I know that from my mother’s side, the music legacy comes from him directly. So, it’s been kind of a way to connect to his person, but also to his work, and it encourages me to keep that legacy going.”

On her most recent trip to Costa Rica, Juarez invited Amanda Williams, photographer for the Office of Communications at Southwestern, on the trip to document the project in photos. Williams also helped Juarez shoot a video for one of the songs.

“I love her work, and I love working also with people that share my faith, so … what better than [working with] a Christian friend whose work I trust and I admire,” Juarez said, adding that Williams beautifully documented not only the concert, but the country and the people as well.

“I always like to pair up those two together, the music with the visuals,” Juarez said.

Though busy with rehearsals and recording the album, Juarez had time for a sightseeing trip and visits with family, including her grandmother.

“[I] brought the guitar and sang some songs, because I know that helps people with Alzheimer’s,” Juarez said. “She does remember songs for sure.”

Juarez hopes to have the album ready for a fall release.

“I’m gonna try to present it in September, hopefully,” she said. “It’s pretty much all done right now, with editing and the engineer side of it, the work he has to do with it, but I think it’s going to come out in September, God willing, and hopefully I get to do another concert, also, to present it.”

After returning to Fort Worth, Juarez returned to work in the School of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern, where she serves as an audition coordinator for prospective students. She also works with the children’s chorus in the Southwestern Music Academy and serves as worship leader for her church, Cross City Español, in Euless.

It’s a busy schedule, but Juarez believes it’s good for her.

“I was saying to some friends, the more you live as an immigrant somewhere else, the more you feel like you are divided in two. So, when I’m here, I sort of remember, ‘Oh, I have a life in Costa Rica.’ When I’m Costa Rica, I sort of remember, ‘Oh, I have a life in Fort Worth,’” she said with a laugh. “So it’s like being completely divided, but at the same time, you know, two sides of the same coin.

“What I’ve come to understand is that I want to follow God’s calling for my life, but that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t want me to develop these artistic endeavors,” she added. “He doesn’t want me to maybe focus on them, … because I know I have a great calling for God’s Kingdom. But at the same time it’s beautiful to see that I can bring what I learned here into these spaces.”