Resistance and political engagement is baked into Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega’s music – even when it’s not consciously part of her process. “It’s never meant to be, ‘Let me write a political song,’” said Pérez-Vega, DFL-St. Paul. “I’m a rapper. I’m writing poetry at 11, seeing what’s happening on the island where my family lives. The Navy is bombing Vieques (an island in Puerto Rico). So we would rap over drums and freestyle and spoken word and you’d hear me talk about everything from Ricky Martin making the Latin explosion (to) Paz Para Vieques (Peace for Vieques). Those are the things that just influenced me since day one. It wasn’t ever like, ‘I’m gonna be the political musician,’ because I was writing songs about teenage love at the same time. But the expression of resistance through (the) arts has always been inside of my craft.” Currently, Pérez-Vega, a Puerto Rican and Afro-Latina legislator who grew up in St. Paul, is the representative of Minnesota’s House District 65B. She’s also “the rep. who raps,” with a long-running career as a hip-hop artist and a new “Rep. Who Raps” podcast focusing on hip-hop and politics.
Fighting for the mic Known musically as María Isa, Pérez-Vega’s musical journey began at a young age, performing Afro-Puerto Rican bomba – which she described as the “music of resistance, of survival,” where “the rhythms of West Africa (and) Central Africa (blend) with the Indigenous Taino.” She noted that the two genres are similar, with their origins rooted in surviving poverty and discrimination. Cultural worker and educator Evaristo Rodriguez, who taught Pérez-Vega to dance to bomba as a child, recalled she was always embedded in her culture.“She started rapping to bomba and I was (like) ‘Oh my God, this is great. You could take this to different levels. And I believe she has,” said Rodriguez. “A lot of young kids, they do the cultural thing for a little bit, and it becomes a phase. But I’m glad that she has been able to root herself into the history, the folklore and the traditions. These things also have rooted her and develop(ed) her style of singing and rapping and doing all these things. When she was talking about her political career, I told her there’s no ends and no limits to what she can dream and accomplish if she puts her mind into it.” As a woman in hip-hop, Pérez-Vega describes her early work as battle rap, where she felt pressure to make her voice heard.
State Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega Credit: Courtesy of María Isa Pérez-Vega“I was 16 when I was first put into a recording studio,” said Pérez-Vega. “Being a woman in a hip-hop studio, I always felt like I had to protect myself to an extent, but also had an opportunity to use my notebook as my escape, to feel my power as a young woman (and) dominate respect as a lyricist and a rapper. If you listen to some of my first recordings – which are archived and (I’ve) gotta get those out again, I guess, ‘cause people want to hear (them) – it’s like the battle rap, because I always felt that I had to fight for my way to get to the mic.” She sees her fight for the mic as similar to advocating for political change – a fight to be heard. Pérez-Vega went from being an artist performing and fundraising for candidates, such as now-Attorney General Keith Ellison, to running for office herself, being sworn in as representative on Jan. 2, 2023. Various events led to her running for office, including then-President Trump’s response to the damage wrought on Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria. “A hurricane comes and you have a president that’s throwing paper towels, and you as a hip-hop artist (are) doing more than the federal government just by throwing fundraisers,” said Pérez-Vega.As a type one diabetic, Pérez-Vega was also motivated to run as a result of understanding the experience of having to ration insulin and realizing that “insulin for all” did not include the undocumented community. Motherhood, along with the murders of Black men in Minnesota, also made it apparent to her that things had to change.
“I become a mom to this amazing little girl who is an Afro-Puerto Rican baby and (am) faced with the reality that I’m bringing her into a world (where) Mr. Phil (Philando Castile), who should be here as the lunch director in our school systems, has been killed by the police just down the block,” said Pérez-Vega. “And then, while she is here in this world, Big Floyd (George Floyd), who used to do security for me and my band in a venue that Derek Chauvin worked at the same time as an off-duty cop, (is killed by Chauvin) in the middle of a pandemic.”State Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega, holding her daughter, Loíza Rosa Pérez, next to her mother, Elsa Vega-Pérez. Credit: Courtesy of María Isa Pérez-VegaOne of Pérez-Vega’s songs “Cómo Duele (Bomba 4 Big Floyd)” is a tribute to the memory of Floyd, and mentions both Philando Castile and Jamar Clark, men also killed by police in Minnesota. In the view of these and other issues, including cuts to funding for arts education, when Pérez-Vega received a call from her community asking what should be done, she asked, “Do we run?” “If I can get everybody at a show to clap their hands on rhythm, then we need to go do that in a place that doesn’t want us to be in rhythm,” said Pérez-Vega.
It’s not always easy. But it is, for Pérez-Vega, well worth it. “I feel like a fly in a glass of milk at the Capitol,” said Pérez-Vega.“But I’ve always felt like that in the spaces that I’ve been where we’ve been able to create change.” Legacy work Political engagement is also, as cultural curator Teresita Ayala put it, “legacy work” for Pérez-Vega, whose mother Elsa Vega-Pérez, was active in political spaces. Ayala met the artist Maria Isa at an event in Chicago for female emcees when Pérez-Vega was 17 years old and Ayala was “extremely impressed (by) her knowledge of history, of not just political history, but our cultural history as Puerto Ricans in the diaspora.”“(My mom) marched with the Young Lords (which started as a street gang, but evolved into a civil and human rights organization) before I was born and my dad is a Vietnam veteran that was drafted (as) a Marine,” said Perez Vega. “They came to Minnesota on a journey for a better life and they recognized that there was (more) opportunity here than (in) the New York City projects. My mom has a background in political science. I’ve always been a part of campaigning, (including) for the first Black woman mayor of Minneapolis, Sharon Sayles Belton. Carlos Mariani, who sat in the seat that I’m in for 32 years, his kids were my best friends growing up.”
Political engagement is, as cultural curator Teresita Ayala, right, put it, “legacy work” for Pérez-Vega, left. Credit: Courtesy of Teresita Ayala
At 15 years old, Pérez-Vega was writing grants for El Arco Iris Center for the Arts for “sound system(s), trips to be able to march in the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City, or to study in Chicago, where there’s a predominant Afro-Puerto Rican (music) scene.” By the time she was in her early 20s, she was teaching hip-hop curriculums in juvenile correction facilities as well as touring with her music.“When they say ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,’ my biggest teacher was my mom and the folks that were doing the work for the first time around her,” said Pérez-Vega, who also stated that her mother was the first Latina to be appointed, by then-Gov. Rudy Perpich, to direct the office of equal opportunity. Vega-Pérez confirmed her daughter was influenced by her work.“As I became involved in my career and my work efforts, she would come with me (to) the National Hispanic Leadership Institute (and) the National Urban Fellows. I’d take her outta school and bring (her) with me (to the programs) and she’d sit in those rooms,” said Vega-Pérez. “I was a senior program officer at the Otto Bremer Foundation, which is funded throughout three states. At that time, their focus was human rights. So she learned how to review the grants ’cause she saw me review them in our evening North Dakota hotel.” Disney+Pérez-Vega operates SotaRico, her independent music label named for Minnesota and Puerto Rico. Through the label, which she started in 2008, she releases music and licenses it for use by others, including, recently, Disney+, who used her song “Suave” in the television show “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.” “It’s really awesome when your 5-year-old kid likes those shows and gets to hear Mommy – like, ‘Mom, I think that’s your song,’” said Pérez-Vega. “I wrote that song and recorded myself in my old house while I was literally breastfeeding her during a pandemic and not knowing what the world was gonna be like.” In addition to music, Pérez-Vega has also acted, starring as Mimi in a 2010 production of the musical “Rent” at the Guthrie Lab Theater, along with a role in a Latino independent film, “Strike One,” starring Danny Trejo. “I am the rep. who raps, but there’s a lot more arts outside of the element of hip-hop,” said Pérez-Vega. “I’m the Sota Rican, who doesn’t let anything stop her.”
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