On any given day, you can find the musician, Ceci Callejas, or Ceci Ceci, using social media as an exploratory tool. It’s where she tries things out: a melody, a joke, or a version of a song that may never make it to a record. Born in Nicaragua and now living in North Texas, her music carries a breezy quality, shaped by pop hooks, Latin rhythms, and a sense of play.
She also traces her growth as an artist to North Texas, particularly Denton, where showing up to breweries with songs and asking for a chance to play helped her understand how creative communities take shape. Those early performances, she says, revealed what can happen when people are willing to listen, say yes, and make room for someone new.
In the latest episode of Arts Docs, KERA follows Ceci Ceci as she reflects on the experiences that inform her songwriting. She describes music as a stabilizing force after leaving Nicaragua, how it helped her start over in a new country, and how for her music is a way of learning to live with grief after the loss of her father. Rather than treating those moments as separate parts of life, her songs hold them together in the same setlist, allowing joy and loss to exist side by side.
