Nani Vazana

Thanks to the New Mexico Music Commission and the Friends of the Public Library for funding these library shows!

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With a ship's-horn power voice and irresistible stage presence, Nani Vazana defends the endangered Ladino language. Her fascinating migration mix seeps into her songwriting, fusing the sounds of the marketplace with Flamenco drama. Nani learned Ladino from her Moroccan grandmother in hiding, as her father forbade them to speak Ladino at home. 

If Yiddish is the language of Ashkenazi Jews, then Ladino is the language of Sephardic Jews—you could call it the Spanish Yiddish! When the Jews were expelled from the Iberian peninsula back in the time of Columbus, they brought the language of their region to new countries: the north of Africa and the Ottoman Empire were the most welcoming harbors of hope at the time.

She is world's first Ladino songwriter. Her album Ke Haber (What's New) captures the spirit of the ancient, matriarchal language & propels it into the future with socially pertinent lyrics celebrating migration, gender and female empowerment. 

Nani's music was documented for the Library of Congress USA in 2023, in an honor reserved to few artists, naming her new Ladino repertoire as a "living relic."