With her guitar (since christened “Diane") in hand, Callejas made her way to Denton on the recommendation of her brother, who studied at the University of North Texas. Enlisting the aid of handmade flyers composed with black Sharpie ink on white printer paper, Callejas landed her first producer and released her first single within the first few months in Denton. Thirteen singles, dozens of live performances and a move to Dallas later, Callejas, now known by fans as Ceci Ceci, is at the forefront of the local Latin music scene.
“The whole time I’ve been here, the question has been, ‘How do you start from zero?” Callejas says. “What I’ve accomplished here, I can now say I have reached that level 10. And maybe there’s like 100 levels, but I’m still growing, I’m still here. The only thing that’s going to stop me is myself.”
Callejas has never really strayed from her natural musical instincts, especially in terms of storytelling. The stories found within her songs are each uniquely Ceci Ceci. Her first single, “Enciclopedias,” inspired by the passing of her dad in 2015, honored her self-made promise to make her first recording a tribute to him. “Migrante” touches on her move to the United States and her longing for her home country. Until just a few weeks ago, Callejas, now 25, had not returned to Nicaragua since she moved to Texas as a teen.
“I haven’t seen Nicaragua in seven years,” Callejas says. “So, when I visit, it’ll be my first Nicaraguan gig, the first time I’ve been a musician in Nicaragua. … But even though it’s been so long since I’ve been there, Nicaragua has never left me or my music. I bring those pieces of me into every song, every performance, every space I’ve ever been in.”
Much of Callejas’ musical and personal identity lies in her Nicaraguan roots, but she believes she’s developed in Dallas in ways she might not have been able to back home. Coming of age in a conservative country like Nicaragua, Callejas grew up thinking that being queer was “not the right thing” and was afraid to question her sexuality. Since moving to the U.S., Callejas has been able to meet other queer artists who are more open about themselves and their identities in their art and their everyday lives. By finding such a community, Callejas has found her own ways to be more open about her experiences, such as in her latest single, “Malos Modales" ("Bad Manners").
“Now, I’m here, living within my truth, and there's nothing to be ashamed of,” Callejas says. “I think, for me, moving to America allowed me to find myself — the true Ceci. And I don't think that's possible in a lot of places in the world. So, I'm very thankful.”
Since beginning her career in music, Callejas has never once considered compromising her vision for the sake of conformity. She knows it’s hard to establish oneself as a new artist in nearly any part of the world. She also knows it’s even harder to establish oneself in such a rich music community such as the one in Dallas as a Central American, Spanish-singing artist. Rather than branching into other, more Western styles of music, Callejas searched for others who could further accentuate her Latin influences.
Callejas says Jorge “Sordelo” Hinjosa and Dom “Youforia” Garcia just “get” her. The two Hispanic Dallas producers work so well together, Callejas has nicknamed them “Los Neptunos” after Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo’s record production duo, The Neptunes.
“I feel like that’s a tall order to live up to,” Garcia says, laughing. “But I’ve known Jorge since middle school, and since then, we’ve collaborated on-again, off-again in various ways, so I’ve known we work well for a while. Since meeting Ceci through Jorge, she’s really brought a good, new energy to the dynamic. … You just get a lot out of working with someone as enthusiastic as her.”
Hinjosa met Callejas at one of his DJ gigs in Dallas, where the two quickly bonded over their mutual love for 2000s Latin pop. Callejas showed Hinojosa some of her music, Hinjosa brought in Garcia to work on Callejas’ 2022 single “Spanglish” and the trio’s collaborations continued in a typical “and the rest was history” fashion.
Moviendo La Cultura
Over the past several years, Latin music has had a major breakthrough into the mainstream, especially with reggaeton artists such as Bad Bunny and Carol G. As a Mexican-American, Garcia says Dallas’ own Latin scene is dominated by Mexican artists, with South American musicians following close behind. Callejas is the first Nicaraguan with whom Garcia has connected (Callejas says she’s a lot of Dallasites’ first Nicaraguan encounter), but he says her uniqueness expands beyond her nationality.“I think she just has a unique perspective within the Latin realm that she brings to the table,” Garcia says. “She has a real pop sensibility that, like I said, it's kind of preserved in that early-2000s, very earnest style. She’s a breath of fresh air for me and, I think, really refreshing for the regional Latin music scene here in Dallas.”
Callejas has reached most of her musical milestones in North Texas: producing her first single, releasing her first music video and performing for increasingly large live audiences. She says the version of herself that lived back in Nicaragua would not believe what she’s been able to achieve in the last six years.
Although her 20,000+ Instagram followers help quantify at least some of her musical impact over time, she says the growth is truly immeasurable.
When Callejas spoke in one of her earliest interviews with this author for the North Texas Daily in 2022, she said she planned to “conquer DFW and expand from there.” Two years later, she finally feels she’s done just that.
“It's been hard, but I've gotten to kind of break a ceiling and make some noise in a town that is used to, like, country music or indie music,” Callejas says. “I’ve made some waves. Sometimes I have to think about what conquering means, but if it means I got to open for a variety of artists and play for a variety of venues — the State Fair, play Latin Pride — then I think I did conquer Dallas a little bit.”
Callejas is still hungry for more. With the levels of success she’s been able to reach in Dallas and the belief that “music hits different if you either understand the language or understand where that music comes from,” she now has her sights set on another major music city: Miami. Callejas and her Neptunos are finishing up a few in-the-works projects and making the most of the months they have left with each other before Callejas plans her big move to Florida next year.
But the goodbye won’t be forever. Callejas says her friends and family in the area will always be a bridge back to North Texas, so locals will still see her gigging around downtown Dallas for years to come.
“There's always going to be ties to Dallas because it's meaningful,” Callejas says. “It all started in the DFW. So, you know, it's sad, but I'm always going to be back. I promise.”
