Documentary: The “Homelands” of Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy
Esta Semana and CONFIDENCIAL present a journey through the life and work of one of the great singer-songwriters of Nicaraguan and Latin American music.
HAVANA TIMES – At 80 years old and with 60 uninterrupted years in music, Nicaraguan singer-songwriter Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy is certain he still has “many things to say, tell, and sing.” He’s not retiring — and that’s impossible for one reason: “Music is my homeland, song is my trench, poetry is my free territory,” he confesses.
His words are part of a documentary produced by the Esta Semana program, celebrating the life of one of the leading voices of the New Latin American Song Movement.
The documentary, which explores his life and musical career, will premiere on Sunday, July 13, 2025, at 8:00 PM (Nicaragua time) on CONFIDENCIAL‘s YouTube channel, due to television censorship in Nicaragua.
Watch a preview of the story here:
Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy is one of the great singer-songwriters and musical chroniclers of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Latin America. His work transcends genres and decades: over 25 albums, dozens of artistic collaborations, popular anthems, and a career forged without pause since the mid-1960s.
From his early love songs, through anti-dictatorship resistance anthems, to Afro-Caribbean rhythms, his guitar has borne witness to the history of Central American peoples — their hopes and contradictions.
The documentary revisits places that marked his life, such as the “Pensión Tinoco” in San Jose, where he lived and sang his first love songs by the train tracks, having arrived in 1967 to study medicine at the University of Costa Rica.
Luis Enrique also speaks about his role in testimonial music and his closeness to the Sandinista Revolution. Although he never “formally” joined the FSLN, he lent his voice to the anti-Somoza cause and gave up all rights to his revolutionary songs. However, he was never blind to the contradictions of power. “I regret what I didn’t do, not what I did,” he reflects candidly.
Now at 80, he also reflects on his second exile in Costa Rica: “I long for Nicaragua. I carry it tattooed on my soul. No one can take that from me. But I’m happy — not because of exile, but because I want to be happy, and that is a punch in the face to power. Resistance.”
Through family memories, anecdotes with his brother Carlos Mejia, testimonies from his nephew — salsa singer Luis Enrique Mejia Lopez — and his longtime friend, singer-songwriter Adrian Goizueta, the documentary portrays the artist from Un Pueblo Sencillo (“A Simple Town”), author of major hits like Pobre la María.
A Celebration Full of Nostalgia
Mejía Godoy celebrated his musical journey in grand fashion with a concert titled One Life, 80 Years, held on June 15, 2025, at the Melico Salazar Theater in San Jose. The Costa Rican authorities declared the concert an event of cultural interest, in recognition of the Nicaraguan singer-songwriter’s “invaluable contribution to Costa Rican culture over 60 years of fraternal coexistence.”
The celebratory concert is part of the documentary’s narrative, where the artist performed his most iconic songs: Pobre la María, Yo soy de un pueblo sencillo (“I’m from a Simple Town”), Hijos del maíz (“Children of Corn”), Hilachas de sol (“Threds of Sunlight”), and Mujer de carne y hueso (“Woman of Flesh and Blood”). He also sang El Cristo de Palacagüina in a duet with his brother Carlos Mejía Godoy.
The theater hosted two hours filled with energy, emotion, and nostalgia. “I don’t want to be the happy young man I once was — I want to be the happy old man I aim to be,” said the singer-songwriter, who, “like the birds, will keep singing and flying.”