The character arc of Berta Rojas
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born 23 September 1966 in Asunción, Paraguay. Between then and now sit guitar lessons from ten, a move to Uruguay in 1986, a Kennedy Center fellowship in 1996, a master's at Peabody in 1997, Latin Grammy nominations in 2012, 2014 and 2015, a Berklee faculty post in 2017, a Latin Grammy win in 2022, the National Order of Merit in 2023 and an album in 2025. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Berta Rojas?
Three times nominated, three times beaten, and then she won.
She started guitar lessons in Asunción with Emiliano Aiub Riveros, and from the age of ten studied under Felipe Sosa and Violeta de Mestral. Paraguay is not a country with a classical music industry waiting for you, so in 1986, at twenty, she moved to Uruguay to study with Abel Carlevaro and took her bachelor of music in classical guitar at the Escuela Universitaria de Música there.
In 1996 she was named a Kennedy Center Fellow of the Americas, and in 1997 she finished a master of music at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore under Manuel Barrueco and Ray Chester, adding a graduate performance diploma in 2000. That is three countries of training for an instrument that, played this way, has a very small number of paying jobs in the world.
Then the part of the line that matters. The Latin Grammys nominated her in 2012, for an instrumental album made with Paquito D'Rivera, and she did not win. They nominated her again in 2014, in classical, and she did not win. Again in 2015, in tango, and she did not win. In 2022 she won Best Classical Album for Legado. She was fifty six. In between, in August 2017, Berklee College of Music made her the first Latin American guitar teacher in its guitar department, Paraguay's Senate named her an illustrious ambassador of musical art, and in 2023 her country gave her the Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit. Her line is worth reading for 2012, 2014 and 2015.
The moments
Berta Rojas's timeline.
The 1970s
A guitar at ten
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Asunción, and teachers who took a ten year old seriously.
The 1980s
Stay in Asunción, or go and study
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: leave for the teaching, taken, or stay and teach at home. She went on to Peabody, to a Berklee faculty post in 2017, and to a Latin Grammy in 2022.
She moved to Uruguay
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty years old, leaving the country, because the teaching she needed was not in it.
The 1990s
A Kennedy Center fellowship
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The first time the wider world put its name to hers.
A master's at Peabody
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Studying under one of the great guitarists alive, in a third country.
The 2010s
Nominated, and beaten
Setback. The first nomination. It went to somebody else.
Nominated again, beaten again
Setback. The second. Also not hers.
A third nomination, lost
Setback, and it changed her direction. Three nominations in four years and nothing to show for them except an honour at home.
The first at Berklee
Milestone, and it changed everything. The first. Not the first woman, the first Latin American, in that department.
The 2020s
She won, at fifty six
Milestone, and it changed everything. The fourth time of asking, ten years after the first.
The Grand Cross
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Paraguay's highest civil honour, the year after the Grammy.
A new album
Milestone. At fifty nine, still recording.
The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is a route out of a country that had none: a Paraguayan guitarist on a Berklee faculty, and a shelf of records that carry the instrument as she plays it.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers lost three times in public before it won once. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Berta Rojas: frequently asked questions
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More character arcs
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Sources
- Berta Rojas, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Latin Recording Academy, nomination and award records, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2022.
- Berklee College of Music, faculty appointment, August 2017.