Susana Baca was born in the black coastal barrio of Chorrillos, outside Lima, where the descendants of slaves have lived since the days of the Spanish empire. While many people are aware of the huge and powerful African based traditions of Cuba and Brazil which emerged from the cultures of West-Africans brought to the New World, few realize that black customs continue to thrive in other parts of the Americas. In Peru, groups of slaves were brought to work in the mines along the Pacific coast and in the homes of wealthy colonists as domestic servants. They gradually adapted the traditions they brought with them to the new lives they forged, be it mining or fishing, slowly interlacing them with Spanish practices. Carmen, Chincha and Chorillos where Susana was born, are just three places with remnants of Afro-Peruvian culture. Thus, in Chorillos, Susana grew up surrounded by music : "My father played guitar and my mother, who was a dancer, showed me my first steps. At the same time I listened to the radio and watched Mexican movies, and saw all those great Cuban musicians like Perez Prado and Beny Moré."

Despite childhood asthma, Susana avidly pursued folk singing and dancing. "Every June 29, there was the Chorrillos festival, with a religious procession for the patron saint. It was very beautiful: the townspeople carried the image of Saint Peter onto a boat out to sea to bless the water and the season's fishing. The next day everyone in town went down to the beach. The old folks played guitar and cajón, everyone sang." The Afro-Peruvian instruments found today are percussive: Susana¹s musicians use the round, hollow clay botija jar (probably originally used to hold oil), and the cajón. Her percussionist sits astride what was once merely an upturned fish crate, but is today an elongated box crafted from wood capable of producing rich, crisp timbres, the hole in its back creating better reverb. A myriad of shifting rhythms are created by rapping and slapping fingers and palms of the hand against different parts of the box, producing a subtly shifting percussive soundscape.