By incorporating traditional Puerto Rican music and Spanglish into her hip-hop, Pérez-Vega turns artistry into activism, supporting social justice, community organizing, and hurricane disaster relief from the Twin Cities to Puerto Rico. María Isa is known for her work as a Type 1 Diabetic and for organizing the Alec Smith Insulin Affordability Act in Minnesota—the first such act in the U.S. She was visible and led media conferences incorporating music and messaging to create advocacy to pass the law, while giving her own personal testimony about surviving insulin rationing due to the high cost of prescription medicine for chronic illness. Pérez-Vega led relief efforts for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and the earthquakes. Since 2017, she's advised El Fondo Boricua of the Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation, raising funds and delivering emergency aid. She partnered with The University of Minnesota’s Puerto Rican Medical Relief Doctors Mission, led by Dr. Miguel Fiol, and collaborated with diaspora initiatives such as El Grito de Sunset Park in Brooklyn to secure emergency aid efforts, shipments, and climate refuge support in Minnesota communities, along with local arts and cultural institutions on the island.

The National Hispana Leadership Institute honored María Isa with the “Rising Latina Star” award for her work with incarcerated youth in Minnesota and as a Type 1 diabetic Latina youth educator. She has welcomed Nobel Peace Prize Laureates like Rigoberta Menchu-Tum, Adolfo Esquivel Perez, Rev. Desmond Tutu, President Oscar Arias Sanchez, and Dr. Shirin Ebadi. Committed to empowering youth, she has delivered motivational performances, women empowerment workshops, and Hip Hop Activism sessions to over 20,000 youth nationwide. After studying at Columbia College Chicago, she deepened her cultural studies under Professor Dr. Jose Lopez-Rivera. Her career flourished as a leading Puerto Rican Cultural Hip-Hop artist of the diaspora, with her music featured on the Puerto Rican Freedom Fighter’s Compilation, supporting the movement to free former Puerto Rican Political Prisoner Oscar López-Rivera.

Maria Isa, a McKnight Artist Fellow for Musicians through MacPhail Center for Music, has performed with and opened for artists like Bad Bunny, The Roots, Common, Kendrick Lamar , Wu-Tang Clan, Tito El Bambino, Ana Tijoux, Tego Calderon, Plena Libre, La Tribu De Abrante, Anthony Hamilton, Faith Evans, Medusa, Slick Rick, Pedrito Martinez, Las Cafeteras, and many more. Her music, blending LatinX Urbano, has been featured on Disney, ABC, NBC, Starz, MTV , Netflix, Nickolodeon, and more, reaching global audiences and establishing her presence in the industry for over 13 years. Isa received the Cedar Cultural Center’s 416 Club Commissions grant in 2013, which she used to produce the Latina Ritual Project. This project celebrated Latina arts in the T win Cities and united artists from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and other countries. Shortly after SotaRico was contracted to produce music for Target Advertisement for Spanish Media.

Maria Isa is a 2019 alumni of the prestigious Wilder Foundation Community Equity Program which brings together Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to advance their knowledge and skills to build community power and solidarity at the Capitol. In 2021 she was appointed by Gov. Tim Walz to the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board Public Engagement Advisory Task Force, working to ensure the Capitol is a welcoming space for community.

Rep. Pérez-Vega, first elected in 2022, is the only Boricua woman in the Minnesota State House, representing district 65B, which covers St. Paul and West St. Paul. She serves as Chair of the MN House St. Paul Delegation and Vice-Chair of the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus. In her first term, she co-led the Driver’s Licenses for All bill and, as part of the Education Finance Committee, established a Dual Immersion Working Advisory Task Force under the MN Read Act to enhance literacy for children. She also secured funding for additional Voluntary Pre-K seats and early childhood music education programs.

Her achievements go beyond education. She has championed animal rights, secured affordable insulin for ITIN holders, and ensured consistent HIV/AIDS healthcare funding. On the Housing Policy and Finance Committee, she has advanced tenant rights laws protecting renters statewide. Her work on the Children and Families Policy and Finance Committee gained national attention—the Biden administration invited her to the White House twice for her groundbreaking policies on affordable childcare, workforce investment, and universal student meals. She now serves on the Capital Investment Bonding Committee while advocating for Minnesota’s First Latino Museum.

Whether advocating for grassroots movements and human rights on the Minnesota House floor , raising her 6-year-old daughter Loíza Rosa to be proud of her Afro-Boricua heritage, or licensing and touring with her T win Cities hip hop band across the globe, Pérez-Vega brings passionate energy to all she does and Boricua Hasta en La Luna attitude while making history as the REP WHO RAPS—the only elected official to release an album, “Capitolio” on her swearing-in day . She believes the work of an individual is to have access to basic human rights to reach your highest potential and provide a flashlight to brighten the future for all children.

About MARÍA

María Isa Pérez-Vega is a politician, hip-hop artist, youth programming director , community organizer , and proud mother from the W est Side Barrio of Saint Paul, Minnesota. She currently serves in the Minnesota House of Representatives for District 65B.

A proud Boricua of the diaspora, she was born to NuyoRicans who marched with the Y oung Lords Movement in New York City, were drafted to war , and raised by the village work of Boricua grandparents who migrated from the sugarcane plantations of Vega Baja, the barrios de Santurce, and plena music de Ponce, Puerto Rico. This heritage has shaped her two-decade career as a professional artist and activist though directing youth work and mentorship programming.

Since 2009, Maria Isa has been the CEO and founder of the independent label SotaRico, distributing over 15 albums and organizing national tours. She’s
performed at venues like the Smithsonian National Museum, Hollywood Bowl, NYC Union Square, First A venue Mailroom Artist, The Ordway, and many more. She also produced and hosts two podcasts—The Latina Theory, which NPR's Latino USA listed as a top podcast in 2015, and the Rep Who Raps—blending her Minnesota upbringing with Puerto Rican culture and politics.

She grew up with the rhythms of Bomba y Plena as a student at El Arco Iris Center for the Arts (currently the Borikén Cultural Center in Minnesota),
founded by her mother Elsa Vega Pérez and aunt Mila Llauger in 1992. There, youth in the Twin Cities learned from masters of Afro-Puerto Rican music,
including Chicago’s AfriCaribe Director Maestro Evaristo TITO Rodriguez, Paracumbe, University of Puerto Rico's Conservatory of Music director Dr.
Emmanuel Dufrasene, Rep. Nellie LeBron-Robles, Los Pleneros de La 21, and Viento De Agua’s late Tito Matos.