Juan Díes ’88 named 2026 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow 

Juan Díes ’88, a musician, educator and cultural leader who has spent more than three decades preserving, performing, and teaching Mexican folk music, has been named a 2026 National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  

The 2026 class of National Heritage Fellows includes six individual artists and two artist teams receiving the NEA’s highest honor for traditional arts.  

Díes shares the 2026 fellowship with Victor G. Pichardo, his longtime musical collaborator and co-founder of the Sones de México Ensemble in Chicago. The NEA recognizes the pair for their more than three decades of work preserving, performing, and teaching Mexican son, a rich tradition of regional folk music that includes styles such as huapango, gustos, chilenas and son jarocho. Together, they have helped establish Mexican son as a vital part of the American musical landscape. 

In 1994, Díes and Pichardo co-founded Sones de México Ensemble in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. The organization has grown into a nonprofit dedicated to the performance, education and celebration of Mexican son, reaching audiences and students through performances, workshops, residencies and its Mexican Music School. 

For Díes, the path from Earlham to a career in traditional music was not entirely planned. 

He arrived at Earlham intending to pursue a degree in sociology-anthropology. But music became an increasingly important part of his college experience. He hosted a radio show, played in several bands and accumulated enough music coursework that his academic adviser eventually suggested he consider a second major. 

“I had a radio show. I played in a number of bands. He saw how many courses I had in music and said, ‘you know if you take a couple more classes you can get a second major,’” Díes recalled in a 2019 interview with Earlham. 

He took the advice, adding music to his studies and beginning a path that would eventually bring him to a career at the intersection of music, education, and cultural preservation. 

Raised in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, Díes went on to study music and ethnomusicology and served as director of Community Programs at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, where he expanded access to traditional arts education. His work with Sones de México has taken him to major stages including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. 

Díes and Pichardo have also taught hundreds of students across generations, combining musical instruction with cultural history, language and community. Their educational programs include “A Musical Geography of Mexico” and corrido-writing workshops, while their mentorship has helped emerging musicians and new ensembles carry Mexican son into the future. 

Their recordings have received both Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations. Díes was named a United States Artists Fellow in Traditional Arts in 2019 and a Mid-America Arts Alliance Walking Together grantee in folklife in 2026. Both musicians have received multiple Illinois Arts Council Artist Master Apprentice grants and fellowships. 

The NEA National Heritage Fellowship recognizes artists whose work has contributed to the preservation and vitality of traditional arts in the United States. 

Díes has often described Earlham as a place that encouraged him to explore the intersections among his interests rather than follow a predetermined path. 

“When I come back to the alumni reunions and we get to share what everybody is doing … there is a sort of a trend around the room that people are living full lives,” he said in 2019. “They are exploring their condition, their situation, they are trying to change the world in a small way — wherever they are. That, I think, is the stamp of Earlham.” 

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About Earlham College 

Earlham College and Earlham School of Religion foster a collaborative learning community that inspires and motivates students with opportunities and experiences so they can become catalysts for good in a changing world. Located in Richmond, Indiana, Earlham is one of U.S. News & World Report’s Top 100 national liberal arts colleges and offers one of the top 20 classroom experiences in the nation, according to the Princeton Review.