In the house where Berta Rojas grew up, conversations were few. But what abounded among her, her siblings, and her parents was music. They all played the guitar and the piano; it was their way of communicating.

“For me, making music was natural,” she said. “Those spaces we built with my siblings, my parents, and friends […] are spaces I treasure very deeply.” Since then, music has been Berta's inseparable companion. Originally from Paraguay, she is currently a classical guitarist, researcher, associate professor at Berklee College of Music, and, since March, a member of the board of directors of the Latin Recording Academy. These days, the artist is quite busy with several things. One is studying hard because she has an upcoming trip to New Zealand, where she has a concert scheduled for New Year's Eve. She will be playing “Historia del Tango,” an album she recorded a decade ago in which the guitar, accompanied by an orchestra, takes center stage. That production, by the way, received a Latin Grammy nomination in 2015 in the Best Tango Album category. She is also busy promoting “The Footprint of the Strings,” an unprecedented immersive multimedia project by one of the world's leading classical guitarists and one of the few women at the peak of her career. The project encompasses vinyl records, videos, streaming platforms, and a large-format book with an augmented reality app to visualize the instruments in 3D. And it explores the rich history of the guitar, its cultural roots, and its influence on stringed instruments in Latin America from the 15th century to the present day. Regarding what inspired her to undertake this project, Berta said, “I think above all, it was realizing that so many of these instruments exist and the joy they exude.” The guitarist's musical and cultural experience is reflected in personal collaborations, narratives, and a collection of musical conversations between several artists—17 in total from ten different countries.

To create this project, the teacher traveled nearly 13,000 kilometers to “find that freshness, that joy.”

“Our idea was to connect with the guitar's cousins,her siblings,” she explained. “What we did was go and immerse ourselves in the very history of the arrival of plucked string instruments in America.”

In 1523, she recounts, 30 guitars, now known as Renaissance guitars, arrived via Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo, along with thirteen vihuelas, which are predecessors of the guitar. From there, you begin to hear the plucked strings in Greater America, she said.

The first track is “La Huerta del codice” (The Trace of the Codex), and it brings together the sounds of the Renaissance vihuela and the Baroque guitar—both played by Evangelina Mascardi—along with a twelve-string guitar made in Havana in 1820 that Berta plays on this track.

In Mexico, she joined Eloy Zuniga and La Mata del Huapango to perform “El canario” (The Canary), a traditional Huastec jarana.

From Puerto Rico comes “Sara,” featuring the Puerto Rican cuatro played by Fabiola Mendez.

For the Colombian part, the music included the bandola and the tiple, stringed instruments of Andean origin played by the Saboya brothers in “Bambuco pa' Billy.”

The most modern part is by the Argentine musician Gustavo Santaolalla, with whom she performs “The Last of Us,” an adapted version for guitar and ronroco of the main theme from the video game and later television series.

“Gustavo Santaolalla is the one who has this instrument, these instruments, to perhaps take their greatest expansion worldwide,” she said.

The charm of the guitar, Berta believes, is its simplicity and availability, because since it is not very expensive, it is close to people, “so, the guitar is a faithful companion, it seems to me, for someone who has something to sing and something to give.”