Lourdes Pérez (born Bernardita de Lourdes Pérez Cruz on February 12, 1961) is a prolific Puerto Rican contemporary recording artist, songwriter, composer, arranger, poet, contralto vocalist, oral historian and guitarist. She is also one of few female decimistas (writer of décima, a specialized form of Spanish poetry). Often conjuring comparisons to the soulful world music genres of , morna and fado, Pérez' body of music has been characterized as folk opera ("opera of the people") that honors her jíbara (Puerto Rican mountain) roots and the legacy of Spanish/pan-Latin American nueva trova or nueva cancion.