The SUNSHINE Awards organization was founded in 1989 to recognize and pay tribute to the creators, producers, and performers of the various Caribbean art forms. Over the years the program has extended the category awards to Central and South America, and Africa . This year, the 21st Annual SUNSHINE Awards was dedicated to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

For the first time two artist from Central America were honored as Nominees during the 2009 SUNSHINE Awards for their contribution to the Performing Arts:

Armando Savaranga Crisanto, Honduran, director, choreographer and dance teacher. The SUNSHINE Awards organization recognized Mr. Crisanto for his more than 40 years of artistic work, dance and music. Since 1971, Mr. Crisanto has been the Director of the Garifuna Ballet Dancers of Honduras.

Eulalia Bernard-Little from Costa Rica , writer, poet, diplomat and educator, and was born in Puerto Limon, of Jamaican parentage. Ms. Bernard-Little is considered on e of the main figures from the Central American Caribbean literature and renowned advocate for women and minorities.

“Brother Valentino and Butch” are the new inductees to SUNSHINE Hall of Fame. Anthony Emrold Phillip “Brother Valentino” named” by the Grandmaster, Lord Kitchener, is called the “The People’s Calypsonian” because of his very quiet style and focus on the problems, hopes and aspirations of the African people, was born in Grenada and migrated to Trinidad as a youth. Bertrand “Butch” Kelman is a master panist and tuner. Grew up in South Trinidad, and graduated to tuning after listening quietly to the changing tones of the tenor pans in the late 1960s and 1970s.