La Doña’s parents met through music. Her mother was at Berkeley Law School and her father’s salsa band was playing for one of the law school parties. She took him to her car and played him a Polka song on her fiddle and they have been together ever since, almost 40 years. “Music was the culture of our and guitar from when she was about five followed by trumpet, which was one of her dad’s main instruments, from the age of house,” La Doña says. She started playing percussion seven. He also taught her sister the accordion and they were soon gigging at this very early age. “ Music was the culture of our house. La Doña grew up listening to Mariachi, traditional Columbian music, Salsa, and also American Folk music. Her mom was into the Folk revival, The Carter Family, Bluegrass and blues, country blues and jazz, and also African music. It was very diverse. “We didn’t really listen to contemporary music; it was more like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lightnin’ Hopkins,” La Doña recalls. Although she played mostly
blues during her college years, she began writing her own songs about three years ago when she was around twenty-five. I asked her about her favourite lyric, something that best reflected the message of her music. Her answer—“To my mother I leave my broken heart, to my father I leave my empty hands, and to my sister I leave my song.”
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