Octogenarian Cape Verdean Guitarist Reflects on Island Music, History（1/2）

Guitarist Lela Violao was born on the island of Sao Vicente in 1928. Growing up, he says, he remembers hiding his guitar playing from his disapproving father.

Violao says that as a 14-year-old, he earned about five cents playing on the street every night while his father was at work. He says he gave half of his earnings to his step-mother so she would help keep his secret.

A self-taughtmusician, Violao says there was never a music school when he grew up. Only recently did the former Portuguese-colony open its first music school.

Violao says Cape Verdean musicians have mostly learned on their own, finding the music within them naturally and without any formal instruction.

Violao grew up to practice engineering" class="hjdict" word="civil engineering" target=_blank>civil engineering, working on construction projects as more of the country's 10 still-volcanic islands became inhabited.

When he could not find work, he played his guitar, even after losing part of his middle finger in an accident in 1956.

He mostly performed what islanders call morna music, singing about nostalgia, love, loss and sacrifice.

Waves of drought in Cape Verde prompted massiveemigration throughout the 20th century, to the point more Cape Verdeans now live outside the country than in it.