I have a very musical family. My Dad played the acordian (This was the only instrument he was allowed to play being Italian 'n all.) and my Mom played the piano. My Mom actually wanted to study music in college before deciding to major in romance languages.  But music was sortof forced on her growing up. She was only allowed to study classical pieces, and enjoying rock bands like the Beatles was not allowed. Her father, my Grandpa, was a real musician. And being very traditional, he didn't understand the musiciality of these new genres of music back then. He made his first guitar as a boy in Puerto Rico, and taught himself to play by ear. Adding the ability to read music didn't become part of his natural talent until he was an adult. My Grandpa, Felipe (Neri) Orta, is known in Puerto Rico as a living master of the cuatro, and has had the privledge of playing with other cuatro giants. I've heard my grandpa play countless times, but have only heard him play as part of a band once or twice so my latest findings on the internet of my Grandpa has me totally struck by his passion for music.

Noting his importance in the history of the cuatro is Kacho Montalvo on the Cuatro Project, "I must differ each time I hear that the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture or [IPR historian] Paquito Lopez Cruz rescued the cuatro from oblivion. I believe the cuatro was rescued by the musicians and the troubadours that went on radio and struggled against a commercial system that would not play their music, to appear on early Sunday morning programs. Those programs saved the cuatro, and in New York Efrain Ronda, Tito Báez, Tuto Feliciano, Juan Gonzalez, Nieves Quintero, Yomo Toro, Pepe Rodíguez, Ladí, Neri Orta, they planted the seed. Plus several cuatro makers that kept making the cuatro in New York, are the responsible ones. Without craftsmen, arrangers, troubadors and composers, you can't have players."

Shown in these videos, you can easily spot him since he's the only one with a full head of white hair. I can't even begin to express how thankful I am to have moments like these documented.