La India Canela

Lidia Maria Hernandez Lopez performs under the stage name La India Canela and has become recognized for her command of the accordion within the tipico style of merengue. She entered the world in Limon, Villa Gonzalez, a rural tobacco-growing area of Santiago Province in the Dominican Republic. Drawn to the instrument after watching her brother play, the young Lopez displayed an immediate aptitude and soon received formal guidance when her father placed her under the tutelage of saxophonist Miro Francisco, himself an accordionist. At age fourteen she came to the attention of Juan de Dius, a saxophonist then working with Fefita La Grande’s band, who encouraged her to assemble her own group. Relocating that ensemble to Santiago, she launched her professional life, appearing with various conjuntos throughout the 1980s and executing tipico passages with a swiftness and precision that consistently astonished listeners. Smithsonian Folkways issued the 2008 recording Merengue Tipico from the Dominican Republic, which presents her work under the name La India Canela.