Looks like the exposure to art, to poetry, music and so on, must have started in the womb, because I grew up in a very well structured society with a very strong sense of culture, hard work and integrity. My father was a farmer who never went to school, but he was a very hard working man and very intelligent, and very conscious of his place in the world. ((Farm And Ranch Families)) On the side, he was a musician; he was a drummer and a song composer and a very, very good singer, and humorist. ((Felt At Home)) His company was always desired by people. So, I grew up appreciating him, and I grew up seeing different kinds of drums in the household.

Now my mother was a cloth weaver. She used the vertical loom. I used to watch her, and the loom stood on the wall, and she passed the shuttle back and forth, sideways to the left and right and so on, and then hit this with what’s called apasa, that is a long wooden bat, and before you knew it, there were strips of fabric at the other end. As she did this work, she sang songs. As my father worked on the farm, he sang songs. So, I — there was a lot of respect for the arts. ((Traditional Arts))