Cuban musician’s homemade shortwave radio becomes a bridge to music in the US 

Kiki Valera is a Seattle-based musician known as a virtuoso in Cuban guitar. For The World’s series Movement, stories at the intersection of music and migration, Valera speaks to Meklit Hadero about his early traditional music education, and how building a shortwave radio out of spare parts opened his ears to a new world of sounds.

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.