Fefita la Grande

About

Manuela Josefa “Fefita” Taveras Cabrera (born September 18, 1943), known by her stage name Fefita La Grande, is a Dominican accordionist and the most recognized female performer of merengue tipico, a more rural variation of merengue, the main musical genre of the Dominican Republic.
She is one of the most well known musicians of the genre, along with artists such as Tatico Henríquez, Pedro Reynoso, El Ciego de Nagua, Francisco Peralta, Rafaelito Román, Francisco Ulloa, among others. Her popular songs include: Vamos Hablar Ingles, La Pimienta es la Que Pica, La Chiflera, O te Menea O te Apea, among others.

Manuela Josefa Taveras Cabrera was born on September 18, 1943, in the small village of El Oregano, in San José, in the town of San Ignacio de Sabaneta, in the province of Santiago Rodríguez in the Dominican Republic, to Eliseo “Seíto” de Jesús Cabrera Fernández, and María Ana Taveras. Fefita has one full sister, María Celeste, and six half-siblings from her father. She took her mother’s surname at birth because her father did not initially recognize her. From a very young age she began to be interested in music by playing the accordion inside her father’s workshop…