Singer, Lyricist, Composer, Dominican folk music researcher, Taíno culture researcher and traveler. Irka Mateo was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from a family of mixed race descendants of Tainos, Africans and Europeans. She chose the Taino as her personal identity. From an early age she was devoted to singing, playing guitar, writing poetry. At 17 she began her world travels. She has lived in United States, Spain, France, England, Brazil and Canada, as well as traveling extensively throughout Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. During these years, she participated as a singer in various musical projects with Latin Americans, Greeks, Africans and French and was a witness to the emergence of world music in Paris and Madrid. She studied psychology and foreign languages (English, French, Portuguese) in Amherst College, Connecticut, USA, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain and at l'Université d 'Strassburg, France. In M...