Maria Lalache de Rosario Spencer Fonseca

Maria de Rosario Spencer Fonseca (Lalache) was born in 1942 in Cape Verde. Lalache came to the U.S. in 1985 after living for many years in Italy, where she worked as a housekeeper and earned her doctorate in Cape Verdean literature. She settled in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She loved to sing as a child, learning songs from those around her. Priests from St. Augustine’s Church in Bridgeport noticed her voice, placing Lalache in the choir. Since that time she has been devoted to both religious and traditional Cape Verdean music sung in Kriolu, and in Bridgeport she led the Cathedral Choir for the Thanksgiving Mass parts of which were traditionally sung in Kriolu and Portuguese. She was noted for her singing in the old “nasal” style. Lalache describes morna as "so expressive - it can express love, sadness, the dryness of the country; it can express emigration... there are so many meanings! Morna talks straight to the heart - with a morna you 'live' your culture."