Rousing Singers

A Tegucigalpa Duo Entertains and Inspires

Michael Aguilar sings with a trailed voice. He has been performing for seven years. He also plays keyboard and guitar. Daisy Garay, his wife, sings. Schneider, the couple’s 9-month-old toddler, accompanies them.

The couple’s move from Tegucigalpa to Roatan came suddenly in June 2025. “I had a small tragedy in Tegucigalpa. I lost everything I had,” Aguilar says. Rather than breaking them, the setback inspired the couple to make a dramatic change in their lives and move to Roatan. José García, the blind musician already performing on the island, suggested they come there.

The musicians began performing on the street in West End and gained other contracts. The couple also performs in front of Taquería Raúl in West End. For one hour, from 3 to 4 p.m., the duo plays at the Ramírez Store in Sandy Bay. They have their toddler son next to them. José García, another blind musician, joins the duo for two evenings a week at Blue Marlin. Their toddler son, Schneider, accompanies them. “With this, we sustain ourselves, thanks be to God,” Aguilar says.

They were taught music at the Pilar Salinas School for the Blind in Tegucigalpa. The school was founded in 1948. Pilar Salinas Padilla, who was born in 1924, later founded another school for the blind in Guatemala. In 1978, she founded the Artisanal Center for Industry and Rehabilitation for the Blind. That school prepares blind people for professions. Salinas died in 2005.

In Santa Lucía, outside Tegucigalpa, Michael and Daisy attended the Artisanal Center for Industry and Rehabilitation for the Blind. “It is there they taught us, or rather awakened our musical talent,” Aguilar says. The couple learned to play a variety of instruments.

in Tegucigalpa I lost everything I had.

They were taught by singing coach Mr. Visitación Salgado. The professor who teaches musical instruments is Oscar Orlando Disqua. “In Tegucigalpa, there are musical bands of blind people,” Aguilar said. “They perform at events on contract.”

The graduates of this school play in musical groups all over Tegucigalpa and Honduras. “In Tegucigalpa, they leave us tips, but it is less than here,” Aguilar says about playing in parks and other public spaces in the Honduran capital.

There are several blind people who support themselves by asking for money, but there are also those who are self-reliant, creative and inspire others, often those more fortunate than they are.