After visiting her older sister in New York City, she dropped out of high school to pursue music in the Big Apple, playing often and at every place that would give her a stage.

NPR: Holly Miranda On World Cafe

San Juan, Puerto Rico's biggest city, "is the sexy younger sister of New York, " says Sotirios Kotoulas, a Canadian-born New York architect and professor at the University of Puerto Rico.

CNN: Hot new things to do in Puerto Rico

Since my self-exile, I had lived in New York City, Washington DC, Dallas, and Philadelphia - but the light that emerged from my sister's death and dying showed me the way home to a place that looks and feels a lot like Mayberry.

BBC: Is the ideal of small-town America a myth?