Leona (instrument)



The leona is a guitar-shaped fretted stringed instrument, from the state of Veracruz, Mexico. It has four strings and is a low pitched instrument in the son jarocho string family of instruments. The león or vozarrona, bigger than the former, is the lowest instrument in son jarocho genre.

The body of a leona is traditionally carved from a single piece of wood (traditionally Spanish cedar) and it is then hollowed out, with a separate soundboard and fingerboard applied. Other Mexican and South American folk guitars derivative of Spanish instruments are also made this way, notably the charango of Bolivia.