Feliciano was born in Lares, Puerto Rico, on September 10, 1945. The fourth child of 11 sons, he was born blind as a result of congenital glaucoma. He was first exposed to music at the age of 3, playing on a cracker tin can while accompanying his uncle who played the cuatro. When Feliciano was 5, his family moved to Spanish Harlem, New York City, where at the age of 9 he made his first public appearance at the Teatro Puerto Rico in The Bronx.