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Growing up in Santa Ana, Caroline “Caro” Espinoza dreamed of being a doctor and was expected to be the first person in her family to go to college.
Her first true love was music, though – her mother listened to the Gipsy Kings when she was pregnant with her. Before she could walk, Espinoza was creating rhythms with household items, and at age 7, she learned how to play two Peruvian instruments – the charango, a small bellied 10-string guitar and the zampoña, an Andean panpipe. She also began private flamenco guitar lessons.
She was accepted into the Orange County School of the Arts, where she met her mentor Walter Molina. Most Americans know flamenco through the Gipsy Kings, said Espinoza, but Molina learned about the famed flamenco guitarist El Viejin (the little old man), and tracked him down in his native Caño Roto neighborhood in Madrid to learn about gypsy culture and flamenco.
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