Here is Espinoza Paz in his video for "¿Lo Intentamos?" a popular norteño ballad that is just beyond sentimental, almost uncomfortably so -- which is what makes it so, so good. Come on, carressing a wall in loving agony? This is high drama we're talking here.
More than a year since its release, "¿Lo Intentamos?" is still on loop outside my window in downtown Mexico City, demonstrating once more the level of influence that the northern Mexican diaspora has in the cultural heart of the nation. The downtown D.F./tepiteño scene may not be immediately identified with vaquero hats or ostrich-skin boots, but we can definitely get down here or there with the music from El Norte.
Paz, a native of Sinaloa and former fieldworker in California, is a bonafide breakthrough artist in the "Mexican regional" super-genre, a true and proud "paisa." Here he is performing a bit of "¿Lo Intentamos?" live on Mun2, and man, the song holds up so well acoustically. He says he's written more than a thousand songs. Hot.
Mun2 also offers a song vs. song match-up between "¿Lo Intentamos?" and my other soul-wrencher favorite this year, "Ya Es Muy Tarde," by La Arrolladora Banda Limon. Seriously, I'm so torn. (So torn!)