Oct 165 min read

Orange County’s Caro Lifts Flamenco Guitar to New Heights

Nicknamed ‘La Flamenkita,’ Caroline Espinoza thrives in a genre that is typically dominated by men.

Flamenco guitarist Caro (Caroline Espinoza) poses for a photograph at the Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens in San Clemente. Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Culture OC

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.

Espinoza eventually joined Molina on one of his Spanish trips in the summer of 2015, and shadowed and learned from all the big flamenco idols like El Viejin. Molina introduced her to the late Paco de Lucia in 2012 when he performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown L.A.

Even though Espinoza felt music was never an option professionally, her life path has always brought her back to her first love. Today, she’s regarded as one of the top female flamenco guitarists in the world, according to Molina and others who have heard her play.

“The gypsy people see flamenco as a way of life,” Espinoza said. “The way they eat, the way they tie their shoes … the children in their mothers’ womb know the rhythms of flamenco.”

Flamenco guitarist Caro (Caroline Espinoza) plays her guitar at the Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens in San Clemente. Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Culture OC

The 27-year-old Mexican American resides in San Clemente, where she performs locally in Orange County and throughout L.A. She also teaches private guitar lessons online. Currently, she has a solo residence Friday and Saturday nights at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly HIlls.

Flamenco is a centuries-old art form of song and dance originating from southern Spain and is inseparable from the gypsy culture. Known as gitanos, the Romani people popularized flamenco internationally in the mid-1900s. Within Spain however, gypsy culture and flamenco were initially ostracized among Spanish elites. Nowadays, flamenco is a national symbol and was recognized by UNESCO as part of the World’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010.

Flamenco blends poetry, singing (cante), guitar playing (toque), dance (baile), polyrhythmic hand-clapping (palmas) and finger snapping (pitos). The signature jaleo, or call and response, is a form of “hell raising,” and involves hand clapping, foot stomping and encouraging shouts from the audience.

Espinoza may seem an unlikely vessel to carry on the tradition and history of flamenco – young, female, American. Flamenco guitar is traditionally played by men. But her presence goes beyond technical talent, says her mentor Molina, 48, of Los Angeles.

“She is well-revered in the flamenco world,” Molina said. “When women play the guitar you can hear the fragility of it, and you need a certain strength and dominance with the instrument.

“It’s a male-driven art form and the stereotype is that of a female flamenco dancer and singer, and a male guitarist. But when Caro plays, you close your eyes and you can't tell, because she has both the male and female energies.”

Espinoza has performed frequently at the Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens in San Clemente, as well as the Waldorf Astoria Resort & Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano, the Skirball Cultural Center in L.A. and for the Farmers Footprint at Commune Topanga.

The talent Espinoza has is God-given, and there is a timeless presence and unshakeable confidence she possesses, says Molina.

“The deeper message is her evolution as a human being and her expression of herself from the universe to the instrument,” Molina said. “It's an immersion and universal experience and she is taking everyone else along for the ride.”

Standing at 5 feet 1 inch, Espinoza is an old soul. Friends say her element is wood, and she has followed a plant-based diet for the past eight years. Her favorite color is blue, and she loves spending time in nature. She usually wears her curly hair loose with distinctive wire-rimmed glasses and colorful, relaxed attire.

She is the youngest of three children, and she has an older sister and brother. After graduating high school in 2014, she double majored in kinesiology and music at Chapman University.

“My first semester left a bad taste in my mouth,” she said. “I chose to play a flamenco piece and my instructor said, that is the last time you will be playing flamenco. At the end of the quarter, he said that was the greatest performance, it was flawless, etc. …. I just said, peace out.”

She left Chapman and took a year hiatus, attending classes at Santa Ana College. During this time, she worked in the gift shop at Discovery Cube while living at home.

The summer of 2015 was when she joined Molina in Spain. She spent time in Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla, eating jamon and paella with her idols and absorbing the gypsy and flamenco culture.

When she returned, she tried attending Vanguard University for a year, but had a similar experience to when she was at Chapman.

“I constantly felt like I was being put in a box of jazz or classical,” she said. “It felt too restrictive.”

She moved out of her parent’s home in 2016 and worked at the juice bar at Mother’s Market. During this time, she continued to pursue music on the side. It got to a point where she was doing so many gigs she quit school altogether to pursue music full-time in 2019, she said.

All was going well until the pandemic in early 2020, and her live performances came to a halt. She taught classes online for Guitar Center, started a daily meditation practice and took several road trips.

Once confinement during the pandemic lifted, Espinoza resumed performing solo for private events, and also with her friend and mentor Molina. Future plans include performing in outdoor festivals locally and internationally. Over time, her family has adapted to music being her new path.

“It’s taking them a while to understand what I am doing,” she said. “For now, I want to share flamenco with others.”