Espinoza Paz (Isidro Chavez Espinoza) was born on October 29, 1981 in La Angostura, a small town in the north of the state of Sinaloa, Mexico. He was 11 years old when he wrote his first song, which was dedicated to a girl on whom he had a crush. By the time he was 13, he had already written 20 songs; however, it wasn’t until his father sent him money from the United States that he decided to buy his first guitar and teach himself to play it. In 1996, he emigrated to Sacramento, California, where his love for music grew while he earned a living washing tomatoes and picking oranges, olives and grapes in Dixon, California. Months later, he decided to return to Mexico, where suffered the hardest experience of his life: the passing of his mother, Mrs. Maria de la Paz Espinoza. That was a tremendous loss from which he would never fully recover.[citation needed] From that point on, Paz embarked on what seemed like a never-ending journey to find his destiny. He returned to the United States (this time to Oregon) and worked as a gardener for about a year. Tired of traveling, he then decided to concentrate on his career as a songwriter, and being convinced of his calling, he returned to Mexico once again. His "muse" was a friend from California, Blanca Estrella. Their platonic relationship inspired many of his songs. For the next eight years he knocked on doors and sang in regional bands, always looking for "the opportunity" as he poured his feelings and experiences into his songs.