La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit - "Music is my life, my dream is to become a Flamenco Guitar soloist, to travel the world, to teach Flamenco to kids and grown ups, and also to other classic guitar players."

Young local guitarist, Esaú Galván Saltos, is 23 years old and has a promising future. In times when kids want it easy, fast, and NOW!, I feel moved when I listen to him. Esau is one-of-a-kind, an ancient soul, a young man determined to fulfill his dream. His motto is "Music is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration." He practices seven hours a day.

Esaú says he is shy, and has a hard time socializing, but he is firm and convincing when he says that he has decided to go as far as he can. And he is not doing it all by himself, he has the valuable support of his mother, his childhood friends - with whom he has performed concerts in Puerto Vallarta and other towns around the Bahía de Banderas - and the respect and admiration of fellow musicians, business owners and his many fans in La Cruz who appreciate his tenacity and talent.

His parents, Socorro Saltos and Jesus Galvan, arrived in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle when they were 23 years old, she has a store, and he works the land, and is also a fisherman.

When Esaú was a child, he would listen to the Mexican and Banda music his father liked. Later he discovered Carlos Santana's music, Rock, Country and Cumbia, and little by little he fell in love with music. With his first guitar teacher, Alejandro of Bucerias, Esaú created "El Quiosco," a band that played at private parties and public events.

"Lobo, the Flamenco guitarist, lives close by, and often came to shop at my mom´s store, my mom asked him to teach me guitar, and although he was not a teacher, he agreed and gave me valuable lessons, there I learned about Flamenco, and the Duende* captured me. I realized Flamenco was for me, it has been like this since then. I am trapped," Esaú says.

Later on he went to Tepic, where he attended the University of Nayarit and became the Classical Music Instructor. His mom tells me that during those years, Esaú never missed a weekend at home in La Cruz. "He is very disciplined, and although I don´t understand what his music is about I know how important it is for him, so I try to support him in every way I can," she says.

It was during an amateur music event at Ana Banana's Bar in La Cruz that Tatewari was born; Tatewari is a trio of Rumba Flamenca and World Music formed by Esaú and his childhood friends, Cruz Alberto Perez and Daniel Marquez, and singer Perla Alarcon, who now and then plays with them.

Back then they were 16, and continued playing regularly at "El Jardín del Pulpo" at the Huichol Gallery "Hikuri" in La Cruz. Soon people started noticing them, and liking their music. "The tourists liked our music, they encouraged us, followed us and supported us, I feel they were moved by our enthusiasm and youth, those were wonderful times."

More recently, Esaú performed with "La Boquita," a Flamenco group formed by Silvia Basurto, Sol María and Paolo Uccelli, for the play Frida Kahlo by Mexican choreographer and dancer Adriana Quinto, at Teatro Vallarta.

By May 2012 Esaú hopes to be in Madrid, Spain, where he plans to stay for at least six months to attend Flamenco classes. The classes cost 40 Euros each, and he needs to take at least one lesson a week.

His dream might seem distant, but Esau's passion and charm are contagious. He smiles and says that music is his life, that music takes everything away from him, and also gives him all that he needs. That music is his duty, his passion, his pleasure, that he has no time to socialize, that his girlfriend is jealous of his guitar, but he can't help it, he knows it is his path, that the duende is in his blood and that he must stay on his path.

"I am a composer, but before I used to do it in a free manner. With the knowledge I have been acquiring over the years, my compositions have become more serious, better structured, and more mature, I travel once a week to Guadalajara, to attend Flamenco classes with Maestro Fernando Martínez Macías, one of the best teachers of Flamenco Guitar of Mexico, I want to get to Spain well prepared, I don´t like wasting time," he says.

In order to help him out with the money necessary to make the trip to Spain, his mom and friends got together to plan a dinner with show to collect the funds, also, Sylvia from "La Yaya" Restaurant in La Cruz, has already found him a place to stay in Madrid.

The dinner will take place on Friday, May 13th, 2011 at 7:30 pm, at "El Jardín del Pulpo" in Aruna y Wayland Combe-Wright's Galería Hikuri, Coral #66 in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. Socorro will make the food herself, Esaú will play, Gaby Raygoza and Nancy Bravo will present a Flamenco dance. Tickets cost $230 pesos per person and reservations can be made by calling (329) 295-5367.

If you are not familiar with Esau's music, you can see him perform a Flamenco show on Fridays at 9:30 pm at restaurant Sal y Fuego, Lázaro Cárdenas 7 in Bucerias. He also performs with Tatewari on Saturdays, from 7 to 10 pm at de Polo Club in San Pancho.

As part of his social commitment, Esaú gives free guitar lessons every Wednesday from 5:00 to 6:30 pm to children and adults in the La Cruz de Huanacaxtle Main Plaza. He is part of Sergio Regalado and Angélica Valdivia´s open air library Project, with the goal of taking kids out of the streets and giving them the chance to get familiar with the amazing world of books, music and arts.

*El Duende is a kind of a Flamenco Zen, an energy, a mood in which the musician feels as if he doesn´t exist, is the moment where the mind becomes free of thoughts, empty, a few instants of rapture, it is the time when music flows by itself.