When life is bleak and times are tough, there's often no choice but to look for an escape through whatever means are available. For Felipe Esparza, who immigrated from Mexico as a child and grew up poor in a crime-ridden neighborhood of east LA, that escape came in the form of watching the likes of Richard Pryor and George Carlin tell jokes and fantasizing of one day following in their footsteps. After many years and no small number of barriers to overcome, that fantasy became reality: Esparza eventually won NBC's Last Comic Standing competition and has gone on to appear in television shows such as Superstore and The Eric Andre Show, as well as launch his own podcast What's Up Fool. All the while, he has managed to stay positive by keeping in mind how far he's come and drowning out the darkness of the world with a soundtrack to his life that includes the beautifully eclectic, multilingual Latin stylings of Manu Chao's 2001international hit record Proxima Estacion: Esperanza.

The 500 is a production of Native Creative Podcasts.

For show notes, guest playlists, complimentary documentaries, and audiobooks about the music go to The500Podcast.com.

New Artist/Song influenced by Manu Chao: 

Victizzle "Oshé Gan Gan" (Spotify) (YouTube)

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