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Leticia Ortiz

Now having dealt with a breakup, Alexandria Gonzalez, 12, is returning to music, and changing her appearance by getting a tattoo, showing how much dedication she has in making music. “Once I broke up with my boyfriend, I started to work on myself and my music,” Gonzalez said. “I also got a tattoo; this shows dedication, to show everyone that this means something to me.”

Aspiring stars in the halls of DHS, Ricardo Paz, 11, and Alexandria Gonzalez, 12, set out to reach the goal they’ve had from a young age. Taking hold of every opportunity given to them, these two rising stars have worked their way up into the spotlight.

“I started getting attached to the whole entire idea of being a singer,” Gonzalez said. “I really want to work up to that point.”

From the age of ten, Alexandria Gonzalez has been greatly encouraged to pursue her talent. Finding inspiration in a  talent show in her elementary school, Gonzalez decided to try her hand at singing  in the next show. After singing a cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”, she discovered just how great of a talent she had.

“I started getting training [on my voice] and a lot of my trainers would be like ‘you have an amazing voice’ like you know ‘you have the ability to be something’ and that got to my head,” Gonzalez said. “After that I started buying myself a keyboard, I started buying myself those beat production sets and sooner or later I got followers on SoundCloud and it became a really big thing.”

Ricardo Paz also fell in love with music and the entertainment industry at the tender age of three. Paz has had the support of his family throughout the pursuing of his dream to reach stardom and they are his biggest motivation, along with the desire to always better himself. This family support was especially needed when Paz received a call from an important Univision producer in Florida, asking him to compete in the hit program “Sabado Gigante”. From there, the host of the program invited him to stay and be part of the program, giving Paz the opportunity to be on television for the next two years.

“At the end of the day, in this career that I chose, there are a lot of people that are going to try and bring you down,” Paz said. “You don’t have to listen to them, you just always have to keep going; there’s always someone who is going to be pushing you to do better, and for me that’s my family.”

Both Paz and Gonzalez have been able to push through and demonstrate their talents, putting them in the right spotlight. Currently, Paz is getting ready to fly out of the country to participate in a singing competition in Wyoming, whilst Gonzalez can be found collaborating with big name artists on her SoundCloud.