In the late 1990s, when Gaby Moreno was 17, she sat in a classroom in her native Guatemala and penned a poem. Originally written in Spanish, it has lines emblematic of teenage longing for change and a realized selfhood: “Maybe the wind will roar more violently today. … Maybe at this point I don’t know where I’m going.”
By the time Moreno began writing her 2011 album “Illustrated Songs,” she had settled into a life in Los Angeles, where she moved in 2001 to pursue her music career. Rummaging through a box of mementos, she found the poem and adapted it into the album’s first song, “Intento,” which swells in waves of wrenching, hopeful melody.
Moreno’s work in the 25 years since the song’s inception has culminated in the last few months in back-to-back public-facing accomplishments. In February, she both performed at the Grammys and won the award for best Latin pop album for “X Mí (Vol. 1).” The seven-song record, released in May 2023, revisits favorites from previous albums, set only to Moreno’s acoustic guitar. The track list includes a stripped-down “Intento.”
“Going back to that song, to those lyrics that I wrote as a teenager, with all these dreams and insecurities and fears I had back then … I don’t have them anymore,” Moreno, now 42, says via Zoom from a hotel room in Atlanta, where she’s stopped on tour with Nickel Creek. “But it was like visiting my younger self and telling her, ‘Hey, it all turned out just fine.’”
In addition to her Grammy win, which she describes as “an out-of-body moment” (though she’s still waiting for the actual trophy to arrive), she also made a splash performing on Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” in January. She was joined by fellow Guatemalan, longtime Moreno fan and “Dune” actor Oscar Isaac for an acoustic rendition of “Luna de Xelajú.” The song, which she also played at the Grammys and with Isaac on “X Mí,” is something of an unofficial national anthem.
“It’s one of those beautiful, timeless songs that, if you ask any Guatemalan, they’ll know,” she says, so it served as her solo show encore for years. “[Isaac] told me that the song meant a lot to his family as well, so it was kind of a no-brainer.”
It’s another way Moreno brings her identity into her work, which has always involved advocacy for Guatemalan and immigrant issues. Her latest album, “Dusk,” includes a song called “New Dawn,” which switches between English and Spanish verses that speak to violence against women in her home country. In 2020, just before the pandemic, Moreno was named a UNICEF goodwill ambassador to Guatemala. In that capacity, she produced an album, by and for children, about love and friendship and nutrition, which was nominated for a Latin Grammy.
“I try to raise awareness and be an advocate for those who don’t have a voice,” she says. “By singing from my own personal experience as an immigrant, I hope I can humanize the struggles that all immigrants are going through in this country.”
May 15 at 8 p.m. at the Hamilton Live, 600 14th St. NW. live.thehamiltondc.com. $15-$25.
