Desesperando is a powerful verb that means "despairing" or "getting desperate". It perfectly captures a feeling of growing frustration and hopelessness.
In the song, the singer is tired of only ever getting the answer "maybe" (quizás). They sing, "Y yo, desesperando" (And I, getting desperate), showing how the constant uncertainty is driving them crazy. It's a very dramatic word that reveals the emotional heart of this classic song.
Have you ever tried to get a straight answer out of someone who just refuses to commit? That exact frustration drives Gaby Moreno's bluesy take on the classic Latin standard Quizás, Quizás, Quizás. The singer is stuck in limbo because every single time she asks the basic questions—Qué, cuándo, cómo y dónde ("What, when, how, and where")—her partner dodges them with the exact same non-answer: Quizás, quizás, quizás ("Maybe, maybe, maybe"). It is a witty, relatable loop of endless romantic hesitation.
As the song goes on, patience completely runs out. The narrator watches the calendar slip away, singing Y así pasan los días / Y yo, desesperando ("And so the days go by, and I am growing desperate"). She calls out the partner directly for wasting time overthinking, practically begging with Por lo que más tú quieras / ¿Hasta cuándo? ¿Hasta cuándo? ("For the love of whatever you care about most, until when? Until when?"). The phrase por lo que más quieras is a great Spanish idiom you use when you are pleading with someone to finally do something. Instead of a grand tragedy, the lyrics give us the petty, exhausting reality of waiting around for a chronic overthinker to make up their mind.
Gaby Moreno is a Guatemalan singer-songwriter and guitarist, now based in Los Angeles, whose warm vocals move between Spanish and English while mixing Latin roots with blues, folk, and Americana. If you like music that feels intimate but still adventurous, she is a perfect artist to explore.
She won Best New Artist at the 2013 Latin GRAMMYs and later won Best Latin Pop Album at the 2024 GRAMMYs for X MÍ (VOL.1). Her self-produced Alegoría is a GRAMMY-nominated record that leans into both languages and a wide emotional range.