Nowadays, Juanes loves L.A.

Living in Los Angeles is like having front-row seats to a global showcase of Latin music. Sooner or later, all the major and many minor artists from the Spanish-speaking world will pass through here, to create their music or perform it.

This week, for example, the City of Angels hosted two significant singer-songwriters from the Caribbean. One is Juanes, the Colombian superstar who is arguably the single most important figure of the past decade in Latin pop music. The other is Alexis Puentes, a relatively unknown Cuban artist now based in Canada who is quietly developing a solo career as AlexCuba.

Though their styles and their careers are far apart, crossing paths with them here was enough to restore a fan’s faith in Latin music, which has been in the doldrums along with the rest of the pop music business.

Juanes returned to the city where he got his start to shoot a video for his upcoming new studio album, a major international release due this fall from Universal. He spent Thursday afternoon at Stage 20 of the Ben Kitay Studios in Hollywood, doing several takes of a scene that had him hopping onto the hood of a black car and playing an electric guitar solo for the beautiful woman stuck the whole time in the driver’s seat.

“Look to the side,” commanded the director, watching the singer’s image on a monitor. “Look down. Look into the car. Now smile. And cut!”

Juanes obediently complied. It was impossible to tell how the dissected pieces of this process would add up to a visual illustration of the catchy love song “Me Enamora,” intended as the first single. It’s the most radio-friendly selection from his extraordinary new album, “La Vida es Un Ratico,” a title that borrowed a piece of advice offered by the singer’s mother at a trying personal moment and which essentially means “Life Is Short.”

How true. It was eight years ago when this charismatic mega-star was just another scrawny, anonymous wannabe who had come to Los Angeles from Colombia to peddle some songs he had written and recorded. The former metalhead had a new sound he was experimenting with, a fusion of edgy rock with the festive folkloric music of his native country. And he had a lot to say, pouring his fears, obsessions, despairs and passions, both personal and political, into a demo tape that would become his first solo album, “Fíjate Bien” (which translates roughly into “Watch Your Step”).

That record, with its anguish over the random violence caused by land mines in his homeland, earned him instant fame with a stunning seven Latin Grammy nominations in 2001.

Juanes (short for Juan Esteban) had spent months belaboring his music in L.A., schlepping around the city all day on buses when he didn’t have a place to stay. His big break came when his music caught the attention of Oscar-winning producer Gustavo Santaolalla, who himself had moved from Buenos Aires to Echo Park. The famed music maker would soon become Juanes’ partner on the road to stardom.

That L.A. connection between these two Latin Americans would help transform conventional Latin music, replacing the tuxedo-wearing crooner who once dominated the industry with the guitar-slinging singer-songwriter weaned on rock and wearing jeans. Juanes would go on to sell more than 5 million albums worldwide, becoming the male counterpart to his Colombian compatriot Shakira, but without the English crossover.

“In the beginning, this city made me pay dearly for my success,” said Juanes, who today seems unspoiled by his celebrity. “But later, L.A. paid it all back. The connection I have with the fans here is very close, and very special.”

For the past year, Juanes has been holed up in his mountain retreat high above the city of Medellin, working in solitude at his home studio late into the night. In February, he was back at Santaolalla’s Echo Park studio, La Casa, with a new batch of songs, this time on a hard drive. It would be the music for his new album, his fourth overall and his first since 2004’s smash “Mi Sangre” (My Blood).

When the tedious filming of his new video wrapped, reporters briefly quizzed the singer on his breakup and reconciliation with his wife, who had accompanied him on this trip. All relationships go through tough times, said the father of two young daughters. That’s just human.

But the in-depth answer to those questions about his private turmoil can be found in several of the 13 songs from the upcoming release, which Juanes allowed me to preview. His assistants set up his personal Apple laptop on a coffee table in a back room, open to a file with the new tunes. Somebody handed me a set of headphones and closed the door.

At first impression (though final judgment awaits a full review), the album marks a significant leap forward for Juanes, both as a vocalist and a songwriter. Musically, he has perfected his distinctive fusion and reconnected with the purpose and power that gave his debut album such a startling impact.

Juanes left town Thursday night, anxious to get back to Bogotá for rehearsals and to try out a new pedal he had picked up for his guitar in L.A. He’s due to present the new album to a hometown audience in a live showcase Aug. 29, before heading to Europe to promote the release, due worldwide Oct. 23.

L.A. fans can count on one thing: Juanes is sure to be back.

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AlexCuba knows who he is now

The last time Cuba’s Alexis Puentes came to town in 2005, he was also an aspiring solo artist in search of his own sound.

“When I went down there, I was still in search of who I am,” said Puentes, speaking by phone from his home north of Vancouver. “This time, people are going to really experience my personality on stage and I’m looking forward to serenading” the people of L.A.

Like Juanes, Puentes (who goes by the stage name AlexCuba) is also promoting a new album, “Agua del Pozo” (Water Hole), released on his own Caracol label. It represents the evolution of his fusion, a poetic and melodic blend of pop music elements with gentle Cuban rhythms and a significant debt to the Cuban trova or singer-songwriter tradition.

It’s a triumph for an artist whose own father had urged him to leave the singing to his brother, Adonis, the other half of the Puentes Brothers, a duo in exile who recorded the tasty “Morumba Cubana” in Canada several years ago.

But Puentes wasn’t interested in just moving people’s feet. He wanted to move their hearts as well. When he found his voice, he split with his brother and went in search of a more intimate musical setting suitable to his warm, enveloping style.

Ironically, he found it about as far as he could get from Cuba and its intensely competitive dance music scene. Home is not Havana, but the small town of Smithers, about a 14-hour drive north of Vancouver.

“I’m close to Alaska, brother,” said Puentes, who married a Canadian woman, now his manager, and started a family. “It can be minus-30 outside with snow up to the windows, and I’m writing hot songs.”

Puentes, backed by two local musicians, was scheduled to perform a pair of free shows in town this weekend: Friday at California Plaza and an early evening set tonight at LACMA. But fans will also get a chance to catch him later this evening in a club setting thanks to another show added to his agenda. He’ll perform a late set at the Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill, a new venue in town for jazz and Latin jazz, featuring a baby grand piano, excellent acoustics and the rare menu choice of Manhattan-style clam chowder.

“I think we’ve lost a lot of the reasons why we do music in Cuba,” he concluded. “The musicians there have developed such a high level of technical proficiency that it’s hard to find something nice and simple. . . . I wanted to find a peaceful place to create and be more truthful to my creativity.”

Whether the music comes from Colombia, Cuba or Canada, it always seems to come together in L.A.

The AlexCuba Band performs today, 5 to 7 p.m., at LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Free. (323) 857-6000. Also today, 10 p.m., at the Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill, 6122 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood (east of Vine, in Gower Gulch). Jazz singer/songwriter/educator Cathy Segal-Garcia opens at 7:30 with “The Best of the Jam.” $5 cover. Call (323) 466-9917 or go to www.myspace.com/hollywoodstudiojazz.

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Gurza covers Latino music, arts and culture. E-mail at agustin.gurza@latimes.com with comments, events and ideas for this weekly feature.