Wonder Woman of the Week: Lila Downs

Day of the Dead is rapidly approaching (and I guess Halloween too) and with the orange leaves of Autumn and Mariachi music dominating my iTunes, there’s one musician who dominates the world of Latin music. She could have easily been the product of a Disney “Happily Ever After” courtship, her music has earned international awards, and on top of all of that; she’s an activist for Native American and Mexican American rights. The Wonder Woman of the Week is Lila Downs.

Lila Downs was born in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1968. Her mother was a Mixtec cabaret singer. Her father was a professor of art and cinematography. The two fell in love and the result was one of the most talented singer/songwriters of Latin music history. At an early age, Lisa Downs sang tanchera music in the mountain towns of la Mixteca. While performing with La Trova Serrana, Downs met Paul Cohen and started a solo career. Downs’ style harnessed the music of the Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya, and Nahuatl Peoples- the Indigenous Peoples of Mesoamerica. She studied voice and social anthropology at the University of Minnesota and studied Fine Arts at Bellas Artes. [1]

Paul Cohen and Lila Downs have produced ten studio albums. “Pecados y Milagros” earned Downs both a Grammy and a Latin Grammy Award and reached double platinum in Mexico. It wasn’t her first Grammy Award however. In 2004, “Una Sangre” earned Downs her first Latin Grammy and her album “Raíz” was nominated for two more. She has performed at the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Festival of Sacred Music. Downs has been invited to perform at the White House, the Academy Awards, and the Latin Grammies. [2]

For Lila Downs, music became her expression of frustration over race issues. Downs was born to an Indio (Native American) mother and an Anglo-American father. In Minnesota, Downs tried to fit in with her white heritage, but never earned acceptance from her peers. Instead, Downs began to focus on her Indo heritage. Downs began writing songs that blended stories from the pre-Colombian Mixtec dodices- documents telling the history and mythology of the Mixtec and Zapotec Peoples. [3]

On the album Balas y Chocolate, Lisa Downs gets to the roots of Mexican culture, singing about the subject of death and the contemporary troubles Mexicans face. During the song “Patria Madrina” Downs sings;

Woke up today with my eyes stuck together

Saw hell, saw the news

Graves, the dead, destruction of Mother Nature

Ambition, power, and I got depressed

The song ends with a slogan of families with missing children in Mexico. With all the issues going on in Mexico, Downs refuses to give up hope that her country will overcome its problems. The song “Balas y Chocolate” was dedicated to child refugees fleeing the fighting in Central American cacao fields. [4]

Lila Downs stands with musical artists from throughout history as a figure of social change and political activism. Her albums speak to the heart of the corruption and violence in Mexico. Her use of Native Mesoamerican mythology blends history and art into a unique style of music- a style that has earned Downs multiple Grammy Awards. Downs is not only a female musician that has turned heads with her music; she’s a musician that has inspired Mexicans and Americans- regardless of gender- to take action on the violence in Central America. Lila Downs has become a hero for the voiceless missing children and students of Mexico’s families and for that heroism, Lila Downs is certainly a real-life Wonder Woman.

“Lila Downs’s Biography.” 2015. Last.fm. Accessed 7 October 2015. http://www.last.fm/music/Lila+Downs/+wiki

“Lila Downs Biography.” 2015. Liladowns.com. Accessed 7 October 2015. https://www.liladowns.com/biography/

Whitney, Joel. “Wise Latina.” 1 October 2009. Guernicamag.com. Accessed 7 October 2015. https://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/wise_latina/

Montgomery, David. “Life becomes art on Lila Downs’s new album about death.” 24 April 2015. The Washington Post. Accessed 7 October 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/life-becomes-art-on-lila-downss-new-album-about-death/2015/04/23/6a67d896-e46c-11e4-81ea-0649268f729e_story.html