Up with downs: Lila Down's musical journey reflects that of her life: Mexican, Indian, and America, criss-crossing the border and navigating turmoil - Leader Of The Future

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, Dec, 2003 by Miriam Martinez

Julie Taymor's theme song "Burn it Blue," for the film Frida, was nominated for an Oscar. It also earned Lila Downs a number one hit in France and new fans worldwide.

In the US some call it swing, in Mexico, sentimiento. But what best describes Lila's style is a passionate voice and a mesmerizing presence. Her 2003 Oscar Awards performance moved Placido Domingo to invite her to sing with him.

Heiress to a Mixtec-Mexican-American tradition, her music blends jazz, Afro, ranchero, and Indian runes, taking her audience on an emotional rollercoaster. When Lila sings "La llorona" about a Woman who in madness kills her children, then searches for them through eternity, her voice shimmers with unbearable sorrow. Yet in seconds, she can have her audiences up and dancing to a catchy cumbia like "Arenita azul" or a jazzy "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes."

Anita, Lila's mother, crone from the state of Oaxaca to Mexico City, barefoot, penniless, and with little Spanish to find work as a singer. When Allen Downs, a US University professor working in Mexico, saw Anita on stage, it led to their marriage and to Lila, who grew up shuttling between Southern California, Minnesota, and Mexico.

But she was an outsider in both cultures. "I suffered from Mexican racism and I got it for having an Indian mom ("little Indian daughter") and an American dad ("Yankee go home")."

Lila said, "It was very hard, and I was very confused." As a young woman she felt self-conscious about her Indian origins and bleached her black hair blond.

At 16, after her father's death, she wanted to sing opera, but found academia disappointing. Another identity crisis came, and she dropped out, becoming a fan of the hippie band the Grateful Dead. Lila sold jewelry in the streets and went hack to the mountains in Oaxaca. She learned weaving and later wrote her thesis on Triqui women's weaving.

After two years of introspection, Lila returned to the University of Minnesota, graduating in voice and anthropology in 1991, yet, Lila did not feel at ease. "Every time I moved, I changed like a chameleon."

Back in Oaxaca she even helped her mother run an auto parts shop.

"It wasn't enough being a vocalist. I had to find the spirit of the songs; otherwise it didn't matter how well I sang. I can't explain it, but it has something to do with getting to know yourself and feeling right about what you're doing."

In Oaxaca, a man asked her to translate his son's death certificate from English to tits language. He had collected his son's corpse from the airport and had it in the hack of a pick-up. The document said he had drowned while tying to cross the Rio Grande.

She became, in her own words, Oaxaca's "Translator of Death," as more people came to her the same reason. Singing helped her cope.

She wrote "Offenda" to express that sorrow and to pay homage to Mixtec migrant workers. As she toured with bands promoting her bicultural heritage, Lila met her future partner, Paul Cohen, who was in a salsa band. He became her mentor, accompanist, and the main arranger of her songs.

Since 1993, they have moved between two worlds, crisscrossing the border singing blues, boleros, jazz, ranchero, and rap, along with traditional songs from Oaxaca. Lila now sings with a Latin American-US band.

When Salma Hayek was producing her film on the life of painter Frida Kahlo, the film's score composer was looking for Mexican music and found Lila's CDs in a NY record store.

Lila's resemblance to the painter, who dressed like an Indian, earned her the sobriquet "The Singing Frida Kahlo." Yet for Lila, her Indian clothes are simply what she grew up wearing.

It's been a convoluted journey for Lila to find out who she is, but "I'm happy with myself, and I can express that in my singing."

To hear Lila's voice: www.liladowns.com