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From Oaxaca to Berkeley: Lila Downs celebrates identity through music
Grammy and Latin Grammy award–winning singer and songwriter, Lila Downs, returns to the Bay Area. Her annual Día de Los Muertos performances will take place in Berkeley, with a vibrant set of songs that remind us how even in uncertain times, the ancestors still have something to say.
BERKELEY, Calif. - As the Bay Area remains on alert in case of enhanced immigration operations and communities rally to protect one another, a different kind of gathering is taking shape in Berkeley.
It’s one steeped in tradition, reflection, and resilience.
This weekend, Cal Performances hosts a Día de Los Muertos concert featuring Grammy-award-winning Lila Downs.
The Mexican-American singer and songwriter is seen by many as one of Mexico’s most powerful cultural voices.
She is also celebrated for her soaring vocals and her ability to fuse cultures and languages — English, Spanish, and the Indigenous tongues of southern Mexico.
Raised between Minnesota and Oaxaca, Downs draws from her Mixtec heritage and deep roots in Mexican folk traditions to tell stories of struggle, strength, and identity for her music.
This weekend, Cal Performances hosts a Día de Los Muertos concert featuring Grammy-award winning Lila Downs. Photo: Dean Lockwood
"My grandmother always taught to me and sang to me and spoke to me about the ancestors," she told KTVU ahead of the performance. "So I decided to compose songs in the style of our grandmothers. I remember when I was in my 20s, people would say, ‘Oh, why are you so interested in this music of the grandmothers, right?’ And I think it's a very important legacy for us in Latin America, not only in Mexico, to extend this knowledge to our children and proud of who we are in our roots. "
Downs has lived between worlds all her life — the daughter of an Anglo-American father of Scottish descent and an indigenous Mixtec mother from Oaxaca.
From an early age, she became acutely aware of how skin color shaped the way people were treated. Those experiences left her angry and frustrated at times, but they also fueled her art.
Through music, Downs found a way to transform discrimination and division into connection and pride.
Lila Downs is performing in Berkeley. Photo: Dean Lockwood
Her songs often weave together her different identities and languages, searching for spiritual balance between cultures that once felt worlds apart.
Her return to the Bay Area comes at a time many Latinos and those in the immigrant community are struggling under the threat of enhanced immigration enforcement, she says. It's a time to come together.
"This is the moment for us to be very connected, where I have see that many people, not only in our Latino community, are really reaching out and showing their support. But also, I think one of the important things is education about our rights in this country."
The annual Dia de Los Muertos performance is Saturday evening at Zellerbach Hall. For more information, click here.