Tags
Related Posts
Share This
An Interview with Lila Downs
An Interview with Lila Downs
by Catalina Maria Johnson, Ph.D.
Lila Downs, the extraordinary Mixteco-Mexican-American songstress who single-handedly revived the Mexican ranchera genre and took it to an audience world-wide, will be in Chicago October 15 to sing a tribute to the Grande Dame of the ranchera, Chavela Vargas. Arte y Vida Chicago spoke to Lila Downs (in a bilingual interview) about what each of her cultures has offered her, and about music and rancheras and an upcoming musical project based on Laura Esquivel´s “Como Agua para Chocolate” that will premiere at the Goodman Theater in 2011.
Arte y Vida Chicago: We’ve read about how you grew up between Oaxaca and California, then later on, Minnesota. In terms of the Lila Downs we now know, and the woman and artist we have come to love, what did each side of the border bring to you?
Lila Downs: I have tried to take the best from both worlds, sometimes I feel like I am constant passenger, like I have said in one of m songs, I feel I am fortunate to be on this trip called music. Music has permitted me to relieve my joy and my anger and my passion, which I feel since I was a child towards both countries. When I in the U.S., I feel very nostalgic about Mexico and miss Mexico so much, and love every smell, every taste and every musical genre that I can hear when I hear it from far away, I appreciate it so much more. But also when I am in Mexico, I miss the U.S. and I miss the place it is, and the freedoms that you can enjoy in this country, and the truth. Somehow finding truth is a difficult thing in many cultures, and especially now in Mexico that we are going through and struggling in a difficult time.
AVC: What do you think each culture offered you as a perspective?
LD: They are very different sensibilities. We do share universal truth, we have a great sense of humor in Mexico, about taking ourselves too seriously at times, this is so healthy and beautiful! In the Indian culture, I have learned to be much more respectful and ceremonial and maybe just more innocent, you just trust people for who they are, no matter where they come from, who they are, what color they are, and that’s a very beautiful Indian way of being. And as far as the U.S., its about being honest and just getting to the point, which is also very refreshing, because in Mexico we have more kind of a traditional Old World way of being, which is sometimes covered by these layers of meaning and it can be very tiring after a while! I appreciate that about the U.S.
AVC: Yes… “a todos diles que sí pero no les digas cuando”, como dice la canción…
LD: (laughing) Sí, ¡exactamente!
AVC: I’ve read about your mom, Anita Sanchez and your dad, Allen Downs. Was music always a force in your family? I know it certainly was in your mom’s. (Note: Anita Sanchez was a cabaret singer)
LD: Music was very important. You know I have a little child now, a little boy who’s three and a half months old and I sing to him. My mother was telling me the other day; “you were this old when I used to sing that same song to you,” The song is “la Cama de Piedra”… I have memories of that song in my mind and in my emotion, especially, it brings back these tears, something very mysterious about that song…the same thing happened with my father, my father listened a lot to John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk, and those were very abstract musicians that were being played when I was a child, in my youth. So they influenced my outlook on life, and who I found as a husband, because he’s a real jazz guy!
AVC: So you have jazz and the rancheras! Two different planets! You have integrated it all so well both as an artist and a person. Here in Chicago and in the U.S., there are so many young Latinos trying to figure out how to fit their language and cultures together, what kind of advice can you give them?
LD: Sometimes we have the need to liberate ourselves from anything cultural because that’s our nature, I think its very healthy, then you can fly. But, there is something mysterious and enriching and maybe it has something to do with our nature as “tree wood”. We have to find root for the trunk of our base, we have to search for that, and that’s part of our journey…Its´ up to each of us to identify who we are and who we want to be. Of course having art on my side and being a part of that has enabled me to express it.
AVC: We’re going to switch to Spanish to ask you about rancheras. El género de las rancheras, ¿cual es su fuerza? ¿Por que te han atraído, que las cantas?
LD: La canción ranchera es una canción ¡tan verdadera! Y tan unida a nuestro ser, creo que es la búsqueda del sentir desde muy dentro y creo que no hay una manera de cantarla sin ese sentimiento verdadero…Hay mucha gente que canta las rancheras pero a veces nada más las interpreta, pero no esta realmente llorando la ranchera. De eso se trata, algo que llora muy dentro, aunque lo nieguen profundamente en la letra que se esta llorando, pero sí, sí se está llorando. Y también hay algo muy grande en esa música del orgullo de ser, del orgullo de existir y de no dudar nunca de tener ese orgullo de existencia. Como algo que se hereda de la tradición del rancho, del campo, del hombre que es orgulloso y ¡que no se doblega ante nada! ¡Incluso ante la muerte! Y eso también lo heredamos las mujeres, en cierto momento de la historia de la música mexicana la mujer también lo interpreta a su manera y le da la vuelta a todo esto, y también se posa bravía y macha y con el mismo efecto. ¡Ese es el espíritu a las rancheras!
AVC: En cuanto al homenaje a Chavela Vargas, ¿cómo nació la idea?
LD: Pues ella es una mujer muy especial en nuestra historia de la música en México. Tenia una importancia en las carpas que por tradición se veían, que salían a hacer giras por la nación y Latinoamérica. Lleva en su estilo una forma de enfrentar al publico muy bravía, muy macha, se mete con el publico, su manera de interpretar. Fue una belleza para mi conocerla después de haber participado en la película de Frida Kahlo, nos conocimos después de eso en Madrid, la acompañe luego cantando una canción…Me pareció una mujer extraordinaria, interesante, chistosa, y luego creo que le caí mas o menos bien porque me andaba tirando muchas flores.
AVC: Y tienes otro proyecto nuevo, el de “Como agua para chocolate”, ¿qué nos puedes adelantar?
LD: Estamos componiendo varios temas, vamos casi a la mitad del camino. Queremos hacerle honor a muchos géneros musicales de Latinoamérica: rancheras, boleros, polka norteña, canción sureña como los sones, en Oaxaca y algunos temas influencias del landó, milonga, tango, la chacarera, géneros del sur, guayno y cumbia. La puesta en escena será a fines del 2011 en el Goodman Theater en Chicago.
