"Daughter of a Mixtec Indian mother and an Anglo-American father, Lila Downs unites cultures and blurs boundaries with her extraordinary voice. "It took a long time to decide that I wanted to sing," she says. "Something needed to motivate me." That motivation was the songs and stories of her Mexican ancestors. With incredibly deep emotion, she explores their great ballads, boleros and rancheras, bringing to life the codices of the Mixtec and Zapotec people. "