Lila Downs celebrates a new outlook, album

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Lila Downs is an artist who always seemed to have her act together, writes The Times’ Agustin Gurza.

‘The Mexican-American singer has a stunning voice, a confident multicultural vision grounded in her Mixtec Indian roots and a successful 15-year career in world music circles. What she doesn’t have is a child.

‘Downs faced her inability to conceive as she approached her 40th birthday this month, and the productive artist suddenly felt barren. Depressed and drinking, the together performer fell apart. ‘What . . . am I doing in this life if I can’t have children?’ she asked herself. ‘That’s the whole point of living as a woman.’ ‘

‘The deteriorating political situation back home in her beloved Oaxaca, wracked by a violent teachers strike two years ago, only made matters worse. As a champion of the culture, she felt powerless and angry, and she started taking it out on her band. Once, in the middle of a concert in the Canary Islands, she walked off the stage, thinking, ‘You guys work it out yourselves. See how far you get without me.’ ‘

Read the rest of Agustin Gurza’s report on singer Lila Downs .

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City