Lila Downs was working in her mother’s car parts store in Oaxaca when a migrant worker entered with a piece of paper, he handed it to her and asked for the translation. The paper turned out to be the death certificate of his dead son that was working on the All American Canal at the time. “He knew I spoke English and asked me how much I would charge him,” said Lila, “but I told him I wouldn’t charge him. He had the body of his son in his car outside. He was from Acapulco, near my pueblo.” The incident changed the way Lila Downs directed her music from then on. “I wrote the song ‘Ofrenda’ which is on the first album, and [the experience] was an inspiration to write about the border.” Lila Downs is a singer from the Sierra Madre mountains in Southern Mexico, and her music is deeply rooted in the heart of the state of Oaxaca. “I wanted to tell the story in ‘corrido,’ the [style] of my community,” she says. “I couldn’t believe what was told to me. It was too much. Something is going o