A personal crisis during Lila Downs‘ childhood related to her tricultural origin — of Indigenous, mestizo and Mexican-American roots — has led the singer-songwriter to create narratives about traditional cooks, corn as a staple of Mexican cuisine, and the possibility of singing in her native Mixtec language.

So when she was invited to participate in the second and final season of the HBO Max series Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua Para Chocolate), performing the legendary song “Cielo Rojo” by Juan Záizar, the artist saw a great opportunity to contribute her music and singing to the spirit of Mexican women.

“Stories like this revitalize the value of our past after being denied for so long,” Downs tells Billboard Español about the series, in which the artist makes a special appearance in episode 3 on Sunday (March 1). “This novel by Laura Esquivel is something very beautiful because it allows you to embrace a work in which you feel represented,” she adds on the source material.

For the series, the original recording of the song, included in her 2004 album Una Sangre (One Blood), was the one used.

Set in northern Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century and produced by Salma Hayek, Like Water for Chocolate is based on Esquivel’s 1989 best-seller novel of the same name. The series follows Tita de la Garza (played by Azul Guaita), a young woman destined to remain single to care for her mother (Irene Azuela) while living a forbidden and passionate love with Pedro Muzquiz (Andrés Baida). It combines elements of magical realism, traditional Mexican cuisine, and a critique of patriarchal structures.

The book had already been adapted into a famous 1992 film, directed by Alfonso Arau and starring Lumi Cavazos.

“It’s a story about interesting, multifaceted, supernatural, and also very real women,” Downs says. “It’s an opportunity to join a narrative that connects with the past but is also very present. This new version I’ve been invited to participate in excites me because it’s a different, contemporary interpretation.”

Alongside traditional cuisine as the emotional and narrative thread of the story, music plays a central role. For this reason, director Julián de Tavira and the series supervisor, Jerry Rodríguez, searched for songs by Mexican authors to modernize the plot and tell it from a contemporary perspective to captivate a younger audience.

In an interview with Billboard Español, they share that more than 150 playlists were created, inspired by the music they proposed for the soundtrack.

“‘Cielo Rojo’ remains the most accurate definition of the sentiment, but this new version by Lila Downs singing it is impressive,” says Tavira. “What happens with the music, with the Latin American artists we included in the series’ soundtrack, and how people have embraced them so significantly, is an emotional bridge.”

In addition to Downs, the version of “Cucurrucucú Paloma” that Guatemalan singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno recorded in 2019 of the classic Mexican huapango-style piece, written by Tomás Méndez in 1954, can be also heard in the second season of the series. Other Mexican musicians such as Silvana Estrada, Humbe, Natalia Lafourcade y Un León Marinero joined the soundtrack.

“This is a very powerful story from our generation that, in one way or another, resonated throughout Latin America,” Rodríguez adds. “So, we not only had the double challenge of adapting a novel but also remaking a film that was so successful in the 1990s.”

Like Water for Chocolate releases one episode per week, for a total of six. The first season is fully available on HBO Max’s digital platform.