The Brief

Vote centers are open in the recall election of Santa Ana City Councilmember Jessie Lopez, but it's unclear whether the election is legal.

That's because the Orange County registrar of voters recently concluded the city was using the wrong district boundaries and the wrong population data to calculate how many signatures were needed to trigger the recall and who should get to vote.

As a result, nearly 1,200 voters who, according to O.C. Registrar Bob Page's recent calculations, should be able to vote in the Nov. 14 election did not get ballots.

Using the correct district boundaries, Page also calculated that the initial recall petition actually fell short of the number required to hold an election by 230 signatures. Last week, Page rescinded his initial verification that recall petitioners had met the signature threshold.

On Friday, Guadalupe Ocampo, one of Lopez's constituents, filed a legal challenge asking a judge to immediately stop the election. Orange County Superior Court Judge Craig Griffin was set to hear the case Tuesday morning. (Read the complaint.)

Here's the story behind the recall snafu and what election experts say could happen now.

Why was Lopez targeted for recall in the first place?

Recall backers, primarily the Santa Ana Police Officers Association and several real estate groups, want Lopez off the council because of her support for policies they say have pushed up housing costs, and reduced support for police.

Santa Ana Councilmember Jessie Lopez was elected in 2020 to represent the city district called Ward 3.

(

City of Santa Ana

)

LAist reached out to the police officers association and to Tim Rush, a real estate executive who chairs the recall campaign, but has not gotten a response.

In a February op-ed in the Orange County Register, Rush cited Lopez and fellow councilmember Thai Viet Phan's "palpable hostility to law enforcement," including voting to reduce the police force budget and voting to end a ban on street cruising, as reasons for the recall.

Rush also cited their votes to enact what he called "the most radical city rent control measure in California." (The campaign failed to turn in enough signatures to trigger a recall election for Phan.)

Santa Ana is the only city in Orange County where elected officials have passed a rent control ordinance. Its policy restricts rent increases to 2.54% through the end of August 2024. A handful of cities in L.A. County cap rent increases under 3%. For example, West Hollywood’s cap is 2.5% through the end of August 2024 and rent controlled housing in the city of L.A. is currently under a rent freeze that prohibits rent increases in most cases.

Lopez's supporters say her actions on the city council have led to more police oversight and helped low-income residents fight unjust evictions and steep rent hikes.

"It really is about losing the gains that the community has made if this recall were to be successful," said Hairo Cortes, executive director of the Latinx youth advocacy group Chispa.

Experts say California election law is confusing

LAist spoke with six outside election experts to get their opinions on the Santa Ana recall snafu, two of them county registrars of voters.

They told us:

• Page, the O.C. registrar of voters, is right — there is a fundamental error in the Lopez recall election. The wrong district boundaries were used to calculate the number of signatures needed to trigger the recall and to determine who gets to vote.  
• Nevertheless, California election law isn't exactly straightforward on the subject. 

"I can certainly understand how mistakes are made because the law is not at all clear," said Douglas Johnson, president of National Demographics Corporation, a company that assists local governments with redistricting.

The experts consulted by LAist agreed that California law and court precedent have established that elected officers are to represent the population that initially voted them into office — and that the same population should get to decide whether to remove their representative from office.

That means, in the case of Santa Ana, that the district as it existed when Lopez was elected in 2020 should get to vote on whether to recall her. But recall proponents would need a thorough understanding of California election law to catch this nuance, experts said.

"The fact that the answer is clear doesn't mean that the question comes up often enough for it to be on the top of everybody's mind," said Fredric Woocher, a Los Angeles-based election lawyer.

First off, redistricting only happens every 10 years after the Census.

Second, questions about how many signatures are needed to trigger a recall and who gets to vote only matter if the official subject to recall was elected to represent a specific geographic district rather than at-large. A little less than half of all cities in California vote by district, according to Johnson.

And third, the window for recalling an elected official after redistricting is pretty small. After the 2020 Census, most jurisdictions in California didn't finalize their new district maps until late 2021 or early-to-mid 2022. Santa Ana officially adopted its new districts, which it calls wards, in April 2022. That doesn't leave much time to mount a recall campaign and bring it to voters before elected officials' terms are up.

According to the website Ballotpedia, just two recalls made it to the ballot in California in 2023: the Lopez recall and the recall of former Councilmember Catherine Alvarez in Downey. Alvarez was ousted by voters in February and ballots for a special election to choose her replacement are due Tuesday.

Downey city clerk Maria Alicia Duarte told LAist there was no question that the recall would be up to voters in the district that originally elected Duarte in 2020. The city has made clear that the new boundaries for the district formerly represented by Alvarez won't go into effect until the November 2024 general election.

What state election law says, and doesn't say

When Santa Ana adopted its new district boundaries, the city council passed an ordinance stating the new boundaries would go into effect starting with the November 2022 general election "and subsequent elections thereafter."

But that seems to contradict state law. California election code states that new city council districts will take effect at the first election following adoption of the new boundaries, "excluding a special election to fill a vacancy or a recall election."

Johnson noted that the "excluding" subclause is key but easily ignored.

"It's only a couple of throwaway words, but they have huge impact," he said.

The California Secretary of State's 2023 recall procedures guide says nothing specifically about how to handle a recall election after redistricting.

Johnson and Woocher said court precedent is much more decisive on the matter. Woocher noted a 2021 opinion from the California attorney general regarding a special election held after a San Luis Obispo County supervisor died during his term in office. The state attorney general determined that the district boundaries in place when the supervisor was elected, in 2020, should apply to the special election to fill his seat.

In a letter to Santa Ana's City Clerk advising her of the mistaken boundaries in Lopez's recall election, Page cited a different attorney general opinion from 2014. That opinion suggested that a city council member was unlawfully appointed to serve out the term of his predecessor who resigned because the new member didn't reside within the city council district boundaries that existed when the incumbent was elected.

Whose fault is the mistake in Santa Ana?

Page told LAist he recognized there was a problem with the Lopez recall when a fellow registrar, Lupe Villa in the Central Valley's Kings County, emailed his counterparts on Oct. 25 to ask for advice on a school board recall. There, a group is seeking to recall all five board members of the Reef-Sunset Unified School District, three of whom were elected in 2020 before redistricting and two of whom were elected in 2022 after redistricting.

The question caused Page to re-examine how his office reviewed the recall petition for Lopez and is administering the recall election, Page told LAst in an email. He realized the city had incorrectly used post-redistricting population numbers to calculate the number of voter signatures needed to trigger the recall — 26,370 voters instead of the correct number, 27,158.

Using the correct, pre-redistricting boundaries and population, Page found that signature gatherers actually fell short of the amount needed to trigger an election — by 230 signatures. He contacted Hall, the city clerk, on Oct. 26 to tell her and ask how the city wanted to proceed.

Hall did not respond to LAist’s request for comment.

The Orange County Registrar of Voters administers elections at the request of cities. But city clerks are officially in charge of municipal elections. "The city tells the county what they want to have done," said Woocher, the election lawyer.

So who's fault is the Santa Ana mistake? Woocher said "everybody has the responsibility to provide correct information."

Johnson added that this responsibility starts with the recall proponents. "California election law is very clear that it is the people who are circulating the petitions' responsibility to get the rules right," he said. "Even if someone tells them the wrong information, that's not an excuse."

What's less clear, Johnson reiterated, is what election law says about how to handle snafus like the one in Santa Ana.

"Running an elections office is so complicated," he said. "In defense of the county registrar and the Santa Ana folks, the only way anyone learns this stuff is by running into it, unfortunately."

What happens with the election?

At a special meeting last week, the Santa Ana City Council deadlocked 3-3 on whether to take action to cancel the election or let it proceed. (Lopez recused herself from the vote.) That means it is continuing as planned, according to city officials and Page, the registrar. The last day of voting is scheduled for Nov. 14.

For voters, this means unless the recall ends up in court and a judge intervenes, votes will be counted later this month.

In a Facebook post following the vote, Santa Ana Councilmember David Peñaloza said he was rescinding his endorsement of the recall campaign given the unresolved legal questions. He said a judge should decide whether the election can lawfully go forward.

"The integrity of our elections is way too important and sacred for politicians to be the ones who decide whether an election currently taking place gets canceled or not, especially after many Santa Ana residents have already cast their votes," he wrote.

Lopez advised supporters, in a recent fundraising email, that she plans on "taking this corrupt recall to court." LAist reached out to Lopez via phone and email, but did not receive a response.

Woocher said Lopez isn't the only one who could challenge the election — the registrar has identified more than 1,000 voters who lived in Lopez's district when she was elected and therefore should be able to vote in her recall, but weren't mailed ballots.

"If you are one of the people who should be able to vote, you would certainly have standing to complain about it," he said.

Ocampo, the voter who is asking the court to stop the election, had another request in her court filing. If the judge won't stop the election, she asked that he allow voters in Lopez's district as it was when she was elected to cast ballots.

Ballots are going out in less than a month, and California remains locked in a legal battle with the Trump administration over the president’s push to rein in universal mail-in voting.

The back-and-forth has some California voters likely wondering whether they’ll be able to vote by mail in this upcoming election. And if so, should they?

In short — yes, mail-in voting will still be an option this year. And yes, it’s still safe and generally reliable, although county election officials are urging voters to send in their ballots as early as possible ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

In case you missed it, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to issue a ruling that will determine, at least for now, whether President Donald Trump can force the U.S. Postal Service to restrict vote-by-mail ballots in time for the midterm election. Trump wants to create a federal database of registered voters that the postal service would then cross-reference to ensure mail-in ballots are only delivered to eligible voters — in other words, U.S. citizens. His plan would have the postal service refuse to deliver ballots in states that withhold the data.

The dizzying, monthslong legal saga has baffled voters and even some election officials, which some voting rights advocates argue is probably the point.

But California election officials say the state is well-equipped to administer the election, regardless of how the Supreme Court rules. Although county registrars are monitoring the court rulings, they’re also preparing to mail ballots as usual by the state’s Oct. 5 deadline. Local and state officials are urging voters to make a plan to vote early and to use the state’s various non-mail voting options, such as drop-boxes and in-person voting sites, if they’re worried about the postal service.

“Like we do for all of our elections, we have contingency plans or disaster plans put into place,” said Tricia Webber, clerk and registrar of voters for Santa Cruz County and president of the California Association of County Election Officials.

Some counties, including Santa Cruz and Los Angeles, are exploring options for pop-up stations where voters could request and submit ballots. In Santa Cruz County, Webber said her team is strategizing how to deploy their votemobile around the county to add yet another option for voters.

“Until there’s an answer,” Webber said, speaking of the pending court ruling, “California counties are doing business as usual.”

What does Trump want USPS to do?

Trump issued an executive order in March that sought to give the federal government control over who receives mail-in ballots. Almost immediately, more than 20 Democratic attorneys general, including California’s Rob Bonta, sued the Trump administration on the grounds that the Constitution allows only Congress and state governments to administer elections.

Federal district and appellate courts sided with the Democratic states and upheld a temporary injunction preventing the postal service from implementing any part of its plan while litigation continues.

The central questions in the case remain unresolved. The Supreme Court last month allowed the Trump administration to continue planning for how it would implement the president’s order. Democratic states promptly sued again to contest the postal service’s plans.

The postal service’s proposal, the final version of which was published in August, would create a system to track each voter’s ballot with a unique barcode and cross-reference it with a database of eligible registered voters.

While some states fear they’ll need to reprint envelopes if the postal service’s rule is upheld, the vast majority of California counties already use compliant ballot envelopes, Webber said.

The federal government does not have a comprehensive list of every eligible registered voter and would need to rely on states to submit voter information to a “federal ballot mail portal” that does not yet exist.

It seems unlikely that the postal service’s portal would even be functional in time for the 2026 midterm elections. A postal service whistleblower asserted that the process to develop and deploy the portal was “rushed,” “risky and haphazard” due to the “impossible timeframe,” according to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office, which received the whistleblower complaint.

“In an effort to meet impossible deadlines, USPS has eliminated standard and needed testing, thereby creating substantial risk of a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the system that could ‘derail the midterm elections,’” wrote Blumenthal, of Connecticut, in a late August letter to Postmaster General David Steiner.

The postmaster in June told a congressional committee that the postal service would withhold ballots in states that refuse to share basic voter information, including name, address and the unique ballot barcode.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber, California’s chief elections administrator, has not said whether California would comply with the proposed voter information requirement.

“California’s elections officials will continue to do everything within our power to ensure that every eligible California voter has the right to cast a mail ballot and have that vote count.”

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department sued Weber and five other Democratic secretaries of state for refusing to turn over their unredacted voter files, which contain far more sensitive personal information than the postal service rule would require. A federal judge in Southern California dismissed that case in January.

Uncertainty could fuel more early voting

Ironically, concerns about the postal service’s reliability could facilitate what election officials and voting advocates have struggled to do for years — get people to vote earlier.

Unlike the lead-up to the June primary, where nervous Democrats urged fellow voters to wait until the last minute to pick a candidate for governor, social media is now awash with posts urging people to vote early and use ballot drop-boxes rather than rely on the mail.

“This whole play may backfire,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. “What you’re seeing now on social media in response to this court drama and this confusion are lots of people urging their friends to vote early — and that’s exactly what we’ve been saying.”

Voting earlier helps county election officials tabulate results more quickly on election night, which helps race callers like The Associated Press declare winners faster. And since ballots in envelopes take the longest to process, dropping them off several days before the deadline is the best way to help election officials count faster, since they can remove ballots from envelopes and prepare them for counting before Election Day.

“Fortunately, we give voters lots of options, and that’s really going to work to California’s benefit,” Alexander said. “Other states do not have the kind of robust process that creates lots of redundancies and avenues for voters to vote.”

It can be the small, curved horn of a ram or the dramatic spiral of an African antelope. The sound it creates is unmistakable.

Creating that sound is not difficult, but it does take some practice, said Rabbi Alicia Jo Rabins, a musician based in Portland, Oregon.

You take a deep breath and purse your lips, like you are playing a brass instrument.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, begins at sunset Friday. Across the world, Jews will spend the two-day holiday in prayer, reflection and celebration. And for many, a highlight will be hearing the shofar: an animal's horn blown like a trumpet.

How did this primal instrument become a holiday's spiritual soundtrack?

" The most basic answer is that it makes noise, right? It calls people to attention," said Daniel Picus, an associate professor at Western Washington University in Bellingham who researches religious practices and rituals. "All of the instances in which a shofar is used in the Hebrew Bible, that is what it's doing."

Abraham Ribak , an Israeli, blows a shofar, a musical instrument used in Jewish religious ceremonies made from the horn of a ram.

(

Ariel Schalit

/

AP

)

Shofar blasts marked the revelation of the Torah at Mt. Sinai and the start of the Jubilee year, Picus said. Priests blew shofars when they circled the walls of Jericho to bring down the walls. The shofar marks moments of heightened experience and emotion — and Rosh Hashanah.

"In the Hebrew Bible, Rosh Hashanah is the day of trumpeting and the day of remembrance," Picus said. "The association of the shofar with Rosh Hashanah is right there in the Biblical text."

Centuries later, the Mishnah, the earliest rabbinic codification of law, drilled down into greater detail in the tractate Rosh Hashanah, laying out exactly how a shofar should be prepared (hollowed out), repaired (it depends), blown (a complex series of blasts at several times during the service, thanks to debate over linguistic interpretation), and whether or not it can be blown when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat (no, although some modern synagogues have changed course).

And within the Talmud and for centuries thereafter, people have debated the meaning of the shofar.

Shofars are on display for sale at the Barsheshet-Ribak Shofarot company, in Tel Aviv, Israel.

(

Ariel Schalit

/

AP

)

Rabbi Micha'el Rosenberg, who teaches at the Hadar Institute, a center for Jewish learning based in New York City, pointed to several sources that compare the sound of the shofar to the cry of a mother in pain — the mother of the slain biblical military commander Sisera, and the cries of a woman in labor.

Rosenberg said you can hear that in the sound — especially the broken staccato blasts, known as "teruah."

"You can really imagine someone so caught up that they can't get the full sound out even, that they're gasping with their cries," he said.

Another interpretation comes from Maimonides, the medieval Jewish rabbi and scholar known as the Rambam, who wrote "The Laws of Repentance." He describes the blast of the shofar as a sort of spiritual wake-up call to become your best self.

"In Jewish law, we have this expression of daled amos, my four cubits: I focus on the 6 feet around me, as it were," he said. "It's easy to do that — and there's value in doing that sometimes. But the shofar, per the Rambam, wakes us up and says, 'No, there's more beyond what I can immediately see around me.'"

Rosenberg also pointed to Hasidic theories that the blowing of the shofar reenacts the breathing of life into the world. But he said one of the most powerful things about the shofar is that it doesn't say anything at all. "It transcends my words, it transcends my rational thoughts, and it really is just a feeling that I can hope to hold onto," he said.

Rabins, the Portland rabbi and musician, said the shofar can call across time to speak to those wordless places inside us. "It really brings you into the moment, and you also feel connected to your ancestors, who have been hearing this sound and making this sound for thousands of years," she said.

It's a sound, Rabin said, that can wake you up to all the joy and sadness of life, whether it be a birthday horn or a mother's cry. And it makes you pay attention — both to this moment, and to the year to come.

This story was created through a partnership between NPR and Religion News Service.
Copyright 2026 NPR

TV critics care a lot about the people who bring us the shows we love, so of course we each have folks we're pulling for this Emmy season. The Pitt, Hacks, Widow's Bay and Pluribus are leading the Emmy nominations pack this year. Here's who we'll have our fingers crossed for during the ceremony on Monday night.

Outstanding drama series: Pluribus 

Rhea Seehorn in "Pluribus."

(

Apple TV

)

HBO Max hit The Pitt likely wins here. But Apple TV's Pluribus triumphs as a revolutionary sci-fi story; a virus, created with instructions sent from the stars, unites humanity in a giant hive mind, creating paradise or the largest cult in history. — Eric Deggans

Outstanding lead actor, drama: Noah Wyle, The Pitt 

Noah Wyle in "The Pitt."

(

Warrick Page

/

MAX

)

It's easy to overlook the massive feat star Noah Wyle achieved on The Pitt's second season; pushing a beloved character to the brink of unlikability. Wyle plays struggling Dr. "Robby" Rabinovich as a good guy in serious crisis, finding new depths. — Eric Deggans 

Outstanding lead actress, drama: Rhea Seehorn, Pluribus 

Rhea Seehorn in "Pluribus."

(

<i>Apple TV</i>

)

At least half of this show is just watching Rhea Seehorn's Carol all by herself, parsing out the rules of a new post-apocalyptic world while mourning her wife. Yet it's always compelling, because Seehorn is a talent who should already have an Emmy! — Aisha Harris

Outstanding supporting actress, drama: Karolina Wydra, Pluribus 

Karolina Wydra in "Pluribus."

(

Apple TV

)

Hoping Emmy voters look past the four actresses nominated from The Pitt to honor a performer who brought empathy and depth to a thankless role: Karolina Wydra as Zosia, the voice of the global hive mind, talking to Rhea Seehorn's Carol in Pluribus. — Eric Deggans 

Outstanding comedy series: Margo's Got Money Troubles  

Elle Fanning in "Margo's Got Money Troubles."

(

<i>Apple TV</i>

)

Apple TV's Margo's Got Money Troubles is a comedy nominee that doesn't seem like one. But the story of a young woman leaning into problematic choices to build a life with her baby and quirky family was the year's most surprising, energizing show. — Eric Deggans 

Outstanding lead actor, comedy: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Wonder Man  

Yahya Adbul-Mateen II in "Wonder Man."

(

Suzanne Tenner

/

Marvel/Disney+

)

This nomination was a surprise after Marvel cancelled its creative, quirky superhero series, Wonder Man. But star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is spellbinding as a superpowered guy who just wants to be a successful actor, blending comedy, pathos and drama. — Eric Deggans 

Outstanding lead actress, comedy: Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback   

Lisa Kudrow in "The Comeback."

(

Emma Simkin

/

HBO

)

The category's stacked, but Lisa Kudrow's Valerie Cherish threads many needles beautifully: self-absorbed yet caring, oft-humiliated yet resilient, wacky but grounded when necessary. As a character in Season 3 says to her: "To me, you're it." Indeed. — Aisha Harris  

Outstanding supporting actress, comedy: Kate O'Flynn, Widow's Bay  

Kate O'Flynn in "Widow's Bay."

(

Apple TV

)

It's all there in Episode 4, the one in which Patricia's desperate play to improve her social status — a cocktail party — goes awry. Kate O'Flynn knows this character, what drives her and what makes her so cringe (to us). It's utterly mesmerizing. — Aisha Harris 

Outstanding supporting actor, comedy: Nick Offerman, Margo's Got Money Troubles  

Nick Offerman in "Margo's Got Money Troubles."

(

<i>Apple TV</i>

)

Nick Offerman excels playing macho guys who are more sensitive than anyone expects. But he scales new heights as Jinx, an ex-wrestler/once-estranged dad, struggling with addiction while trying to support his daughter in Margo's Got Money Troubles. — Eric Deggans 

Outstanding writing for a comedy series: The Comeback 

Lisa Kudrow in "The Comeback."

(

Erin Simkin

/

HBO

)

A new season comes around every 10 years (like the census!) to provide us a clear-eyed accounting (like the census!). This show was right about reality TV and streaming services; we ignore this season's dire, hilarious warnings about AI at our peril. — Glen Weldon 

Outstanding limited or anthology series: DTF St. Louis  

Jason Bateman and David Harbour in "DTF St. Louis."

(

Tina Rowden

/

HBO

)

It's tough to explain how a show about the mysterious death of a schlubby guy stuck in a love triangle became the year's most creatively quirky limited series. Somehow, star David Harbour turns this tale of middle-aged desperation into poignant, dark comedy. — Eric Deggans 

And already announced

I'm happy to report that two of my picks already took home their Emmys in a ceremony last weekend formerly known as the Creative Arts Emmys. So congratulations to Betty Gilpin, who won outstanding guest actress in a comedy for Widow's Bay, and to The Muppet Show for outstanding writing for a variety special. (A third pick — Connor Storrie's game, goofball turn as SNL host — didn't end up winning outstanding guest actor in a comedy, but seeing as that award went to the late Rob Reiner for The Bear, I'm not complaining.) — Glen Weldon
Copyright 2026 NPR

A Spanish-language TV singing competition from Mexico is doing something that mega-popular shows like The Voice are not. México Canta brings contestants from the U.S. and Mexico together to share the stage — and cultural ties.

“I am very connected to my Mexican side and those roots, [but] I've never really gotten to perform for such a big Mexican audience,” said Tiffany Galaviz, who performed on the show last month. She was born and raised in L.A. County and lives in Glendale.

The semifinals were held in L.A.’s Orpheum Theater on Aug. 23, and the winners were chosen by hundreds of thousands of people who cast votes online. Galaviz made it through, which means she’ll be one of seven finalists who will perform in the competition on Sunday, Sept. 13 at Mexico City’s prestigious Auditorio Nacional.

Three will be named winners and will receive recording contracts.

“It's a huge, huge venue [that’s]  very important to the Mexican culture,” Galaviz said. “More than anything, I just feel really proud, especially making my family proud. Most of my family is from Sinaloa, and I spent a lot of summers there growing up."

Tiffany Galaviz is a mariachi musician in Southern California.

(

Screenshot from México Canta video

)

Studying mariachi since she was 8

The U.S. semi-finalists included performers from Arizona, Illinois and New York, while finalists from Mexico came from Morelos and Mexico City, among other places.

Galaviz is 24 and first started learning to play violin and sing in mariachi bands when she was 8. She plays violin and sings in mariachis across Southern California now and makes a living from it.

“I signed up for México Canta because I feel like I have everything that I need except the connections, the resources, the producers, the studios,” she said.

Created as an alternative to songs that glorify violence

The Voice and its Spanish-language counterpart La Voz create a platform for celebrity and the potential for stardom. But that’s less so for México Canta. The competition was created by Mexico’s Secretary of Culture to bring together people of Mexican heritage from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border around songwriting that’s an alternative to music that glorifies violence.

“We’ve strengthened fraternal ties between people in Mexico and the U.S.,” said Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Mexico’s culture secretary, when she presented the seven U.S. semi-finalists at a morning press conference on July 23. The seven semi-finalists from Mexico were presented a week later.

“Youth are front and center in the transformation of culture. [The contest has shown] that music has no borders, and it is furthering fellowship between Mexicans and Mexican Americans,” Curiel said.

Galaviz said that’s another important reason she signed up for México Canta.

She picked the corrido musical genre for the song she performed at the Orpheum. She’s had a love-hate relationship with corridos, she said, because many contemporary songs in the genre glorify drug dealing and violence.

Tiffany Galaviz performed at the México Canta semifinals at the Orpheum Theater in downtown L.A. on August 23, 2026.

(

Screenshot from México Canta video.

)

“I felt like I could make a positive impact, not just me but the rest of the contestants [too] by doing songs that are a little bit more positive in nature in their lyrics,” she said.

The song is about a breakup and begins with a description of a photo torn in two. It’s about a woman’s heartbreak, she said, “ but then it kind of shifts to an empowerment, you know, of being able to be by yourself as a woman.”

Galaviz began to get teary after finishing the song and talking to the presenter on stage.

“[I'm] proud of being able to represent Mexico and my roots. … It means a lot to have my family here, who’ve always supported me,” she said.

Days after making it past the semifinals, Galaviz had not picked the song she’d sing for the Sept. 13 finals. The performance carries weight for all contestants because it’ll be three days before Mexican Independence Day. Held in Mexico’s capital, the finals will take place in front of thousands of people, with an audience on TV, radio and online on both sides of the border.