"We ate dirt and found the truth." The phrase lands somewhere between confession and spell, half-dare and half-revelation. It is how Latina actress Lilith Curiel, the 19-year-old lead of Cometierra (Unburied in English), describes what it felt like to embody a teenager who literally consumes soil to hear the voices of the missing. Around her, her co-stars nod. Every one of them, it seems, has tasted a little of that same earth.
The cast, Curiel, Juan Daniel García Treviño, Lizeth Selene, Iván Martz, and Max Peña, talked to me in a fun, moving, and at times crazy interview about Prime Video's newest Latin series, a hypnotic fusion of crime investigation into feminicides and disappearances and Latin America's realismo mágico. In Cometierra, which premiered very aptly on October 31, the ground remembers what people try to forget. The story follows a young woman who turns pain into power, listening to the dead to reveal the crimes buried beneath Mexico's soil.
"It's not horror, it's not fantasy," García Treviño explains softly. "It's about survival. About how we learn to live with ghosts, our own and everyone else's."
Directed by Daniel Burman and Martín Bustos, the series transforms Dolores Reyes's acclaimed novel into something between myth and manifesto. With a haunting theme by iconic Mexican singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade and a special appearance by Oscar nominee Yalitza Aparicio, Los Cometierra expands the boundaries of Latin Gothic, where dirt becomes memory and listening becomes resistance.
Lilith Curiel: "I Just Ate Dirt, and Somehow They Saw Something in That"
For Lilith Curiel, this was only her second audition ever. "I was terrified," she recalls, laughing. "I didn't even know what to expect. Everyone kept saying, 'We love you,' and I thought, Why? I just ate dirt."
Curiel discovered the novel before she even knew the project existed. "I found it at an airport bookstore. I read it on the plane and connected immediately. When they told me I was their Cometierra, I couldn't believe it."
Filming changed her life. She had to leave school to do it, but she says it was worth it. "I feel like a balloon that's about to burst," she adds. "When it finally explodes, I hope something beautiful comes out."
Lizeth Selene: "Miseria Was Born Out of Chaos"
Singer and actress Lizeth Selene (Control Z, Wave) joined the project almost by accident. "I went to audition for another role," she says. "Daniel Burman told me, 'This character isn't written yet; let's invent her.' We improvised, and Miseria appeared. It was magic."
Selene describes her character as a survivor with a dark sense of humor. "She carries her pain like armor. She's broken but she still dances," she says. "The show has that spirit too. It's about how we take all this pain and somehow turn it into art, laughter, and love."
Juan Daniel García Treviño: "It Felt Like a Street Fight of Ideas"
Already praised for Ya No Estoy Aquí, Juan Daniel García Treviño brings emotional gravity as Hernán, the one who believes in Cometierra when no one else does. His audition was unusual. "They told me to argue with the directors about who was right. It felt like a street fight of ideas," he says, smiling.
He sees Hernán as the story's conscience. "He's the one who says, 'We can't keep pretending this doesn't happen.' That's what the show is about. Listening to pain instead of covering it."
Asked what power he would want if he could "eat dirt" in real life, he answers without hesitation. "To breathe underwater. There's a whole world down there that no one sees."
Iván Martz: "My Twin Got the Casting Call, but I Got the Role"
Iván Martz, the Monterrey-born newcomer who plays Calaca, laughs when he recalls how he joined the series. "The email went to my twin brother. He was supposed to audition, but my manager said I should go too. At first, they liked him better, but when I walked in, they said, 'You're Calaca.'"
Martz sealed the deal through improvisation. "They asked me to dance, so I just went for it. I ended up perreando on the floor," he says. "They started laughing and said, 'He's perfect.' That energy stayed in the character. Calaca jokes through everything, but he's hurting inside."
He believes the story resonates because it feels too real. "Los Cometierra isn't fantasy. It's about what happens every day, told with magic and courage."
Max Peña: "We Built Friendship Before Filming a Single Scene"
For Max Peña, who plays Verónica, everything began with a dance. "I was the last one to audition," she recalls. "They asked me to dance for Lilith. We sat on the floor and started talking about anime. That conversation became our friendship."
She thought she had failed the audition, but weeks later, she received the call. "When they told me I got it, I cried. Verónica is loyal and fearless. She's the friend who stays when everyone else disappears," Peña says.
A Story Buried in Earth and Memory
Visually, Los Cometierra unfolds like a fever dream filled with dust, grit, tenderness, pain, friendship, and cumbia. The girl who listens to the dead becomes a symbol for an entire generation haunted by what is missing yet still fighting to live.
"It's not about death," Curiel says quietly. "It's about daring to look at the ground and listen."
With its raw emotion, Lafourcade's song and a haunting soundtrack, and a cast of fearless young actors, Cometierra turns grief into rebellion and transforms silence into music and love. It proves that sometimes, to find the truth, you really do have to eat dirt.
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