Discovery en Español has fueled up its “Lunes de motores” Monday-night automotive programming block, bringing back its original series Mexicánicos for a third season.

Starring mechanic Martín Vaca, Mexicánicos puts the viewer directly into Vaca’s Guadalajara, Mexico-based automotive workshop, known for extreme car customization. New episodes began May 9 at 10 p.m.

Among the special guests included in the series’ third season is Mexican singer and comedian Lola Cortés, who visits Vaca with a special request: to transform her 2000 Corvette 2000 into a 1950s-style model. In another episode, boxing champion Ana María Torres, “La Guerrera,” asks Vaca to personalize her 1954 Ford Customline by adding a boxing glove emblem on the front of the car and an image of the World Boxing Council’s Diamond Belt under the hood. 

Mexicánicos is produced for Discovery en Español by Drako Media, under the direction of Gerardo Brandy, in co-production with High Noon Entertainment.

Meanwhile, automotive series Texas Trocas has ramped up production of its first season. Filming of the Discovery Studios reality show began during the final week of May.

The reality series centers on Raúl Méndez Sr. and his wife, Lupita, who operate Texas Chrome in the San Antonio suburb of Atascosa, Texas. In tandem with their sons Raúl and Rolando, the Méndez family has built a successful truck renovation shop that employs dozens of people and owns close to 100 trucks.

New episodes are expected to debut on Discovery en Español in the fourth quarter.

New restorations and exclusive creations by talented Mexican mechanic Martín Vaca are the focus of the second season of Mexicánicos, Discovery en Español’s automotive-themed reality series.

The pay TV network is airing the program on Mondays at 10 p.m. (ET)/7 p.m. (PT) as part of its Lunes de Motores automotive-themed programming block. The second season bowed Nov. 9.

Season two is comprised of six hour-long episodes. In one episode, Mexican recording artist Lupillo Rivera, a classic car aficionado, travels from California to ask Martín to restore a 1954 GMC pickup truck.

In another episode, charismatic Chivas de Guadalajara soccer player Ángel Reyna visits the workshop with a request to personalize his pickup to look like a luxury car.

Two new team members join the series this season: Martín’s daughter, Isabel, charged with coming up with a new, more modern image and business model for Vaca Limousines, one of Mexico’s largest conversion workshops for customized hearses and limousines; and designer David Hernández.

Mexicánicos was produced for Discovery en Español by Drako Media under the direction  of Gerardo Brandy, in co-production with High Noon Entertainment. The production was made under the supervision of Discovery Networks Latin America/U.S. Hispanic’s  Michela Giorelli, Rafael Rodríguez and Carlos de la Paz.

The circle of life is getting a Sunday-night spotlight from Discovery en Español.

Sobrevivir, a six-part miniseries focused on the various life stages of different animals, is set to debut Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. slot. It will air that the time period over the subsequent five weeks.

The miniseries follows individual animals in their natural habitats, offering viewers a look at their lives from the animal’s perspective. Its narrator is Enrique Rocha, a 75-year-old veteran Mexican actor.

"This was my first time narrating a series, and I am thrilled to be a part of telling this ever-important story about life," Rocha said. "Sobrevivir offers viewers an exclusive opportunity to witness the wonderful and often heart-wrenching cycle of life."

The miniseries, a co-production of the BBC, Discovery Channel and France Television in association with The Open University, was shot in 29 countries on six continents, yielding more than 1,800 hours of footage for the nature documentary. It was produced by Mike Gunton, Rupert Barrington and Sarah Spaniolo.

Discovery U.S. Hispanic announced Monday (May 11) the 2015-16 upfront slates for Discovery Familia and Discovery en Español.

Discovery en Español will expand its automotive and adventure programming nights with new series Cuban Chrome, Lost and Starving (working title) and documentary Lunar XPrize (wt).

In addition, the network will add natural history specials To Be King and Racing Extinction. Discovery en Español also will return Fast N’ Loud, Alaska: The Last Frontier and Naked and Afraid for new seasons.

Discovery Familia will amp up its beauty, home and cooking programming with new series Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, How Do I Look, Buying Alaska and My Big, Fat Fabulous Life. It has put in new season orders for three Buddy Valastro series -- Cake Boss, Next Great Baker and Bakery Boss -- as well as Pregnant in Heels and What Not to Wear.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Discovery en Español has taken its Monday-night “Lunes de motores” automotive block to the extreme with Mexicanicos, a new eight-episode series hosted by mechanic and car-restoration expert Martin Vaca.

Airing Mondays at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), Mexicanicos focuses on “extreme automotive design.” Each episode follows the start-to-finish rebirth of classic cars in Vaca’s Guadalajara, Mexico, workshop.

Among the choice cars getting a redo are a Mustang Mach 1 belonging to Jesus and Francisco Elizalde, the sons of singer Lalo "El Gallo" Elizalde, and a 1957 Chevrolet owned by actor Edgar Vivar, known for his role as Señor Barriga on the classic Mexican sitcom El Chavo del Ocho.

Vaca’s workshop is famous throughout Mexico for the limousines and hearses it produces. Its creations include a Boeing 727 that has been converted into a limousine, another giant limo shaped like a vintage ocean liner and a car in the shape of a chili pepper built to help promote a local distillery.

Mexicanicos is produced by Discovery en Español under the supervision of vice president of production and development Michela Giorelli and executive producers Rafael Rodriguez and Irune Ariztoy. High Noon Entertainment, known for its recent reality-series collaborations with Viacom’s Tr3s network in the U.S., is also co-producer.

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In other Discovery en Español news, the network has started production on the second season of Texas Trocas, a docu-reality series that follows the exploits of the Mendez family, a clan of Mexican-American trucking magnates. It will air in the “Lunes de Motores” block later this year.

Season one of the series premiered Sept. 2, 2014 and concluded two months later.

The border between Colombia and Venezuela is home to some of the world’s richest oil and gas reserves. But it is also a region wracked by violence, contraband and armed groups vying to control the territory. Viewers in the U.S. can now get an up-close look at the challenges facing leaders on both sides of the border by tuning to Discovery en Español each Sunday at 10pm.

La Frontera Más Caliente, which premiered Feb. 15, is a new docu-series airing on Discovery en Español, the main Spanish-language offering from Discovery Communications. Additionally, later this year the network will debut a dubbed-in-Spanish version of Racing Extinction, a documentary film from Academy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos that saw its premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Meanwhile, sister network Discovery Familia will add unscripted series Mi Gran Boda Gitana to its line-up this year.

La Frontera Más Caliente: Colombia-Venezuela, a documentary-style co-production of Discovery Networks Latin America/U.S. Hispanic and Colombia’s Caracol Televisión under the supervision of Michela Giorelli, Discovery vice president of production and development, seeks to uncover the “modus operandi” and illegal routes traffickers use to move gasoline, food and currency into Colombia. The program also exposes how local residents rub shoulders with traffickers, paramilitary and guerrilla groups as well as common criminals in the quest to profit from the lucrative contraband trade.

The film travels through strategic locations along the Colombia-Venezuela border to hold exclusive interviews with political analysts, customs agents, naval officials, relatives of those who have disappeared and representatives of the peace-endorsing foundations active in the sensitive border region.

The series was produced by Pacha Films under the direction of Luis del Valle, also responsible for the production of Discovery en Español’s 2014 Emmy- winning documentary Trata de mujeres: de Tenancingo a Nueva York (Sex Trafficking: From Tenancingo to New York).

The network’s new documentary Racing Extinction puts together a team of artists and activists on an undercover operation to expose the hidden world of endangered species and the race to protect them against mass extinction.

Director Psihoyos’s 2010 documentary The Cove, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, covered similar territory, drawing attention to mass dolphin kills. Racing Extinction aims to serve as a catalyst for a larger ongoing campaign against carbon emissions, with Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions on board to develop and execute that initiative.

With Mi Gran Boda Gitana, the dubbed-in-Spanish version of My Big Gypsy Wedding, Discovery Familia is putting its focus on brides and bachlorettes among a nontraditional group of Americans mainly known for their presence across Europe.

The series, airing on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. (ET) examines the world of young U.S. gypsies, and their customs and traditions.