Chavela Vargas 1919to –2012
Costa Rican-born Mexican singer, celebrated for her contributions to Latin American music, and canción ranchera in particular. Vargas suffered a lonely childhood, spurned by parents who couldn’t accept a tomboyish daughter. She left for Mexico at 17 to pursue a music career, and started off by performing in the streets. Instead of conforming to the dress and style of other female singers, she took on a masculine persona, smoking cigars, drinking tequila, carrying guns, and performing in a poncho with her hair pulled back in a tight braid. She soon built a reputation for her powerful, soulful singing style. She sang rancheras written for men expressing love toward women, accompanied only by an acoustic guitar instead of a full mariachi band, with the tempo slowed to dwell on each heartbreak. While performing in nightclubs throughout the 1940s, she caught the attention of acclaimed singer-songwriter José Alfredo Jiménez. The two formed a close working relationship and friendship. She also had a passionate affair with Frida Kahlo around this time. In the 1950s, she began singing at the restaurant La Perla in Acapulco, a popular international vacation spot. There, Vargas went to bed with politicians’ wives and Hollywood celebrities. She claimed to have slept with Ava Gardner at Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding, though she usually protected her partners’ identities. Eventually, 15 years of alcoholism caught up with her, clubs stopped hiring her, and she fell into obscurity. During this period she met her longtime partner, Dr. Alicia Pérez Duarte, and managed to stop drinking for good. Unfortunately, Vargas could be violent even when sober, and they eventually separated. In 1991, a new nightclub in Mexico City, El Hábito, invited Vargas to perform. At the age of 72, It was her first time on a stage in over a decade, and the first time she ever went on stage sober. The concert was such a success, it launched a second wave of Vargas’s career, this time with international acclaim. She was invited to perform in Spain in 1992, and there became the friend and muse of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, who helped her make her Carnegie Hall debut in 2003. At the age of 81, she publicly came out as a lesbian, though her fans had known it for decades. She continued to sing for audiences until her death at the age of 93.