Chavela Vargas

Vargas during a concert in Spain, 2006

She was born in Costa Rica, in San Joaquín de Flores, as Isabel Vargas Lizano, daughter of Francisco Vargas and Herminia Lizano. She was baptized on 15 July 1919 with the forenames "María Isabel Anita Carmen de Jesús." She had a difficult childhood: her parents divorced and left her under the care of an uncle, and she contracted poliomyelitis. She went by Chavela, which is a pet name for Isabel. At age 17,[2] she abandoned her native country due to lack of opportunities for a musical career, seeking refuge in Mexico, where an entertainment industry was burgeoning. There she resided for more than seventy years and obtained Mexican nationality.

For many years she sang on the streets, but in her thirties she became a professional singer.[3] In her youth she dressed as a man, smoked cigars, drank heavily, carried a gun, and was known for her characteristic red jorongo, which she wore in performances until old age. Vargas was radical in her negation of heteronormativity. Since she preferred to dress like a man, Vargas’ parents hid their defiantly nonfeminine daughter from guests.[4]

Vargas sang the canción ranchera in her own peculiar style. The ranchera was sung from a man's perspective and with a mariachi accompaniment. Chavela sang this type of song as a solo, using only guitar and voice. She often slowed down the tempo of melodies to draw more dramatic tension out of songs, so they could be taken as naughtily humorous.

Towards the end of the 1950s, she became known within artistic circles, due in part to her performances in Acapulco, center of international tourism, where she sang at the Champagne Room of the restaurant La Perla. Her first album, Noche de Bohemia (Bohemian Night), was released in 1961 with the professional support of Jiménez, one of the foremost singer/songwriters of Mexican ranchera music.[5] She eventually recorded more than 80 albums.[6] Vargas was hugely successful during the 1950s, the 1960s, and the first half of the 1970s, touring in Mexico, the United States, France, and Spain[7] and was close to many prominent artists and intellectuals of the time, including Juan Rulfo, Agustín Lara, Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera, Dolores Olmedo and Jiménez.[1] Vargas was known to have had various lesbian relationships, and is rumored to have had affairs with Frida Kahlo and Ava Gardner.[8] Although her lyrics were addressed to women, Vargas did not publicly come out until the age of 81 in her 2002 autobiography And If You Want to Know about My Past (Y si quieres saber de mi pasado).[8]

Vargas retired from performing due to a 15-year battle with alcoholism, which she described in her autobiography as "my 15 years in hell."[9] Chavela could not maintain her heavy drinking and intense lifestyle. In 1970, "submerged in an alcoholic haze" as she described it, she was taken in by a native family who nursed her back to health without knowing who she was. In 2003, she told The New York Times that she had not had a drink in 25 years.[10]

Vargas returned to the stage in 1991, performing at a bohemian nightclub called "El Hábito" in Coyoacán, Mexico City.[1] Her career started to recover international prominence, with performances in Latin America, Europe and the United States.[10] Vargas debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2003 at age 83[11] at the behest and promotion of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, an admirer and friend.

Long considered an open secret,[12] she publicly came out as a lesbian at age 81 in her 2002 autobiography.[13] Her coming out was not surprising to her fans. For years Vargas refused to change the genders in her songs.[14] In "Paloma Negra" ("Black Dove"), Vargas accuses a woman of partying all night long and breaking her heart.[14] Vargas herself, as a young woman, was alleged to have had an affair with Frida Kahlo during Kahlo's marriage to muralist Diego Rivera.[15][16]

Vargas is featured in many of Almodóvar's films, including La flor de mi secreto in both song and video. She said, however, that acting was not her ambition, although she had previously participated in films such as the 1967 movie La Soldadera.[1] Vargas also appeared in Frida, singing "La Llorona" ("The Weeping Woman").[16] Her classic "Paloma Negra" ("Black Dove") was also included in the soundtrack of the film. She appeared in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel, singing "Tú me acostumbraste" ("I got used to you"),[17] a bolero by Frank Domínguez.

On February 10, 2017, the biographical film Chavela debuted. Directed by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi, the film features Pedro Almodóvar, Elena Benarroch and Miguel Bosé among others.[18]

Chavela Vargas had been hospitalized for several weeks as a result of respiratory problems. She died in Cuernavaca, Mexico. According her official Facebook page, her last words were "I leave with Mexico in my heart."

On April 17, 2013, Google celebrated her 94th birthday with a Google Doodle.[19]

In August 2019, Vargas was one of the honorees inducted in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood noting LGBTQ people who have "made significant contributions in their fields."[20][21][22]

Joaquín Sabina's song "Por el Boulevard de los Sueños Rotos" ("Down the Boulevard of Broken Dreams") is dedicated to Vargas.[1] Sergio Ramírez Mercado, a Nicaraguan writer, published in 2011 the novel La Fugitiva, a fictionalized account of the life of Costa Rican writer Yolanda Oreamuno. In Ramírez' work, Oreamuno's life is told by three women who met her. According to many critics, one of the female characters telling Oreamuno's history is a singer who resembles Chavela Vargas. The character talks about her own life and her non-reciprocated love for Yolanda Oreamuno.[23]

• Con el cuarteto Lara Foster, 1961
• Hacia la vida, 1966
• Corridos de la revolución, 1970
• Amanecí en tus brazos, 1973
• La Original, 1973
• Lamento Borincano, 1973
• Poema 20, 1975
• Noche Bohemia, 1989
• Noche de Ronda, 1989
• Piensa en mí AKA Vuelve, 1991
• Boleros, 1991
• La Llorona, 1994
• Sentimiento de México (vol. 1), 1995
• De México y del Mundo, 1995
• Le canta a México, 1995
• Volver, volver, 1996
• Dos, 1996
• Grandes mementos, 1996
• Macorina, 1994/1996
• Chavela Vargas, 1997
• Pasión bolero, 1999
• Colección de oro, 1999
• Con la rondalla del amor de Saltillo, 2000
• Para perder la cabeza, 2000
• Las 15 grandes de Chavela Vargas, 2000
• Grandes éxitos, 2002
• Para toda la vida, 2002
• Discografía básica, 2002
• Antología, 2004
• Somos, 2004
• En Carnegie Hall, 2004
• La Llorona, 2004
• Cupaima, 2006/2007
• Soledad, 2007
• Piensa en mí, on Splendor in the Grass by Pink Martini, 2009
• Luz de Luna, on San Patricio by The Chieftains featuring Ry Cooder, 2010
• Por mi culpa!, 2010
• Luna Grande, 2012

• Ranchera
• Cuco Sanchez
• List of people from Morelos, Mexico

• Chavela Vargas at AllMusic
• "At Carnegie Hall" album review on Sound Generator
• Chavela Vargas at IMDb