Chavela Vargas

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Mexican singer Chavela Vargas
Mexican singer Chavela Vargas

Chavela Vargas is a Mexican-Costa Rican singer born Isabel Vargas Lizano in San Joaquín de Flores, Costa Rica on April 17, 1919. She is known for her rendition of rancheras, a folkloric musical form widely popular in Mexico, as well as for other popular Latin American song genres. In her youth, she dressed as a man, smoked cigars, drank heavily, carried a gun and was known for her characteristic red poncho, which she still dons in performances.

Vargas has been an influential interpreter in the Americas and Europe, muse to figures such as Pedro Almodovar, hailed for her haunting performances, and called "la voz aspera de la ternura", the bitter voice of tenderness.[1] At 81 years old, she openly admitted she was a lesbian. [2]

At only 14[3], she fled her native country due to lack of musical career opportunities, seeking refuge in Mexico, where an entertainment industry was burgeoning. For many years she sang on the streets but in her thirties she became a professional singer.

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[edit] Early Success

Her first album, Noche de Bohemia (Bohemian Night), was released in 1961 with the professional support of José Alfredo Jiménez, one of the foremost singer/songwriters of the Mexican cancion ranchera[4]. Vargas has recorded over eighty albums thereafter.[5] She was hugely successful during the 1950s, 1960s and the first half of the 70s, touring in Mexico, the United States, France and Spain[6], and was close to many prominent artists and intellectuals of the time, including Juan Rulfo, Agustin Lara, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and José Alfredo Jiménez.[7] She partly retired in the late 1970s due to a 15 year-long battle with alcoholism, which she has described in her autobiography (Y si quieres saber de mi pasado [And if you want to know about my past], published in 2002) as "my 15 years in hell" [8].

[edit] Return to the Stage

Vargas returned to the stage in 1991, performing at the venue "El Habito" in Coyoacan, Mexico City[9]. She debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2003 at the age of 83[10], at the behest and promotion of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, a long-time admirer and personal friend of Vargas.

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[edit] Appearances on Film

She is featured in many Almodovar's films, including La Flor de mi Secreto (The Flower of My Secret) in both song and video. She has said, however, that acting is not her ambition, although she had previously participated in films such as 1967s La Soldadera [11]. Vargas recently appeared in the 2002 Julie Taymor film Frida, singing "La Llorona" (The Weeping Woman).[12] Her classic "Paloma Negra" (Black Dove) was also included in the soundtrack of the film. Vargas herself, as a young woman, was alleged to have had an affair with Frida Kahlo, during Kahlo's marriage to muralist Diego Rivera.[13] She also appeared in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel, singing "Tu Me Acostumbraste" (You Made Me Comfortable),[14] a bolero of Frank Dominguez.

Joaquín Sabina's song "Por el Boulevar de los Sueños Rotos" ("Through the Boulevard of Broken Dreams") is dedicated to Vargas.[15]

[edit] Quotes

“I love with the liver, heart has nothing to do with it."(“Yo amo con el hígado, el corazón no tiene nada que ver con eso”)[cite this quote]

"A woman has many lives to live. In order to do so many things and break so many limits, as I’ve done, one has to be very much a woman. At the end it will be told." (“Una mujer tiene muchas vidas que vivir. Para hacer muchas cosas y romper limites como yo he hecho, hay que ser muy mujer. Después se dirá”)[cite this quote]

[edit] Selected Discography

  • Piensa en mí, 1991
  • Boleros, 1991
  • 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, 1996
  • 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
  • Soledad, 2007

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Boccanera, Jorge, Entrelineas: Dialogos con Jorge Boccanera, ed. Mario José Grabivker (Buenos Aires: Ediciones instituto mobilizador fondos cooperativos C.L., 1999)
  2. ^ The GULLY | México | Chavela sale del armario
  3. ^ Vargas, Chavela, Y si quieres saber de mi pasado, ed. J.C. Vales, 2nd ed (Madrid: Santillana Ediciones Generales, 2002). In the interview with Jorge Boccanera, Vargas is quoted as saying she arrived in Mexico at 17.
  4. ^ Diccionario de la Musica Española e Hispanoamericana. 5 vols. Madrid: Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, 2002. s.v. “Vargas, Chavela”.
  5. ^ Yarbo-Bejarano, Yvonne, “Crossing the Border with Chabela Vargas: A Chicana Femme’s Tribute” Chap. 3 in Sex and Sexuality in Latin America (New York: New York University Press, 1997)
  6. ^ Diccionario de la Musica Espanola e Hispanoamericano. 5 vols. Madrid: Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, 2002.
  7. ^ Boccanera, Jorge, Entrelineas: Dialogos con Jorge Boccanera, ed. Mario José Grabivker (Buenos Aires: Ediciones instituto mobilizador fondos cooperativos C.L., 1999)
  8. ^ Vargas, Chavela, Y si quieres saber de mi pasado, ed. J.C. Vales, 2nd ed (Madrid: Santillana Ediciones Generales, 2002)p. 189
  9. ^ Boccanera, Jorge, Entrelineas: Dialogos con Jorge Boccanera, ed. Mario José Grabivker (Buenos Aires: Ediciones instituto mobilizador fondos cooperativos C.L., 1999)
  10. ^ Vargas, Chavela. (2006) Chavela at Carnegie Hall, CD recording, Tommy Boy
  11. ^ Boccanera, Jorge, Entrelineas: Dialogos con Jorge Boccanera, ed. Mario José Grabivker (Buenos Aires: Ediciones instituto mobilizador fondos cooperativos C.L., 1999)
  12. ^ Vargas, Chavela, Y si quieres saber de mi pasado, ed. J.C. Vales, 2nd ed (Madrid: Santillana Ediciones Generales, 2002)
  13. ^ Vargas, Chavela, Y si quieres saber de mi pasado, ed. J.C. Vales, 2nd ed (Madrid: Santillana Ediciones Generales, 2002)
  14. ^ Tu Me Acostumbraste - Chavela Vargas on Odeo
  15. ^ Boccanera, Jorge, Entrelineas: Dialogos con Jorge Boccanera, ed. Mario José Grabivker (Buenos Aires: Ediciones instituto mobilizador fondos cooperativos C.L., 1999)

1.http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/06/08/index.php?section=espectaculos&article=a12n1esp 2.http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2000/03/21/cul6.html

[edit] External links