#Torrent chavela vargas de joven professional#

In 2003, she told The New York Times that she had not had a drink in 25 years. 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. Vargas retired from performing due to a 15-year battle with alcoholism, which she described in her autobiography as 'my 15 years in hell.' Chavela could not maintain her heavy drinking and intense lifestyle. Partial retirement and return to the stage 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). Vargas was known to have had various lesbian relationships, and is rumored to have had affairs with Frida Kahlo and Ava Gardner. 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 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. She eventually recorded more than 80 albums.

#Torrent chavela vargas de joven professional#

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 Mexican ranchera music. 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. She often slowed down the tempo of melodies to draw more dramatic tension out of songs, so they could be taken as naughtily humorous. Chavela sang this type of song as a solo, using only guitar and voice. The ranchera was sung from a man's perspective and with a mariachi accompaniment. Vargas sang the canción ranchera in her own peculiar style. Since she preferred to dress like a man, Vargas’ parents hid their defiantly nonfeminine daughter from guests.

Vargas was radical in her negation of heteronormativity.

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. įor many years she sang on the streets, but in her thirties she became a professional singer.

There she resided for more than seventy years and obtained Mexican nationality. At age 17, she abandoned her native country due to lack of opportunities for a musical career, seeking refuge in Mexico, where an entertainment industry was burgeoning. She went by Chavela, which is a pet name for Isabel. 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 was born in Costa Rica, in San Joaquín de Flores, as Isabel Vargas Lizano, daughter of Francisco Vargas and Herminia Lizano.