Chavela Vargas(차벨라 바르가스) Biography
CHAVELA THE MUSE
In the late 1950s and early 1960s in Mexico, singer Chavela Vargas dressed in men’s clothes, drank and smoked cigars like any man, carried a gun with her, and was notorious for her love of women. Some even say that she once kidnapped a woman at gunpoint, but Vargas denies that rumor. However, she doesn’t deny that she gained her slight limp from jumping out of a window because a woman disappointed her in love. If that’s true, Vargas in her youth was every bit as romantic as the music she sang. In her performances, Vargas dressed in traditionally masculine clothing and openly seduced women in the audience with Mexican folksongs—originally intended to be sung by men.
She became a legend singing Mexican rancheras—lusty songs about women and romance and heartbreak—Vargas publicly came out as a lesbian in 2000 at the age of 81, the same year she was awarded Spain’s Great Cross of Isabel la Católica, the country’s highest honor for artistic production.
Speaking to Madrid’s El País newspaper in October 2000, Vargas declared, “I’ve had to fight to be myself and to be respected. I'm proud to carry this stigma and call myself a lesbian. I don't boast about it or broadcast it, but I don't deny it. I've had to confront society and the Church, which says that homosexuals are damned. That's absurd. How can someone who's born like this be judged? I didn't attend lesbian classes. No one taught me to be this way. I was born this way, from the moment I opened my eyes in this world. I've never been to bed with a man. Never. That's how pure I am; I have nothing to be ashamed of. My gods made me the way I am.”
Born in Costa Rica in 1919, Vargas suffered from polio and blindness as a child, and has claimed that she was cured by shamans—a fitting beginning for someone who eventually became one of Mexico’s best-known and best-loved singing legends. Although she went to Mexico when she was fourteen and often sang in the streets, she did not begin singing
professionally until the mid-1950s, when she was in her thirties.
She was associated with Mexico’s well-known intellectuals of the time, including Diego Rivera and Luis Echeverría who went on to be President of Mexico from 1970-76. But her most well-known relationship was with bisexual artist Frida Kahlo (with whom she had an affair) and was most recently portrayed by Salma Hayek in the critically acclaimed Frida. “When I saw [Frida’s] face, her eyes,” Vargas says on the film’s DVD, “it seemed like she was from another world…I sensed I could love that being with the most pure love in the world.”
Working with José Alfredo Jiménez, Vargas released her first album in 1961, Noche Bohemia (Bohemian Night), and has recorded over 80 albums throughout her career.
In the mid 1990s, Pedro Almodóvar helped introduce her to new audiences by incorporating her bold, expressive, and seductive music into his films. “Nobody, except for Jesus Christ can open their arms as Chavela Vargas does,” says Almodóvar.
출처:http://www.chavelavargas.net/
Vargas, Chavela (b. 1919)
Acclaimed Costa Rican-Mexican performer and singer Chavela Vargas became notorious for the eroticism of her performances and for her open expression of lesbian desire. Vargas was born Isabel ("Chavela") Vargas Lizano to Herminia Lizano and Francisco Vargas on April 19, 1919 in the province of Santa Bárbara de Heredia, Costa Rica, which is nestled between Nicaragua and Panama. She grew up in Mexico, in exile, where she associated with leading intellectuals such as Frida Kahlo, with whom she had an affair, Diego Rivera, Agustín Lara, and Juan Rulfo, and even befriended political leaders such as Luis Echeverría, who served as President of Mexico from 1970 to 1976. Vargas's career as a singer commenced in the mid 1950s, under the direction of José Alfredo Jiménez, her producer. Her first recording came a decade later in 1961. Vargas became famous in the mid-1960s for her hallmark interpretations, frequently melodramatic and heart-wrenching, of sentimental Mexican songs. The originality of her style and the deep pain she was able to communicate marked her as a singular talent. At the same time, however, she became infamous for her outlandish behavior, which violated a number of Mexican taboos. Not only did she wear trousers and dress as a man, but she also smoked cigars, carried a gun in her pocket, and sported a red poncho in her celebration and vindication of folklore. A crucial element of her radical performance art was her seduction of women in the audience and her singing rancheras written to be sung by a man to a woman. Vargas has come to be known as "the woman with the red poncho," as the Spanish singer Joaquín Sabina dubbed her, as well as "the queen of Mexican song." She shares this latter accolade with Mexico's greatest popular singers: Lola Beltrán, Angélica María, Juan Gabriel, Lucha Reyes, and Rocío Durcal. For those intimately acquainted with her performances Vargas is known simply as "La Doña" or "La Chabela." These epithets are signs of respect and reverence, which are extended to her despite her "black legend," which included a devastating bout with alcoholism as well as overt lesbianism. Vargas' life has been dedicated to ritual performance that transgresses social, gender, and cultural borders through song. Perhaps because she was afflicted with illness in childhood--including polio and blindness that she declares were cured by shamans--she claims that she shares the stage with her own gods. Through her long life, she has expressed a bold faith in spirituality and artistic expression--a faith that she has relied upon time and time again, especially when she has been labeled "other," " queer," and "strange." After gaining fame in the 1960s, Vargas fell into alcoholism in the 1970s. She retreated from the public sphere for about twelve years. She attempted comebacks with only modest success, though she did sing in local cabarets, especially those frequented by gay men, who continue to constitute a large fraction of her admirers. In 1981, however, she made a major comeback with stellar performances in the Olympia Theatre of Paris, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, and the Palau de la Música in Barcelona. In the early 1990s she experienced another revival. Gay filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar helped bring her a new audience by incorporating her bold, expressive, and seductive music into his films. Vargas has recorded over eighty albums. Among her most notable and cherished titles and interpretations are "Macorina," "La China," "La Llorona," "Luz De Luna," "Toda Una Vida," "Corazón Corazón," "Quisiera Amarte Menos," and "Volver Volver." In November of 2000, the President of the Spanish government presented Vargas with "la Cruz de la Orden Isabel Católica," one of the most prestigious awards for artistic production. This award, the singer declares, is a testament to her vexed legacy, one that includes her unapologetic persona and creative lesbian aesthetic.