Chavela Vargas

Über Chavela Vargas

Chavela Vargas was born in San Joaquín de Flores, Heredia in 1919 and emigrated to Mexico as a teenager, where she rebuilt Mexican ranchera around her own voice. She stripped the genre of its mariachi backing, wore men's clothes, drank tequila on stage, and recorded songs of heartbreak and longing that became defining records of Latin American music. She retired in the 1970s, returned in the 1990s, and was championed in her late career by Pedro Almodóvar, who used her recordings in several films. She is the most internationally recognised musician born in Costa Rica.