Chavela Vargas - Early Life

Early Life

Isabel Vargas Lizano was born in San Joaquín de Flores, Costa Rica, on April 17, 1919. She went by Chavela, which is a pet name for Isabel. At 14, she abandoned 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. 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 donned in performances until old. She sang in the streets as a teenager until she ventured into a professional career in the 1930s.

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. Vargas recorded over eighty albums since then. She was hugely successful during the 1950s, 1960s and the first half of the 70s, 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, Diego Rivera, Dolores Olmedo and José Alfredo Jiménez. 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, published in 2002) as "my 15 years in hell" At 81 years old, she publicly declared that she was a lesbian.