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28 September CHAVELA VARGAS
Chavela Vargas
Rodjena 1919. godine u Kosta Riki, Chavela Vargas, kao dete oboljeva od jedne vrste decje paralize, ceste u tropskim krajevima, poliomijelitisa i privremenog slepila. Tvrdila je da su je izlecili samani. Sa 14 godina odlazi u Meksiko i pocinje da peva na ulicama, ali se profesionalno nije bavila pevanjem sve do sredine 50-tih kada je vec bila u tridesetim godinama. Kretala se u krugovima najpoznatijih meksickih intelektualaca i umetnika toga vremena, ukljucujuci i Dijega Riveru i Luisa Eceveria Alvareza, predsednika Meksika (1970-76). Ali, njeno najpoznatije prijateljstvo je bilo sa biseksualnom slikarkom Fridom Kalo: "Kada sam ugledala Fridino lice, njene oci, cinilo se kao da potice iz drugoga sveta. Osetila sam da mogu voleti to bice najcistijom ljubavlju na svetu".
Saradjujuci sa Hose Alfredo Himenezom, Vargasova snima svoj prvi album 1961. godine, Noche Bohemia i od tada je snimila preko 80 albuma tokom karijere. U svojim nastupima, Vargasova oblaci tradicionalanu musku odecu gaucosa, i otvoreno zavodi zene u publici izvodeci izvorne meksicke folk pesme rancera, koje pevaju muskarci.
Chavela je takodje poznata i po svom teskom opijanju. Alkoholizam je bio uzrok njenog dugogodisnjeg povlacenja sa scene tokom kasnih sedamdesetih. U 2000. godini Chavela objasnjava: "Kupim nov auto u petak, a vec u ponedeljak vise nista nije ostalo od njega. Napijem se, odem da pevam na ulici i zakasnim na show. Uglavnom sam pila sam tekilu. Propila sam sve sto sam ikada imala. To je razlog zasto nisam ostavila nista iza sebe."
Tokom njenog povlacenja, Vargasova je nastavljala da na mahove ucestvuje u kabareima, zadivljujuci gej populaciju. Uprkos kratkom povratku ranih '80.tih, presudan uticaj na njenu karijeru imao je poziv Pedra Almodovara za film "Visoke potpetice", da snimi muziku, '91.god. i od tog momenta njena karijera potpuno ozivljava, saradjujuci sa Almodovarom i na drugim njegovim filmovima. Godine 1993. ulazi u studio i snima nov materijal, po prvi put nakon desetak godina. Koncert u Madridu, te iste godine, pocela je recima o strasti prema muzici, izjasnjavajuci se: "Kada volite nesto, to bi onda trebalo da radite svu noc". Nakon ovog koncerta odrzala je znacajne koncerte u Mexico City-ju, Floridi kao i sirom sveta.
Sve do 2000.te godine, dok se nije ponovo pocela pojavljivati na javnoj sceni, dugo je bila ikona Latino lezbijki koje su rasle slusajuci njene interpretacije tradicionalne gaucho muzike, cineci te ljubavne pesme prihvatljivima gej populaciji. U svom eseju, Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, profesor na Stanford University, objasnjava: "Zbog javnog priznanja svoje seksualne orjentacije, kao lezbijke, Chavela Vargas odredjuje ili rusi polne, rodovne odrednice u najpopularnijim meksikanskim pesmama, cak i onda, kada osvetljava koliko je nemoguce pojmiti identitet i zudnju lezbijke Meksikanke - Cikane, koja se nalazi kompletno izvan tih kulturalno svojstvenih imaginacija o muskarcu i o zeni; o muzevnosti i o zenstvenosti."
Sada, u 84.toj godini zivota, Chavela Vargas ima svoj dom u Verakruzu, Meksiko i dalje gaji ljubav prema pistoljima, cuvajuci magnum u kuci koristeci ga kao upozorenje da zaplasi divlje zivotinje. "Pucam jedino u vazduh, kada nocu cujem buku, tako da znaju da ovde ima nekoga. Ali, kada sam bila mlada i pijana, pucala sam u svim pravcima." rekla za The New York Times, 2003.
Upitana da li se kaje zbog svojih godina alkoholizma i teskog zivota, odgovorila je da se ne kaje, izjavljujuci: "Bila sam ja, i zivela sam."
Diskografija
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 Momentos, 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 BIOGRAPHY
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, who 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 her performances, Vargas dressed in traditionally masculine clothing and openly seduced women in the audience with Mexican folksongs—ranchera music—originally intended to be sung by men. Her album covers didn’t shy away from her butch persona, and often featured her wearing traditional men’s clothing.
“La Chavela” was also known for her hard drinking and womanizing ways. Her alcoholism eventually forced her into a semi-retirement in the late 1970s that lasted for about a dozen years. In 2000 Vargas explained, “I'd get a new car on Friday and by Monday I had nothing left; I'd get drunk and go sing on the streets and be late for the show. I used to drink tequila. I drank everything I ever owned. That's why I left nothing over there.”
During her retirement, Vargas continued to perform intermittently at cabarets, building up a devoted following among gay men. Despite a brief comeback in the early 1980s, it was not until filmmaker Pedro Almodovar asked her to record a song for his film Tacones Lejanos in 1991 that her career fully revived. In 1993 she returned to the studio to record new material for the first time in decades.
She opened her Madrid concert that year with a double entendre about her musical passions, declaring, “When you like something, you should do it all night long.”
In 2000 Vargas performed for an audience of 20,000 in Mexico City’s main square, the Zócalo, and in 2002 she played the part of Death in Frida, singing the traditional song “La Llorona” (“The Weeping Woman”). In 2003, at age 83, Vargas made her Carnegie Hall debut, and was introduced to the appreciative audience by Salma Hayek.
Although Vargas didn’t come out publicly in 2000, she has long been an icon for Latina lesbians who grew up listening to her reinterpret traditional ranchera music, making those well-loved songs accessible to lesbians. In her essay “Crossing the Border with Chavela Vargas: A Chicana Femme's Tribute,” Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, a professor of Chicana Studies at Stanford University, explained, “Because of her public sexual positioning as a lesbian, Chavela Vargas appropriates or undermines many of the gendered subject positions in Mexican popular songs, even as she illuminates how impossible it is to conceive of the Mexican/Chicana lesbian identities and desires completely outside these culturally specific imaginings about men and women, masculinity and femininity.”
Now 84 years old, Vargas makes her home in Veracruz, Mexico and still retains a love for guns, keeping a Magnum in her house that she uses to warn away animals. “I only shoot in the air when I hear a noise at night, so that they know there's someone here,” Vargas insisted to The New York Times in 2003. “But when I was young and drunk, I'd shoot in every direction.”
Asked if she regretted her years of alcoholism and hard living, Vargas replied that she had no regrets, stating, “I was me and I lived.”
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