In celebration of
Hispanic Heritage Month and 2017, the year of Mexico in Los Angeles, Music Box
Distribution and the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles invite you to a special
screening of the film “CHAVELA” – a captivating portrait of barrier-breaking ranchera singer Chavela
Vargas whose international fame peaked after a triumphant return to the stage
at the age of 71.
“CHAVELA” centers around a
1991 interview--the singer's first public appearance after 12 hard years lost
to alcoholism and heartbreak. Her amazing comeback began when Spanish
filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, who had featured her music in many of his films, played
an instrumental role in elevating her career to international acclaim. Whenever
he introduced her to the public, he would kneel down to kiss the stage before
she performed at renowned venues like New York’s Carnegie Hall, Paris’
L’Olympia Theatre, and Madrid’s Plaza de España.
Born in Costa
Rica in 1919, Chavela Vargas ran away to Mexico City as a teenager to sing in
the streets. By the 1950s she had become a darling of the city’s
thriving bohemian club scene, delivering her performances with a raw
passion and unique voice. Challenging mainstream Mexican morals by dressing in
pants, drinking tequila, and smoking cigars while singing love songs intended
for men to woo women and refusing to change the pronouns, Chavela was a
bold, rebellious, sexual pioneer who defied gender and sexuality stereotypes at
a time when being “out” was often dangerous.
In her
lifetime, Chavela was credited with recording 80 albums, received a Latin
Grammy for Lifetime Achievement, and was the second woman to win Spain’s most
prestigious artistic award, the Grand Cross of Isabel, the Catholic. She was
close to many prominent artists and intellectuals including Juan Rulfo, Agustín
Lara, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Dolores Olmedo, José Alfredo Jiménez, Lila
Downs, and Joaquin Sabina. Chavela also appeared in the 1967
movie “La Soldadera”, Werner Herzog’s “Scream of
the Stone” and Julie Taymor’s “Frida,” and sang “Tú Me
Acostumbraste” (“Because of You, I Got Accustomed”) in Alejandro González
Iñárritu’s “Babel.” Chavela passed away in 2012 at the age of 93.
