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Isabel Vargas Lizano (1919–2012) was born in Costa Rica, but she was Mexican because she decided to be one, “us Mexicans are born where we feel like it”, she used to say. So she also decided to call herself Chavela —“Chavela, with a ‘v’, to piss everyone off”— and become the voice that gave life and legend to Mexican popular music, growing out of all preconceived roles.

It is said that she arrived in Mexico at age 17 and before singing she was a cook, waitress and chauffeur for high society families. It took her over two decades to make a living from singing, despite having the support of José Alfredo Jiménez —accomplice of endless parties.

With her manly and raspy voice due to drink-ing too much alcohol, her eternal cigar, always with her pants on and wearing her poncho, she managed to record her first album in 1961. From there on she recorded over 80 albums and dedicated herself to singing, not only in bars, but also in concerts, television programs and films such as Kika by Pedro Almodóvar; Frida by Julie Taymor, and Babel by Alejandro González Iñárritu, among others. She wanted to sing herself to death, and her friends say that she had set her mind to die, literally, on stage. She did not succeed, but for sure she continues singing in some limbo and will continue to do so just because she decided to.