Chavela Vargas: Trailblazing Costa Rican-Mexican Lesbian Singer [Video]

It’s officially Pride Month! Celebrated every June, this is a time of year to uplift and celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of the LGBTQIA+ community. When it comes to LGBTQIA+ history, queer people of color tend to be forgotten in favor of a white, mainstream narrative. As a result, sometimes folks in the Latinx community don’t know much if anything at all about how LGBTQIA+ rights have been championed by queer Latinxs or that we only became visible because of people who were marginalized both by their sexuality and their ethnicity, yet were fearless in their advocacy. One such person is Chavela Vargas, a Mexican singer born in Costa Ricawho rose to fame for her radical interpretations of ranchera songs. Ranchera music is typically sung by male singers but she was known for her stripped-down style and gender-bending performances that meshed elements of femininity and masculinity, which mimicked how she carried herself …