Chavela Vargas is a Costa Rican singer of rancheras, a folkloric musical form widely popular in Mexico. She dressed as a man, smoked cigars, drank heavily, carried a gun and was known for her characteristic red poncho. In a Colombian television interview in 2000, she openly admitted she was a lesbian. Vargas was born Isabel Vargas Lizano in Costa Rica on April 17 1919. At only 14, she fled the country because of its lack of opportunities for starting a musical career, … Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Chavela Vargas. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chavela_Vargas