Isabel Vargas Lizano (born 17 April 1919, died August 5, 2012) was a Costa … Read Full Bio ↴Isabel Vargas Lizano (born 17 April 1919, died August 5, 2012) was a Costa Rican-born Mexican singer. She is especially known for her rendition of Mexican rancheras genre - a folkloric musical genre widely popular in Mexico - but she is also recognized for her contribution to other popular Latin American song genres. She has been an influential interpreter in the Americas and Europe, muse to figures such as Pedro Almodóvar, hailed for her haunting performances, and called "la voz áspera de la ternura", the rough voice of tenderness.

Isabel Vargas Lizano was born in San Joaquín de Flores, Costa Rica. She goes by Chavela, which is a nickname for Isabel. At only 14, she fled her native country due to lack of musical career opportunities, seeking refuge in Mexico, where an entertainment industry was burgeoning. For many years she sang on the streets but in her thirties she became a professional singer. In her youth, she dressed as a man, smoked cigars, drank heavily, carried a gun and was known for her characteristic red jorongo, which she still dons in performances.

Her first album, Noche de Bohemia (Bohemian Night), was released in 1961 with the professional support of José Alfredo Jiménez, one of the foremost singer/songwriters of the Mexican cancion ranchera. Vargas has recorded over eighty albums thereafter. She was hugely successful during the 1950s, 1960s and the first half of the 70s, touring in Mexico, the United States, France and Spain and was close to many prominent artists and intellectuals of the time, including Juan Rulfo, Agustín Lara, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Dolores Olmedo and José Alfredo Jiménez. She partly retired in the late 1970s due to a 15 year-long battle with alcoholism, which she has described in her autobiography (Y si quieres saber de mi pasado [And if you want to know about my past], published in 2002) as "my 15 years in hell" At 81 years old, she publicly declared that she was a lesbian.

Vargas returned to the stage in 1991, performing at the venue "El Habito" in Coyoacan, Mexico City.She debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2003 at the age of 83 at the behest and promotion of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, a long-time admirer and personal friend of Vargas.

In April 2012 she released her latest album "Luna Grande" a tribute to Spanish poet Federico García Lorca.

La Noche de Mi Mal
Chavela Vargas Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

No quiero ni volver a oír tu nombre
No quiero ni saber a dónde vas
Así me lo dijiste aquella noche
Aquella negra noche de mi mal

Si yo te hubiera dicho no te vayas
Que triste me esperaba el porvenir
Si yo te hubiera dicho no, no me dejes

Mi propio corazón se iba a reír

Por eso fue que me viste tan tranquilo
Caminar serenamente bajo un cielo más que azul
Después ya ves, me aguante hasta donde pude
Termine llorando a mares donde no me vieras tú

Si yo te hubiera dicho no te vayas
Qué triste me esperaba el porvenir
Si yo te hubiera dicho no me dejes
Mi propio corazón se iba a reír

Por eso fue que me viste tan tranquilo
Caminar serenamente bajo un cielo más que azul
Después ya ves, me aguante hasta donde pude
Termine llorando a mares donde no me vieras tú

Si yo te hubiera dicho no te vayas
Qué triste me esperaba el porvenir

Si yo te hubiera dicho no me dejes
Mi propio corazón se iba a reír

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Chavela Vargas's song "Noches De Boda" express the heartbreak and regret of a person who let go of their loved one without fighting for them. The opening lines reveal the intensity of the pain the person is experiencing as they not only want to forget their lover but also erase any memory of them. The next few lines reveal that the lover begged to stay, but the person didn't fight for their relationship and now they are left with nothing but regret. The lines "Si yo te hubiera dicho no te vayas Que triste me esperaba el porvenir" express the regret of not trying hard enough to keep the love alive. The image of the person trying to be calm and walk "serenamente bajo un cielo más que azul" shows that it's difficult to put up a facade of strength when one is heartbroken. The final lines reveal how the person held their emotions in until they couldn't anymore and broke down in tears, but they did so where their lover wouldn't see them.

Line by Line Meaning

No quiero ni volver a oír tu nombre
I don't want to hear your name again.

No quiero ni saber a dónde vas
I don't want to know where you go.

Así me lo dijiste aquella noche
That's what you told me that night.

Aquella negra noche de mi mal
That dark night of my misery.

Si yo te hubiera dicho no te vayas
If I had told you not to leave.

Que triste me esperaba el porvenir
How sad my future would have been.

Si yo te hubiera dicho no, no me dejes
If I had told you not to leave me.

Mi propio corazón se iba a reír
My own heart would have laughed at me.

Por eso fue que me viste tan tranquilo
That's why you saw me so calm.

Caminar serenamente bajo un cielo más que azul
Walking calmly under a sky bluer than blue.

Después ya ves, me aguante hasta donde pude
Later, you see, I held on as long as I could.