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.

Se Me Hizo Facil
Chavela Vargas Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Se me hizo fácil
borrar de mi memoria
a esa mujer a quién
yo amaba tanto.

Se me hizo fácil
borrar de mí ese llanto.
ahora la olvido

cada día más y más.

La abandoné
porque me fue preciso,
así abandono la mujer
que a mí me ofende.

Voy a buscar un amor
que me comprenda,
la otra la olvido
cada día más y más.

La abandoné
porque me fue preciso,
así abandono la mujer
que a mí me ofende.

Voy a buscar un amor
que me comprenda,

la otra la olvido
cada día más y más.

Overall Meaning

In Chavela Vargas's song "Se Me Hizo Fácil," the singer has successfully erased memories of the woman he once loved from his mind. He finds forgetting her easy, and even forgetting the tears he shed over her. He abandoned her because he felt that he had no choice, and now he is on a quest to find someone who understands him better than she did.

At first glance, this song appears to romanticize a quite cruel abandonment of a woman who loved the singer deeply. It is clear through the lines "así abandono la mujer que a mí me ofende," that she did something to offend him, and he believes that he had to leave. However, it is only in the final lines that Vargas's own emotions come through. The repetition of "la otra la olvido cada día más y más" reflects the bitter aftermath of a heartbreak that reveals the singer's true vulnerability.

The song speaks to the heartbreak and resilience of all those who have been abandoned by loved ones. How we process heartbreak and move on is something that varies deeply from person to person, and this song captures that beautifully.

Line by Line Meaning

Se me hizo fácil
It was easy for me

borrar de mi memoria
to erase from my memory

a esa mujer a quién
the woman whom

yo amaba tanto.
I loved so much.

Se me hizo fácil
It was easy for me

borrar de mí ese llanto.
to erase that crying from me.

ahora la olvido
Now I forget her

cada día más y más.
more and more every day.

La abandoné
I left her

porque me fue preciso,
because it was necessary for me

así abandono la mujer
Thus, I abandon the woman