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From album
Macorina
Chavela Vargas · 1994 · Track 11
Details
TonalidadGm
Compás4/4
Tempo122 BPM
Duración3:07
ÁlbumMacorina
Año1994
ISRCARF412400537
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The story behind
The song Macorina, in the voice of Chavela Vargas, is a piece that resonates with its charge of sensuality and a story that goes beyond music. The piece is based on a poem written by Alfonso Camín, who was inspired by the figure of María Calvo Nodarse, a Cuban woman known as La Macorina. This woman, who lived between 1892 and 1977, became famous in Cuba for her bold lifestyle: she smoked cigars, drove a red convertible, wore her hair short, and was recognized as one of the most elegant figures in Havana. Camín's poem, aptly titled Macorina, was published in 1931.
Chavela Vargas, born in Costa Rica in 1919 and moved to Mexico in her youth, found a special connection in the figure of La Macorina. It is said that Vargas met La Macorina in Havana and was captivated by her presence. It was then that Vargas composed the music for Camín's poem, bringing to life this version that she would record in 1961 for her first album, Noche Bohemia. This recording became one of her most emblematic songs. In fact, Marvette Perez, curator of Latin American Culture and Music at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, has pointed out that Macorina was the song that catapulted Vargas to fame, describing it as a song with a strong charge of desire and sensuality, performed with an intensity that made it clear who it was directed at. Vargas's live performances were particularly suggestive, even placing her hand between her legs when singing the phrase "Ponme la mano aquí" (Put your hand here), emulating the pleasure of feeling a lover's caress. The song has been considered the first that a woman dedicated to another with such an explicit message, becoming a true anthem. Its homoerotic content led to it being banned in Francoist Spain.
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