Chavela Vargas

Costa Rican-born but wholly adopted by Mexico, Vargas's raw interpretations of rancheras — performed in indigenous garb with a poncho and mezcal glass — brought a radical female autonomy and openly lesbian identity to a genre defined by male machismo. Her late-career renaissance, when she resumed performing at age 81 after decades of alcoholism, resulted in recordings that critics placed among the most emotionally authentic in Mexican music history.