Macorina (song)

"Macorina" is a song written by Costa Rica-born Mexican singer Chavela Vargas and based on a poem by Alfonso Camín. It was first recorded by Vargas in 1961. The song was controversial due to its reference to romantic longing between women and became a "lesbian hymn."

"Macorina"
Single by Chavela Vargas
Songwriter(s)Chavela Vargas (music), Alfonso Camín (underlying poem)

La Macorina
Main article: La Macorina

The song is based on a poem written by Alfonso Camín (1890–1982) about María Calvo Nodarse (1892–1977), a Cuban woman who became known as La Macorina. La Macorina gained fame in Cuba for her beauty, personality, and scandalous lifestyle, which included smoking cigars, driving a red convertible, wearing her hair short, and working as one of the most elegant prostitutes in Havana.[1] Camín's poem, titled "Macorina", was published in 1931.[2]

Chavela Vargas
Main article: Chavela Vargas

Chavela Vargas (1919–2012) was a Costa Rica-born singer who moved to Mexico as a teenager. She sang on the streets and later became a professional singer. In addition to her music, she became known for her lifestyle, which included dressing as a man, smoking cigars, carrying a gun, drinking heavily and wearing a red poncho.[3][4] She publicly came out as a lesbian at age 81.[5][6][7]

The song

Vargas met La Macorina in Havana and was struck by her beauty. Vargas recalled: "I saw her and I was speechless."[8] Vargas later wrote music to accompany the words of Camín's poem.[9] Prior to Vargas' version, the Cuban bandleader Abelardo Barroso had a hit song about La Macorina.[10]

Vargas recorded the song in 1961 for her first record, Noche Bohemia.[11][6] It became one of her most famous songs. Indeed, Marvette Perez, curator of Latin-American Culture and Music for the Smithsonian Museum of American History, described it as the song that made Vargas famous.[12] Perez noted: "I don't think there could be a more queer song for a woman to sing. The song says, 'Ponme la mano aqui, Macorina.' Put your hand right here, Macorina. And whenever she sang the song, she put such sexuality, desire and kind of sensuality into it that you knew why she was singing, why she was singing and to who she was singing it. She was singing it to a woman."[12]

Vargas' live performances of the song were described as "openly suggestive of lesbian desire." When singing the line, "Put your hand right here," Vargas would place her hand between her legs, engage the gaze of a woman in the audience, and "emulate the sexual pleasure of feeling the lover's hand."[9]

"Macorina" has been described as "the first erotic song that one woman dedicated to another."[13] It became "the lesbian hymn".[9] Due to its homoerotic message, the song was banned in Francoist Spain.[14]

Performances by others

The song has also been recorded by others, including Susana Baca on her 2000 album Eco de Sombras.[15]

References
  1. Alfonso, Vanessa (12 April 2016). "The True History of La Macorina". www.radiometropolitana.icrt.cu (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  2. Jose del Castillo Pichardo (November 18, 2017). "Ponme la mano aquí Macorina". Diario Libre.
  3. Garrido, Isaac (5 August 2012). "Chavela Vargas Dead At Age 93, Famed Mexican Singer Challenged Catholic And Chauvinist Preconceptions". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  4. "Review: How Costa Rican singer Chavela Vargas defied the rules of the gender game and more in a new documentary". Los Angeles Times. 2017-10-05. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
  5. Siadate, Nazly (August 20, 2012). "Chavela Vargas and Frida Kahlo an Item in '60s-era Mexico?". Pride. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
  6. "Chavela Vargas 1919–2012: Celebrated ranchera songstress defied gender stereotypes". Chicago Tribune. August 6, 2012. p. II-6 – via Newspapers.com.(Noche Bohemia was the first of more than 80 records by Vargas)
  7. Garsd, Jasmine (August 5, 2012). "Chavela Vargas: A Legend Of Latin American Song". NPR. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
  8. "Chavela Vargas y la deslumbrante belleza de Macorin" [Chavela Vargas and the dazzling beauty of Macorina]. El País (in Spanish). October 8, 2013. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  9. Ramos-Kittrell, Jesús A. (2019). Decentering the Nation: Music, Mexicanidad, and Globalization. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-4985-7318-4.
  10. "The Macorina, some lines made by music". Sociedad Cultural Rosalia De Castro. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  11. "Chabela Vargas* – Noche Bohemia". Discogs. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  12. Felix Contreras (November 15, 2020). "Chavela Vargas: The Voice of Triumph". National Public Radio.
  13. Mar Gallego (June 30, 2013). "Los manos de La Macorina". Pikara Magazine.
  14. "Personajes Celebres La Macorina". Hello Foros – La Comunidad en Español más Popular de los Latinos (in Spanish). 3 June 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  15. "Eco de Sombras: Echo of Shadows". AllMusic. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
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