Paquita la del Barrio, a giant voice of Mexican heartbreak and rage, dies at 77

Paquita la del Barrio, the ranchera and bolero singer who took aim at machismo as if it were a piñata, has died at her home in Veracruz, Mexico. She was 77 years old. Her team shared the news on her official Instagram page. No cause of death was provided.

Mexico City’s Department of Culture issued a statement celebrating her life and legacy: “[She] left an indelible mark with her unmistakable voice and unique style, [her music] transcended generations and became anthems of female empowerment and social criticism.”

In the 1980s, Paquita la del Barrio — which translates informally to Paquita from the block — became a household name in Mexico, where she was embraced for the disdain with which she wrote and sang about the men who broke her heart. In one of her biggest hits, “Una rata de dos patas,” she famously compared an ex-lover to a two-legged rat, a cursed leech and a poisonous snake.

Paquita’s biting — sometimes bitter — lyricism grew out of what she described as personal experience. Born Francisca Viveros Barradas in 1947, she was still a teenager when she eloped with a man more than 20 years her senior. After giving birth to two of his sons, Barradas said she learned her husband had been hiding a second wife and family.

“I’ve suffered a lot. It’s difficult because the heart goes where it wants,” she told USA Today in 2021. “Those feelings are what guide people to my music.”

She began performing in cantinas around Mexico City in the 1970s. Initially, she sang with her sister in the duo Las Golondrinas, and later debuted as a solo artist under a new artistic name: Paquita la del Barrio. She went on to record more than 30 albums and tour extensively across South America, Spain and the United States.

”We Mexicans have this machismo situation. Women are always hurt by what men do to them,” she told The Miami Herald in 2008. “I don’t sing what others sing. I sing the truth, even if the gentlemen don’t like it.”

During her career, Paquita la del Barrio received two Latin Grammy nominations, five entries on Billboard‘s Top Latin Albums chart and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2021 Billboard Latin Music Awards.

In feminist anthems like “Tres veces te engañé,” Paquita powerfully transformed her pain into lyrics of full-bodied rage. Empowerment, too. In the chorus, she sang, “three times I cheated on you. The first time out of anger. The second time on a whim. The third time for my pleasure.” The unapologetic nature of her music and public image was cemented by another line from the same song, “Me estás oyendo, inútil?” It would become Paquita la del Barrio’s catchphrase. In English, it means “Are you listening to me, you good-for-nothing?”