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Lovingly dubbed as “La Reina del Pueblo” (The Queen of the People) and “La Guerrillera del Bolero” (The Guerrilla of Bolero), Francisca Viveros Barrada (born on April 2, 1947), aka Paquita la del Barrio, is a Mexican singer-songwriter, actress, and one of the first female artists to denounce her country’s overtly machista culture. Gifted with a sardonic sense of humor and well-versed in a whole host of Mexican Regional styles such as mariachi, bolero, and ranchera, Viveros Barrada moved from her hometown in Veracruz to Mexico City in 1970 to pursue a career in music after finding out her then-husband had a double life. She started off by performing at a local restaurant in Colonia Guerrero, where she received her nickname and earned her first couple of fans. Word of mouth spread quickly, and in 1986 she was invited to perform at a Televisa special, which exposed her to a wider audience and helped her secure a record deal with CBS. After making her major-label debut with Mi Renuncia (1988), Viveros Barrada released a plethora of albums at a prolific rate that became instant classics, such as Desquítate Conmigo (1992), Invítame A Pecar (1993), Me Saludas A La Tuya (1998), and Taco Placero (2001), which included the fan-favorite “Rata de Dos Patas.” In the following years, she collaborated with Guatemalan singer-songwriter Ricardo Arjona on his 2008 single “Ni Tú Ni Yo” and released the album No Hay Mujeres Feas (2015), which reached Number 14 on Billboard’s Latin Top Albums. More accolades ensued, as she received a lifetime achievement prize at the Lo Nuestro Awards in 2016, and had a TV series about her life premiered via Sony Pictures Television the following year. At the turn of the decade, and with the feminist movement on the rise, Viveros Barrada remained more relevant than ever on “El Consejo,” a duet with singer Ana Bárbara whose accompanying video amassed over a million views on streaming platforms.
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