Singer Chavela Vargas dead at 93

CUERNAVACA, Mexico, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Costa Rican-born singer and actress Chavela Vargas has died of respiratory failure in a hospital in Cuernavaca, Mexico, her biographer said.

She was 93.

Her friend and biographer Maria Cortina confirmed her weekend death to the BBC.

Vargas recorded 80 albums and performed until late into her life, sometimes in a wheelchair. Her first appearance at New York's Carnegie Hall was when she was 83 and the Latin Recording Academy presented her with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

A lesbian who said she had been in love with Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, Vargas was famous for performing Mexican "ranchera" songs dressed in men's clothes while smoking cigars and drinking on stage, the BBC said.

Among her famous friends were muralist Diego Rivera, and writers Juan Rulfo and Federico Garcia Lorca. She sang in the 2002 film "Frida," a bio-picture about her longtime friend, Kahlo. Her own life was documented in the autobiography, "You Want to Know About My Past."