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...