Paquita la del Barrio, an iconic singer of traditional Mexican ranchera music who subverted the testosterone-driven genre with lyrics disparaging philandering men, died on Monday at the age of 77, leaving a legacy in Latin America like no other.
The singer’s family and management team published a statement on her social media accounts on Monday confirming her death, honoring her as a “unique and irreplaceable artist who will leave an indelible mark in the hearts of all of us who knew her and enjoyed her music.” Paquita continued to perform through the end of her life and was expected to tour in the United States throughout 2025.
Manager Francisco Torres told reporters on Monday that Paquita “died in her bed, at home, sleeping” and did not appear to have any health emergencies before her passing. His last conversation with her reportedly concerned an upcoming concert in Mexico City.
The Mexican Secretariat of Culture published a statement honoring Paquita’s legacy on Monday, describing her as an “iconic representative of ranchera and popular Mexican music.”
“Francisca Viveros Barradas left an indelible mark with her unmistakeable voice and unique style with her anthems such as ‘Rata de dos patas‘ and ‘Tres veces te engañé,’ which transcended generations, becoming emblems of female empowerment and social protest,” the statement read. “With an over 50-year-long career, Paquita conquered the love of the people and recognition as one of the great proponents of Mexican music.”
Beginning her career as a young woman singing at local bars and intermittently pausing her ambitions for her ill-fated loves, Paquita, born Francisca Viveros Barradas in Veracruz, became an international superstar and a staple of the childhood of many Millennials – whose mothers laughed, and possibly related to, her lyrics. Paquita la del Barrio’s lyrics were especially jarring in the context of traditional Mexican ranchera music, a form of Mexican country music whose themes often revolved around idealized manliness. Paquita contrasted sharply with, for example, Vicente Fernández, perhaps the most internationally recognizable face of ranchera music, who sang songs such as “El Rey,” a song about men being the king of their households.
Perhaps her most well-known song, “Rata de dos patas” (“Two-Legged Rat”), consists mostly of a string of barbed insults at a man who deceived the narrator:
Filthy rat, crawling animal, scum of life, badly made monstrosity
Subhuman spectre of hell, damned vermin, how much harm you have done to me!
Vermin, poisonous snake, waste of life
I hate you and despise you
Two-legged rat
I am talking to you because a crawling critter, even being the most cursed, compared to you, is nothing
Other notable hits for the traditional singer included “Tres veces te engañe” (“I Cheated on You Three Times”), “Pobre pistolita” (“Poor Pistol”), “Hombres malvados” (“Evil Men”), and “Viejo rabo verde” (“Dirty Old Man”).
Paquita la del Barrio grew up in poverty, working jobs such as cutting coffee and ending her education at age 16. As a minor, she fell in love with a man in the local municipal government, Miguel Gerardo, who was 30 years her senior. Paquita and Gerardo had two children and the relationship continued for some time despite Gerardo being abusing and hiding a secret family from her.
“I made the mistake of messing with a married man, I lost seven years living with that gentleman,” Paquita explained in one interview. “I got with that gentleman, at first in secret from my parents … then I ginned up the courage and spoke to them clearly, that I was with that gentleman.”
“It was very fast, I fell in love with him and there was no time to investigate,” she narrated. “For me it was tremendous suffering, your world closes in around you and with children, even worse.”
Paquita eventually left Gerardo and began her life anew working at a bar with her sister, where she began to sing. There, she met her second husband, Alfonso Martínez, to whom she was married for 30 years. The couple had two other children, twins, who died tragically months after their birth.
Paquita’s marriage with Martínez ended when she hired a private investigator who found that Martínez had been hiding a secret second family from her for 15 years.
The singer swore off romance following the catastrophic end of her second marriage and took to singing songs about her experiences, which resonated deeply with Mexican, and Latin America, women. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Paquita had established herself as an elder stateswoman of ranchera music, which allowed her a more public sense of humor, often self-deprecating. In one of the most memorable moments of her later career, Paquita visited the iconic Univisión gossip show El gordo y la flaca and joined the titular gordo, former paparazzo Raúl de Molina, in the show’s staple jacuzzi. El gordo y la flaca often invites guests, typically traditionally attractive women, into its jacuzzi for interviews.
Paquita la del Barrio recorded over 30 albums throughout her career, received two Latin Grammy nominations, and was awarded a Billboard lifetime achievement award in 2021 – an event at which, upon being helped with her microphone by Puerto Rican pop star Bad Bunny, she jokingly derided him as “useless.”
Towards the end of her life, Paquita weighed in briefly in politics, considering a run for local representative in Veracruz in 2021 for a center-left party and occasionally condemning President Donald Trump for what she considered disparaging comments against Mexicans. In 2017, Paquita urged Trump to respect illegal migrants, telling the Spanish newswire service EFE, “one has to have cojones to cross the border as many do, we all know it is very dangerous and that deserves respect, a lot of respect.”
In a later interview, Paquita refused, however, to dedicate one of her songs to Trump, instead urging him to “make life easier for people who work here [in America].”
Paquita’s family is organizing a small funeral for the singer in Veracruz on Tuesday, but the government of Mexico City is reportedly planning a larger affair to give the public a chance to say goodbye. Details of the larger honorific event are not available at press time.
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