Vargas was born on 3 March 1934 in
Puerto Tejada, in the Colombian department of
Cauca. Her parents were Eliécer Vargas and Susana Marulanda.
Music career Vargas recorded for the first time in 1967 for record label Vergara. In 1968 at the age of 34 she signed a recording contract with , and went on to release over 30 albums. Hernán Restrepo Duque was Vargas' musical director at Sonolux; he formed his own record label Preludio in 1975, and there released Vargas' album
La Ronca de Oro, on which she was accompanied by
Jaime Llano González and . Vargas recorded songs in many Latin American styles, including
ranchera,
tango,
pasillo, and
bambuco. She had more than 50
gold records across her career. Notable hits for Vargas included "Búscame" and "Feria de Cali" (written by
Helena Benítez de Zapata), "La Guerrillera" (
Leonor Buenaventura de Valencia), "Señora" and "Mi Huella" (
Graciela Arango de Tobón), "María de los Guardias" (
Carlos Mejía Godoy, with lyrics rewritten by
Alfonso López Michelsen), "Cuando Voy Por la Calle" (
Jaime R. Echavarría), "Pasaste a la Historia", "No te Pido Más", and "Me Llaman la Ronca". In 2009 Vargas recorded and released her final album, following a liver transplant.
El Tiempo compared her singing to that of
Esther Forero,
Darío Gómez, and
Diomedes Díaz, writing "They are not the ones with the most refined voice, nor the ones with the best intonation...But they have something in their expression and in their throat that manages to create feelings that people identify with."
Personal life and death Vargas was married to Hernán Isaías Ibarra in 1951, and to Gonzalo Zafra from 1964 to 1984. Her nickname "La Ronca de Oro" was given to her by journalist José Pardo Llada, in an article in
El Espacio. She died on 7 February 2011 in
Cali. ==Notes==