Very few people within Mexican pop culture deal with scandal like Gloria Trevi, or La Trevi, as many of her fans call her with some love.
She first appeared on stage as part of a group called “Boquitas Pintada” (Painted Little Mouths) when she was 15 years-old. The group was not successful, but La Trevi managed to climb her way up to stardom, which she met in 1989 with the song “Dr. Psiquiatra.” This quick hit on Mexican billboards was part of the album “¿Qué hago aquí?” (“What am I doing here?”), which characterized her as a rebellious female maverick. She was strong enough to fight against school and her parents, and was also willing to talk openly about her sexuality–on her own terms.
On stage, Gloria Trevi sang with a husky voice, wearing ripped tights, short skirts, and a messy hair. As a regular part of her show, La Trevi would invite a guy from the audience to dance with her, ending up straddling him, for the amusement of the audience, who would see the guy totally astonished by this uncommon, powerful woman.
In 1998 fortune turned its back to La Trevi. Sergio Andrade, her manager, was accused by his former wife of luring teenage girls into a web of sexual slavery, promising them help to become superstars. The story was published in the book De la Gloria al Infierno (“From Glory to Hell”), that named Gloria Trevi as one of the main agents and participants who helped Andrade to achieve his atrocities. After the book was published, La Trevi, along with her manager and lover, went on the lam, fleeing Mexico for Spain, Argentina, and finally, Brazil, where they were caught. The Mexican and Brazilian governments negotiated for a long time whether the couple would be extradited to Mexico or would remain in Brazil. In the meantime, La Trevi became pregnant in jail.
In December 2001, La Trevi was finally extradited to Mexico, and her baby sent to live with his grandmother. At the same time, there were speculations about other baby that supposedly was born and dissapeared in Brazil while Andrade and Trevi were fugitive. To make a long story short, La Trevi was finally released from a Mexican prision in 2004, after she protested with a hunger strike.
Right away after her release, Gloria Trevi’s came back to the stage with a new album called Trevolución. The magic of media and marketing transformed La Trevi from being an ostracized character to a beloved star who had triumphed after an unhappy childhood, gossip, and above all, the mean mistreatment of her macho manager. At this point, Gloria Trevi’s renaissance overwhelmed her fans, who immediately forgot about the rumored dead baby, her ties to the teen prostitution ring, and the bizarre way she came out of jail.
Once La Trevi reappeared as a triumphant diva on the stage, it seems as if her story was entangled with a series of tragic women such as Judy Garland or Joan Crawford. In the context of a macho culture, it’s up for debate whether La Trevi was the agent of machismo or its victim. Either way, she has been capable enough to rise from the ashes like a phoenix, reborn as a gay icon.
As part of the celebration of her return, La Trevi promised to appear like a fallen angel in the Gay Parade in 2005, elected by the organizers as queen of the event. Unfortunately, she couldn’t make it, due to the “advanced state of her pregnancy”. However, laid out in a sparkling dress and as much make up as she could wear, the video of her song “Todos me miran” (“Everyone looks at me”) remains as one of the gayest anthems of the Mexican queer community. Thanks to this song, and her story, La Trevi even made it to the Latino stage at the San Francisco Parade in 2006.
Allegedly, she had the original the idea and was co director of the video. The message is, in her own words, “an expression of triumph over oppression”.