It is hard work to be an independent musician, but Mexican-Argentinian artist Carla Rivarola is proof that women can succeed by being their most authentic selves.

After spending two and a half years at the National Music School in Mexico City, Carla decided that being a composer should be her passion and not her homework. Armed with a guitar, a piano and an enviable set of vocal cords, she walked out onto a scary world of unpaid gigs and self-funded recording sessions. Her courage and consistency paid off with a flexible record deal that respects her creative autonomy and sold out venues around the country to see her perform her latest album Médula Silvestre, or Wild Marrow.

Carla’s feminist anthem Fantástica (or Fantastic, in the feminine form) was released in November 2018 and quickly captured the imagination of Mexican women. The upbeat song tells the story of a girl that is found passed out from an intentional antidepressant overdose. Amidst the chaos of the emergency room, Carla reminds us that we are indispensable and carry inside of us everything we need to triumph in the most inhospitable of environments. In a subversive gesture, she addresses women directly by using the term “morra”, a word from working-class slang that means “girl” but is not infatilising.

The music video features dozens of real women seen thriving in their own, special way. Among them are a sex worker and a breastfeeding mother, two images that remain taboo across the conservative nations of Latin America. Nevertheless, the video made it to the screens of the Mexico City metro system that transports over 5.5 million people daily. Oh, and the girl in the song survives, in case you were wondering.

Carla Rivarola pulls off the feat of creating art that faithfully portrays the everyday women behind the feminist revolution playing out in the streets of Mexico, and yet remains refreshingly universal. Her song is meant to inspire, uplift and challenge us to stay hopeful as we set out to make our dreams come true. Fantástica is a sisterly love letter to women.

Check out the music video below:

Here is the original translation of the lyrics by the artist:

We found her
Head hanging
A bottle of pills on her lap
Exactly those
The ones we hate the most
The ones that run your debt when you’re down

In her wounded note
She outlined
“I hope I actually die”
Sweet and stupid
And proud
How things turned around
In the emergency room

Morra
You’ve got everything to germinate
In the most inhospitable landscape

The whiteness of the hospital
Can’t hold a candle
to the lighthouse
that will pull you closer to the sand
remember,
there’s someone home waiting

A long time ago
on the rooftop
The lavenders invited
the carpenter bees
That built their hive
Beneath the tiles
Of your aunt’s house
And we declared
a sententious war for the roses
Until we won the battle
Baptising the stars

Morra
You’ve got everything to germinate
in the most inhospitable landscape
Take each thing as it comes
And what comes will be better
Touched by your multicoloured spirit

Morra
You’ve got everything to germinate
In the most inhospitable landscape

The whiteness of the hospital
Can’t hold a candle
To the fire of your floral form
Familiar
Fantastic

Always so fantastic
Always so fantastic
Always so fantastic
Always so fantastic

Find Carla’s music on Spotify here and follow her on Instagram here.

Post by TYL guest contributor Andrea Mariana Islas.

Carla Rivarola, Fantástica