HispanicBusiness

Chavela Vargas, legendary Mexican singer, passed away Sunday at age 93. Her friend and biographer Maria Cortina said Vargas died at around noon in a hospital in the city of Cuernavaca, where she had been admitted for heart and respiratory problems.

Her doctor, Jose Manuel Nunez, said Sunday that she had refused to accept breathing tubes or other measures to keep her alive. "She had to have a natural death," he said.

Cortina said Chavez "went with great peace. She never complained." She was conscious to the end, the writer said. "She sought my hand and her shamanic medallion."

Vargas' remains will be cremated and then -in a private ceremony- her friends will come to scatter her ashes in the hill Chalchi outside her house in Tepoztlan, Mexico, Daily El Mundo informed.