Trevi, Gloria

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GLORIA TREVI

Born: Gloria de los Angeles Treviño; Monterrey, Mexico, 15 February 1968

Genre: Latin

Best-selling album since 1990: Tu Ángel de la Guardia (1991)

Hit songs since 1990: "Dr. Psiquiatra," "Pelo Suelto," "Papa sin Catsup"

The story of one of Mexico's most promising 1990s rockers had, by the end of the decade, turned into a horror-show of accusations, rumors, and alleged crimes. At the age of thirteen, Trevi trekked to Mexico City to pursue an acting career. There she met some Monterrey friends, one of whom hooked her up with the manager Sergio Andrade, who was forming an all-female pop quintet called Boquitas Pintadas. She joined as a vocalist and keyboardist in 1985. She went solo in 1990, retaining Andrade as her manager. Personable and open when the cameras were off, she projected a wild, rebellious image for public consumption.

Her debut album, Qué Hago Aquí? (1990), features the hits "Dr. Psiquiatra" and "El Último Beso," a cover of
J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers' "Last Kiss." She adopted a growling vocal style influenced by Janis Joplin and reminiscent of another up-and-coming Mexican rocker, Alejandra Guzman. But unlike Guzman, Trevi wrote much of her material.

Her follow-up album, Tu Ángel de la Guardia (1991), contains the anthem "Pelo Suelto" ("Undone Hair"). The song is a metaphor for taking a casual attitude toward conservative social norms in other aspects of life—figuratively letting one's hair down. That year she released a calendar full of risqué shots that sold over 300,000 copies. Never before had such a blatantly sexual celebrity made such an impact on Mexican popular culture.

In 1994 Trevi released Más Turbada Que Nunca. The album contains the bluesy hit "Papa sin Catsup," which is accompanied by a feminist video portraying Trevi as an abused housewife who finally gets her revenge. By then, however, her career was heading downhill. In 1998 the parents of a seventeen-year-old girl in Mexico accused Andrade of luring their daughter into his orbit with promises of fame and then fathering a child with her. Wanted by Mexican authorities, Trevi and Andrade dropped out of sight. In October 1999 their baby daughter was born in Brazil. The infant was reported to have died of unknown causes at the age of one month and two days. Andrade, Trevi, and her choreographer were arrested in January 2000 in Rio de Janeiro. Andrade and Trevi waited in a Brazilian jail while the extradition process inched forward. Trevi gave birth to a son in prison in 2002. No one was able to confirm the father's identity, although Trevi said it was a prison guard whom she would not name. Brazil finally extradited Trevi to Mexico in early 2003. Trevi had the potential to influence youth culture and sexual politics in Mexico the way Madonna has in the United States; her story is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of stardom and the illusions it inspires in young and impressionable fans.