Overview
I’ve always been fascinated by showgirls, often exploring the history of Latin American and Caribbean vedettes and their cultural influence throughout my journalism career. I think it’s because, from as early as I can remember, they made me rethink so much of what I had been taught about beauty and freedom. Growing up as a shy, modest, chubby girl in the 1990s and early 2000s, an era when glossy magazines circled curvy women’s thighs in red ink, these dazzling performers from another time seemed untouched by that shame.
They weren’t just baring their skin on stage. They treated their bodies as works of art, adorning them with sequins, feathers, and rhinestones, as they commanded attention with their dance, humor, and sensuality. They reveled in being seen, making visibility seem less like vulnerability and more like power. I didn’t have the language for it then, but I wanted whatever freedom they possessed.
“They treated their bodies as works of art, adorning them with sequins, feathers, and rhinestones, as they commanded attention with their dance, humor, and sensuality. “
As a Puerto Rican girl, no one captivated me more than Iris Chacón, the illustrious vedette who rose to fame in San Juan in the 1970s and became one of the earliest woman cross-over artists. “La Vedette de América,” as she’s been nicknamed, produced and hosted her own weekly hit variety TV show “El Show de Iris Chacón” for more than a decade, reaching No. 1 ratings in Puerto Rico and airing in U.S. markets like New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles. The “Bombshell of Puerto Rico” had monthslong residencies over multiple years at the iconic Caribe Hilton, lighting up the stage at Club Caribe, the hotel’s legendary cabaret showroom. There, she became part of the same glamorous legacy that drew stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, and Rita Moreno to the resort.
Iris was also the first Latine artist to sell out performances at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in the ‘70s and was photographed by the iconic fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez in Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine.
Details
By the time I was coming of age in the early millennium, the height of her fame had passed, but she remained a cultural icon — one that is still celebrated today. In fact, in the spring of 2026, Caribe Hilton opened a permanent on-site exhibit reflecting the hotel’s history – from its grand opening in 1949 to the birth of the piña colada in 1954 to Iris’ revered performances in the ‘80s, which sold out to crowds made up of both local Puerto Ricans and tourists alike. Meanwhile, in May, Iris, now 76, returned to Puerto Rico for two sold-out performances of Las Noches del Caribe at Moneró Café Teatro & Bar in Caguas. Inspired by her legendary cabaret residencies, the intimate production recreated the glamour and spectacle of Puerto Rico’s golden age of hotel showgirl entertainment.
“She gave women permission to push past the gendered rules that constrained them, reject the false choice between purity and sensuality, embrace their bodies with confidence, and imagine a freer way of moving through the world. “
But for Puerto Rican women — and for Latina viewers across the world — Iris was more than an amusing pastime or barrier-breaker. She gave women permission to push past the gendered rules that constrained them, reject the false choice between purity and sensuality, embrace their bodies with confidence, and imagine a freer way of moving through the world. And as showgirl culture — in the form of burlesque, drag, and traditional vedettes — re-emerge in Puerto Rico, she is inspiring a new generation.
For American Colony, a podcast from The Latino Newsletter and Shake It Easy Media, I trace Iris’ extraordinary legacy and how she transformed fame and entertainment into tools for challenging colonial ideas about power, femininity, and visibility. In my episode “La Chacón,” produced alongside Locatora Productions’ Diosa Femme and Mala Muñoz, I explore how both Puerto Rico and showgirls have been commoditized and consumed as exotic paradises, and how Iris manipulated the imperial script to build creative independence, employ women and queer artists, and expand what generations of Puerto Rican women imagined was possible for their bodies and their lives.
Listen to “La Chacón” below or wherever you tune into podcasts.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Source
Originally published at www.refinery29.com.