Alicia Ramos

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Ramos and the second or maternal family name is Triano.

Alicia Ramos
Born	Alicia Ramos Triano (1969-09-13) 13 September 1969 (age 55)[1] Güímar. Spain
Occupation(s)	Singer and writer

Alicia Ramos Triano, known professionally as Alicia Ramos (Güímar, September 13, 1969), is a Spanish LGBT singer-songwriter, columnist, and writer.

Early life

She was born in the Tenerife municipality of Güimar, in the Canary Islands. Academically, she has a degree in geography and history,[2] but music has interested her since she was very young. She began to play Canarian folklore at the age of nine,[3] and later she studied piano at the Conservatory.[4]

She made her first compositions at the age of fifteen or sixteen.[5] She claims to have forged her musical taste listening to Deep Purple, the bands ofe Ritchie Blackmore, Lucinda Williams, Shooter Jennings, Sheryl Crow or John Mayer in his last stages, but also other voices such as John Denver, Silvio Rodríguez, the figures of the Novísima Trova Cubana Frank Delgado and Carlos Varela, or singers like Fito Páez and Andrés Calamaro. Her music is a mix of styles, but country rock is the most common one. Her lyrics are always mean and funny.[6][7]

Career

As a result of participating in an open mic whose proposal was to make a song about a current issue every week, she composed two of her best known songs, "Mi Amante Urdangarín" and "Muérete tú dedicated" to Christine Lagarde, director of the International Monetary Fund, after she asked in 2012 for a lowering of pensions because of "the risk of people living longer than expected".[8]

In 2014, her song "Y las flores" was the soundtrack of the documentary directed by Fernando Olmeda, El viaje de Carla, about the life of the politician and LGBT rights activist Carla Antonelli, a fellow countryman of Ramos.[9] In August 2015, she released her first album, Ganas de quemar cosas, with ten songs that, according to herself, have never failed her. She was able to do so because the sound technician of a hall where she had performed offered to record it in her spare time without charging her. Lumpenprekariät, her second album, came out in September 2018. The name of the album is a play on the Marxist term lumpenproletariado.

With her band Brútiful[10] or solo, she performs on stages in bars, theaters, festivals, self-managed social centers, cultural centers, or in the street. Sometimes, her alter ego, Alicia Bouquet, comes out on stage and sings English love and heartbreak songs.

She is part of the Arte Muhé collective, a multidisciplinary artistic project whose aim is to make women artists visible.[11]

Although she has stated that music is her life, Ramos is also the author of a novel titled El último vándalo (que yo sepa) and frequently writes for media outlets such as Píkara Magazine,[12][13] Diario Público,[14] ElDiario.es[15] or El Salto.[16] In March 2020, she took over a column in CTXT, which is called the same as her first album, Ganas de quemar cosas.[17]

She has never defined herself as an activist, but the truth is that she has collaborated for four years with the association of families of transsexual minors, Chrysallis[18][19] and has been part of the cast of the short film Transparente, produced by the association.[20]

Acknowledgments

She has received awards from entities that fight for the rights of LGBT people:

• In 2016, she was awarded for being visible in her artistic career in the V edition of the Adriano Antinoo Equality Awards, which are given by the association of the same name in collaboration with the Cajasol Foundation to recognize the trajectory of individuals and entities in their fight for LGBT equality.[21]
• In 2018, the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Trans and Bisexuals awarded Ramos one of its pens at the XII edition of the annual Plumas y Látigos awards for her visibility and for showing through her music another way of being an activist, transmitting a critical message towards patriarchy and cisexism.[22]
• In 2019, the COGAM collective presented him with the Bandera a la Militancia for her contribution to LGTBI activism.[23]

Literary awards

• In 2019, her novel El último vándalo won the Benito Pérez Armas Award in its 35th edition. This prize is the longest-running literary award in the Canary Islands and is convened annually by Caja Canarias.[24]

References

1. "Alicia Ramos". Cancion con todos (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2022-05-23. Retrieved 2022-06-18.
2. "Alicia Ramos". Euforia (in Spanish). 24 November 2019.
3. "Alicia Ramos (cantante): "La censura más grave es la que la ciudadanía se aplica a sí misma"". DosManzanas (in Spanish). 24 December 2014.
4. "Cantautora y transexual: Alicia Ramos o cómo reinventarse". MíraLES (in Spanish). 24 March 2014.
5. "Alicia Ramos: "Tengo más dificultades por ser mujer que por ser transexual"". OFF Magazine (in Spanish). 2 February 2017.
6. "La cantautora contra el FMI que no puede pagarse un disco". ElConfidencial. 6 April 2015.
7. "Alicia Ramos ofrece un concierto en el Teatro Guimerá dentro del ciclo "Palabra de autor"". La revista de canarias (in Spanish). 14 January 2014.
8. "El FMI pide bajar pensiones por "el riesgo de que la gente viva más de lo esperado"". El País (in Spanish). 11 April 2012.
9. "El viaje de Carla. Cómo descubrí a Alicia Ramos". El Viaje de Carla (in Spanish). 23 February 2014.
10. "ALICIA RAMOS - BRÚTIFUL". Ayuntamiento - Soto del Real (in Spanish).
11. "Homenaje a las activistas trans que han inspirado mi feminismo". ElDiario (in Spanish). 11 July 2019.
12. "Alicia Ramos, autora en pikara magazine". pikara magazine (in Spanish).
13. "Heridas de bala". pikara magazine (in Spanish). 28 October 2020.
14. "Al diablo no le gusta que sepan que existe". Público (in Spanish). 31 December 2019.
15. "Frente a la transfobia: yo elijo vivir". ElDiario (in Spanish). 29 June 2017.
16. "El último cartucho". El Salto Diario (in Spanish).
17. "Ruido de próstatas". ctxt (in Spanish).
18. ""Es probable que vengan a embargarme la guitarra a mitad del concierto"". Lagenda (in Spanish). 21 November 2018.
19. "Entrevista Alicia Ramos: "La mejor forma de defender los derechos es ejercerlos"". Oveja Rosa (in Spanish). 17 January 2017.
20. "TRANSPARENTE (Cortometraje)". NorfiPC (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 16 January 2021.
21. elEconomista (24 February 2016). "El ex Defensor del Pueblo Vasco, la secretaria andaluza de Salud Pública o 'La Negri', Premios Adriano Antinoo 2016". El Economista (in Spanish).
22. "Boti, Los Javis o Alicia Ramos entre los Premios Plumas 2018". MAGCEDONIA (in Spanish). 9 May 2018. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
23. "COGAM entrega sus premios con un llamamiento a "no dar ni un paso atrás" ante los "caminantes grises" de la LGTBifobia". EuropaPress (in Spanish). 21 June 2019.
24. "Alicia Ramos gana el premio "Benito Pérez Armas" con "El último vándalo"". EFE (in Spanish).