María Olvido Gara Jova (born 13 June 1963), better known as Alaska, is a Spanish-Mexican singer famous in Spain and Hispanic America. She was one of the founding members of the La Movida Madrileña, the cultural and artistic movement that followed the end of Francoist Spain. This movement, in which music, the arts, cinema and fashion erupted and collided to show what Spain had become under Franco. She has participated, since the late 1970s, in several music groups: Kaka de Luxe 1977, Alaska y los Pegamoides 1980, Alaska y Dinarama 1983, and since 1989, the Spanish electropop band, Fangoria. Today, Alaska continues to perform and has become an icon of 1980s Spain. Life and career Early life Alaska was born in Mexico City on 13 June 1963. Her father, from Asturias, Spain, was in Mexico living in exile during the Spanish Civil War along with her Cuban mother, who was also living in Mexico in exile from Fidel Castro. In 1973, two years before caudillo Francisco Franco died, her parents decided to move to Spain, settling in Madrid. Alaska was a big fan of artists such as Lou Reed and T-Rex, but David Bowie was her biggest influence. She even told her mother that she would love to be a boy just so he could be gay. At 14 she collaborated translating Robert Crumb's comic strips for a fanzine called Bazofia, using the pen name Alaska. She chose the name inspired by the lyrics of Reed's song "Caroline Says II" ("All her friends call her Alaska"/../"It's so cold in Alaska"). The birth of punk also had a big influence on the young Alaska, who soon decided to form a band. She went to El Rastro, a famous flea market in Madrid, looking for band members, where she met Nacho Canut and Carlos Berlanga. 1970s and 1980s In 1977, Alaska along with Fernando Márquez, Nacho Canut, Carlos Berlanga and Enrique Sierra, among others, formed the band Kaka de Luxe, one of the first Spanish punk rock bands, where she played rhythm guitar. In 1979, Gara, Canut, Berlanga, Ana Curra and Eduardo Benavente formed the band Alaska y los Pegamoides. Alaska was lead singer for the first time with the group "Pegamoides". They took the name as a tribute to one of the bands they admired: Siouxsie and the Banshees. Due to some artistic differences, Carlos Berlanga left "Pegamoides", and with Nacho