he was born in the neighborhood of Palermo to a family of tango musicians. Her paternal grandfather was bandoneon player in the orchestras led by Juan Maglio (Pacho) and Osvaldo Fresedo. Her uncle, Osvaldo Avena, was a great guitarist and composer. Since early age she witnessed family rehearsals and her grandfather cuddled her with his bandoneon.

She was a child when she decided to belong to the world of music and poetry and then she became a singer.

At age 17 she started her career alongside the poet Héctor Negro with whom she appeared at several shows with tango and poetry. Her house was a center for rendezvous of artists, poets and composers with personalities like Mercedes Sosa, Susana Rinaldi, Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez, Chabuca Granda, José Ángel Trelles, Armando Tejada Gómez, Hamlet Lima Quintana.

One day in the dressing room of the Teatro Odeón of Buenos Aires she met an impresario who had heard her and had decided to hire her as the lead voice of the most important group of Latin American music in Brazil: Raíces de América. She settled in that country and performed with that group at the major theaters of São Paulo and in the great cities of the interior. Its leader was one of the best directors of Brazilian theater, Flávio Rangel.

Mercedes Sosa artistically backed the group and they sang with her as special guest at the Teatro Procópio Ferreira and years later at the Palace of São Paulo.

Thereafter she began her career as soloist and made tours of France, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Spain and, Finland where she represented Argentina in the show: Buenos Aires, todo Tango accompanied by the Sexteto Tango.

In 2003 she staged the show Tango con Mariana at the Teatro Alfa of São Paulo and made a tour throughout 20 big cities of Brazil.

She produced a show: ¡Tango Total! Con Mariana Avena which was launched in São Paulo in 2004 and, that same year, road a tour of the United States, Europe and Japan.