At 81 years old and after months of health complications, the voice of the fourth ‘rooster’ among the idols of the rancheras faded. Vicente Fernández marked a whole generation with songs like ‘Volver, Volver’ and ‘El Rey’. He retired in 2016 after more than 100 albums and 30 roles in Mexican cinema.
Days of mourning for Mexicans and Latin American culture. At the age of 81, and with more than 50 years of career, known as ‘the Sinatra of the rancheras’, the Mexican singer Vicente Fernández died on the morning of Sunday, December 12. Emblematic date in his country since it coincides with the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe, to which ‘Chente’ declared his devotion.
Since August, the so-called ‘Charro de Huentitán’ suffered from medical complications that seemed to accumulate every day. It all started with a fall at his Los Tres Portillos ranch in Guadalajara, which left him with a spinal injury close to the skull. He injured his spinal cord, immobilizing his arms and legs.
Then he was admitted to a hospital where he was operated on urgently. The intervention caused him a respiratory failure.
Six weeks of therapy later, and with significant improvements, Vicente Fernández left the intensive care unit and was transferred to a room where he continued his physical rehabilitation therapy.
But in early December his health deteriorated and he returned to the ICU. A last fight that he did not win, since he had overcome prostate cancer in 2002 and the removal of a tumor in the liver ten years later. Then a pulmonary thrombosis had caused him to lose his voice for a time.
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, paid tribute to the “symbol of the ranchera song of our time, known and recognized in Mexico as well as abroad”.
“No one is going to be able to take his place, there is no one like him, who knows when there will be one like him”, said this Sunday Martín Monroy, of the Mariachi Nacional group, in the Garibaldi square in Mexico City where fans of the singer to express regret.
Monroy explained, while preparing for an intense day in the Plaza Garibaldi, in which the songs of Vicente Fernández sound with force, that the one they called ‘Don Chente’ “is an idol of Mexico on a national and international level. We sing many of his songs because they are the ones that are asked of us the most along with those of (Jorge) Negrete or José Alfredo Jiménez “.
An artistic legacy that marked several generations
Who could have guessed that, in the neighborhood of Huentitán el Alto, in the city of Guadalajara, the fourth ‘rooster’ of Mexico was going to be born? After rancher idols Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete and Javier Solís, on February 17, 1940, the legend Vicente Fernández, son of rancher Ramón Fernández, was born.
Farmer, shoe shine, painter, whatever work the young Fernández did, he always had his obsession with music in mind. At the age of eight he began to play the guitar. At twenty he arrived in Mexico City, where he met the Mariachi Amanecer, by Pepe Mendoza, with whom he worked for a time. There he began his career, with Mariachi Águila and Felipe Arriaga, his artistic mentor.
In 1968 he recorded his first album entitled ‘The voice that you expected’. Four years later one of his best known hits came out: ‘Volver, Volver’. Of course, he did not stop rising in fame, risking transforming famous Mexican waltzes such as ‘Alejandra’, ‘Viva my misfortune’ or ‘On the waves’, in the ranchera style.
At the beginning of 2000, he was awarded the Billboard (one of the most influential magazines in the music industry) for the compilation of his best songs under the album ‘Historia de un Ídolo Volumen II’. Winner of two Grammys for best ranchera music, in 2002 and 2010, the artist also had a career in the cinema since the 70s. In ’76 he starred in ‘La ley del monte’, his first film success. In total he participated in more than 30 films from 1972 to 1991, from ‘Tacos al Carbón’ to ‘My dear Old Man’.
He returned to the stage for the last time in 2019 for a free concert in appreciation of the tribute paid to him by the Guadalajara City Council and the government of the state of Jalisco, where he was born. A year later and for his 80 years, he released his latest album ‘A mis 80’.
Sexual harassment and assault scandals
Recently, Vicente Fernández was involved in a sexual assault scandal after photos came to light where he is seen posing with followers and with his hand well up to the level of her breasts. The photos went viral on social networks, to the point that the singer accepted an interview in early February with the Mexican journalist and former partner of his son Vicente Jr., Mara Patricia Castadeña.
With tears in his eyes, Fernández apologized to the women who had been offended. “I saw the photo and indeed yes. I put my hand, first on the stomach and said ‘in the stomach you are going to feel offended’ and I raised my hand and they take the photo. ” He ended up admitting, “I admit that I did wrong.”
In an interview for the program ‘Un Nuevo Día’, of the American channel Telemundo, one of the victims who appeared in those photos declared that he did not accept the apologies of ‘Chente’, saying that “this happened with four more women, and if it were an accident wouldn’t happen that long. His apology felt insincere and was for the media, not us. “
On the other hand, and in the middle of the controversy, the ranchera singer Lupita Castro told after a video posted on Instagram that the “Charro de Huentitán” had harassed her in the past and had done “something more serious.”
With EFE, AP and Reuters
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