Vicente Fernández, the iconic and beloved singer of Mexican regional music who was awarded three Grammys and nine Latin Grammys and inspired a new generation of performers, including his son Alejandro Fernández, died Sunday. He was 81 years old.
Fernández was known for hits such as “El Rey” and “Lástima que seas ajena,” his command of the ranchera genre, and his dark and elegant mariachi suits with their matching wide-brimmed sombreros.
On Sunday in Little Village, dozens of people paraded on West 26th Street to celebrate the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. “La Diferencia,” one of many iconic songs by Fernández, blared from a nearby store speaker.
Fernández had long-standing ties to Chicago as one of the first U.S. cities where he gained a large following.
“He started his career in cities like Chicago with his music,” said Ald. George Cardenas, whose ward includes Little Village. “He talked about the highs and lows of life, falling in love, falling out of love, what it meant to be Mexican. He spoke to the regional pride that people have of their beautiful country.”
Songs like “Volver, Volver” and “Como Mexico no hay dos” were extremely popular among Mexican immigrant communities in the U.S. because of how they expressed the longing for the homeland.
“It was an honor and a great pride to share with everyone a great musical career and give everything for the audience,” Fernández’s family said on his official Instagram account. “Thank you for continuing to applaud, thank you for continuing to sing.”
Fernández, known also by his nickname ?Chente,? died at 6:15 a.m. in a hospital in Jalisco state, his family said. Funeral plans were not immediately announced. In August, he had suffered a serious fall and had been hospitalized since then for that and other ailments.
In 2012, Fernández received the keys to the city of Chicago and the section of West 26th Street that encompasses the Little Village arch was renamed Vicente Fernández Avenue in his honor. Oct. 20 to 27 is also celebrated as “Vicente Fernández Week” in Chicago.
Mia Hodges, 21, remembers listening to Fernandez’s music on her grandmother’s old record player. Hodges, her mother and her grandmother would gather around to listen to songs like “Volver, Volver,” one of Hodge’s early connections to Mexican musical traditions. Today, Hodges is the president of Mariachi Northwestern, one of the few college mariachi bands in Chicago.
“His music really reminds me of family and the value of culture and tradition,” Hodges said.
Beginning early on Sunday, people began posting messages, many of them recalling the lyrics to one of the favorite mariachi requests at parties and restaurants that goes “I am still the king.”
Music greats such as Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Pitbull and Maluma took to social media to post heartfelt condolences, some citing how his music influenced them. Famous country singer George Strait said he was “one of my heroes.”
“I am broken hearted. Don Chente has been an angel to me all my life,” Martin said. “The only thing that gives me comfort at this moment, is that every time we saw each other I told him how important he was to me.”
Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also expressed his condolences, calling Fernández “a symbol of the ranchera music.”
Meanwhile, outside the hospital where he died, fans began arriving Sunday carrying photographs with the singer and belting out his best hits.
Vicente Fernández Gómez was born on Feb. 17, 1940, in the town of Huentitán El Alto in the western state of Jalisco. He spent most of his childhood on the ranch of his father, Ramón Fernández, on the outskirts of town.
The artist sold more than 50 million records and appeared in more than 30 films. In 1998, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In April 2016, he said goodbye to the stage before about 85,000 people in Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. Spectators had traveled from northern Mexico as well as the United States, Colombia and other Latin American countries for the occasion.
Cardenas remembers the cold and rainy day when Fernández was given keys to the city and part of Little Village’s main thoroughfare was renamed in his honor. Still, the street was packed with fans. Cardenas said many just wanted to be close to the music icon, to hug him or touch him.
“It was a point of pride for many, to name a piece of our city in his name,” Cardenas said. “It just meant a lot just knowing that he will be with us forever in that stretch of Little Village, in our imagination, in our culture.”
Chicago Tribune’s Gregory Pratt and Laura Rodríguez Presa contributed.
Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon contributed to this report from Miami.
