With rancheras, thousands of Mexicans said their last goodbye to Vicente Fernández

With cheers and singing rancheras, thousands of Mexicans paid tribute to Vicente Fernández, Latin American music star, who died this Sunday at the age of 81 in the city of Guadalajara (west).

Mexican idol Vicente Fernández died at age 81

The posthumous tribute lasted more than 24 hours, from Sunday, December 12 until the afternoon of this Monday, December 13, after a private funeral that the Mexican singer’s family officiated at noon. The family invited through the patriarch’s Instagram account to ‘the whole charra family’ to be part of a present body mass that was celebrated around 4:00 p.m. (Mexico time) in the VFG arena, which is part of the sprawling ranch of the three-time Grammy Award winner.

For that, the fans had to line up in the middle of metal fences when entering the coliseum to say goodbye to Chente. The fences were placed inside to avoid crowds and especially to mark distance from the coffin. The fans paraded in groups in front of the temple that was placed on the stage of the arena, where so many times the singer witnessed concerts and championships of charrería, the traditional Mexican sport. In fact, many came to the place dressed in the traditional charro horseman clothing and their unmistakable hat.

Certainly, the most emotional moment of the farewell occurred on Sunday, when Alejandro Fernández ‘El Potrillo’, musical heir to Chente, performed in front of some 7,000 people Love of two, while hugging his mother, María del Refugio Abarca ‘Cuquita’, visibly heartbroken by the death of her husband. My father “went well, he left in peace”Alejandro Fernández later told the television station Millennium.

They had both positioned themselves near the coffin, which had been placed in the colosseum dais and adorned with a charro hat from the singer. There he remained in the burning chapel all night.

Adorned with flowers, a Christ and a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico and whose party was held this Sunday. Meanwhile, a group of mariachis fulfilled the interpreter’s dream that his farewell be with music.

The audience was also enveloped by the notes of the Mariachi Azteca, who accompanied Chente, nickname Vicente Fernández, during his concerts, and who was only silent for part of the night, when the family decided to pray.

“It is very important to us that give us the opportunity to pay tribute to a music legend”, He told the AFP Leonardo Olmedo, a 20-year-old mariachi who came to the idol’s ranch, whose death was lamented by several politicians, with the president of the United States, Joe Biden, at the head, and dozens of artists from Latin America. “The world of music has lost an icon”Biden wrote on Twitter.

The famous said goodbye to the ‘Charro’ in social networks

Finally, in an intimate ceremony, the singer’s remains were buried this Monday in the garden of their ranch, along with their horses and on their land.

“A great one left”

Fernández died at 06:15 on Sunday, Mexico time, after being hospitalized for almost five months for a fall at his ranch Los Tres Potrillos (as he called his three sons) on the outskirts of Guadalajara.

Retired from the stage since 2016, he was considered the last great popular idol of ranchera music, a genre full of spite and evocations of life in the country, which the artist interpreted in more than five decades of career. During that time he obtained multiple awards, like three Grammys, nine Latin Grammys, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The famous interpreter had entered a Guadalajara hospital after a fall surgery and where he suffered some respiratory complications. A month before it had been hospitalized for a urinary tract infection. Doctors also confirmed that he had the Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disorder that damages the motor system and causes paralysis.

Chente’s health, as his audience called him, had gotten worse in the last few days. On Saturday the family said in a statement that his condition was “critical”, with aggravated lung problems and who remained sedated in intensive care.

“Thanks for everything. I love you, father”Vicente Fernández Júnior wrote on Instagram, whose kidnapping in 1998 forever marked the life of the charismatic interpreter.

Born on February 17, 1940 in Huentitan el Alto (Jalisco), from rancher father and housewife mother, Fernández became part of the Mexican collective memory with dozens of successes. He sold more than 70 million copies of a vast discography made up of some 80 albums, and participated in some thirty films. By his majestic voice, the American newspaper The Houston Chronicle he baptized it in 1991 as “the Sinatra of ranchera music”.

“The day I stop hearing applause, that day I will die of sadness”said the star in February 2009, during his only concert in the Zócalo in Mexico City, the most important public square in the country.

Fernández had four children, Vicente Júnior, Gerardo, Alejandra and Alejandro Fernández, as well as 11 grandchildren. (I)