The death today of the Mexican singer Vicente Fernández, puts an end to the golden age of ranchera music, a musical genre that transcends the purely artistic to express a way of feeling life, like the one in which he starred "The Charro of Huentitán", which today died at age 81 in his native Guadalajara.
“I want to see your eyes again at a serene night.” With this song that Vicente Fernández performed with Pedro Vargas in the popular Mexican program “Siempre en Domingo”, El Chente left today. With him the cycle of great Mexican music performers who leave an incomparable legacy, such as Jorge Negrete, Pedro Infante or Javier Solís, closes.
Fernández, who died this Sunday after several days hospitalized, was one of the best interpreters of the popular Mexican song, possessing a prodigious voice that truffled with treble and melismas that reminded the interpretations of Antonio Aguilar.
The departure of El Charro de Huentitán, raised on ranches and admirer of horses, leaves an immense repertoire of songs that he interpreted ‘a wounded scream’ and a vocal inheritance to several of his children, especially Alejandro Fernández, "The foal".
BETWEEN CUMS AND AJUAS
The “ajua” and the “ay, ay, ay” identified Chente’s voice, the same laments that came from the throat of Antonio Aguilar, with whom he shared his passion for horses. Songs such as “Caballo Blanco”, “El Alazán y el Rocillo” or “Caballo Prieto Azabache” testify to the passion for animals of both singers.
Aguilar, known as “El Charro de México” and who died in 2007, shared the stage on several occasions with Vicente Fernández. Their concerts and musical shows showed their powerful voices, different in the ups and downs, but identified by the torn feeling of the ranchera.
Each one printed their own songs that were recorded in the memory of many generations of Mexicans by singing them every time life offers an occasion to celebrate, feel nostalgic or express a cry. And although it was rumored that there was some rivalry between them, it was Aguilar’s own wife, Flor Silvestre, who proclaimed the friendship that existed between them.
When “El Charro de México” died, the experts of ranchera music and the corridos turned their eyes towards the last representative of the golden age of the singers with wide hats, fringed pants and pistols on their legs who were accompanied by a great mariachi: Vicente Fernández.
JAVIER SOLÍS, THE VOICE OF VELVET
A representative of that great line of singers in Mexican music was also Javier Solís, the owner of a velvet voice with which he sang “Sombras nada más” and “En tu pelo”. Solís became “El Rey del Bolero Ranchero” and his vocal quality captivated Frank Sinatra himself, whom he met in New York in 1965.
Vicente Fernández also followed in Solís’s footsteps. Chente used to say that on many occasions he went to the record companies to ask for an opportunity, but the record companies closed the door on him arguing that they already had Javier Solís and did not need anyone else.
His sudden death in 1966 mourned the world of music. His warm, well-tuned, modulated voice trailed off. “It was a disgrace,” lamented Vicente Fernández. But the departure of “El Rey del Bolero Ranchero” left the door open for him to express his talent.
And so it was that with a particular stamp also to interpret boleros and ballads, Fernández impregnated with sentiment songs such as “Payaso”, “Pity that you are alien” or “The love of my life”.
“THE IDOL OF THE PEOPLE”, THE INSPIRATION OF CHENTE
Pedro Infante, known as “El Ídolo del Pueblo”, was one of the singers who catapulted ranchera music beyond Mexico thanks to the more than three hundred songs performed with an incomparable voice and also to fifty films, some of which He played alongside another great, Jorge Negrete.
Infante starred in a brilliant and fleeting career, which ended in 1957 when the plane he was piloting crashed. He was one of the most admired stars in Mexican cinema, with films and songs that reached millions of followers.
Pedro Infante was one of the first influences when, at the age of eight, Vicente Fernández received his first guitar. It was the fifties and the music of "The Idol of the People" it was heard on all radio stations.
THE LEGACY OF THE GREAT TO THEIR CHILDREN
Heir to the great corridos and rancheras interpreters, Vicente Fernández now leaves a great legacy to the world of Mexican music. Several of his children have also inherited artistic talent and perform ballads with a modern style that reaches a very wide audience, as is the case with the renowned Alejandro Fernández, “El Potrillo”. Also in this the life of Chente and Antonio Aguilar are similar, who also left a dynasty that loves the genre of rancheras and horses.
Decades ago, lovers of Mexican popular music mourned the departure of Aguilar, Solís, Infante and Negrete. Today those who fire "The Charro de Huentitán ”.
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