Fresno Latinos reflect on Vicente Fernández’s legacy: ‘He will always be one of the best’
This story is part of the Central Valley News Collaborative — a bilingual, community journalism project funded by the Central Valley Community Foundation and with technology and training support from Microsoft Corp. The collaboration includes The Fresno Bee, Valley Public Radio, Vida en el Valle, Radio Bilingüe and the Institute for Media & Public Trust at Fresno State.
Fresno resident Roberto Lopez has been performing mariachi music in the Central Valley for three decades. But he may never have become a musician if it weren’t for Vicente Fernández, or “Chente,” as his fans call him, said Lopez’s daughter Jennie Lopez.
“When I hear Vicente Fernández’s name, I think of my dad instantly,” Jennie Lopez said. “Once my dad saw Chente perform — that was it. That’s when he knew that’s what he wanted to do.”
Since that day, Roberto Lopez has performed countless Fernández songs, dressed in a classic charro outfit and sporting a thick, bushy mustache. He’s just one of the many Central Valley residents who are mourning the acclaimed ranchera musician, who died Sunday.
Fernández helped shape Mexican culture, identity and music for more than six decades, accruing millions of followers and tugging at the heartstrings of loyal devotees across the globe. His legacy left a mark on people across Latin America and abroad, as well as among the hundreds of thousands of Latinos in the San Joaquin Valley.
Fernández, who is known as “El Rey de la Música Ranchera” or the King of Ranchera Music, is remembered for his somber ballads featuring stories of heartbreak, romance and unrequited love. Recognized by his baritone vibrato, Fernández’s vocals echo against the backdrop of a choppy, strummed guitar and bright, virtuoso trumpet playing. His music resonated across generations, but especially with borrachos, the naturally melancholic, the broken-hearted, and that tia who has a penchant for complaining about all of her scornful ex-lovers.
The Bee spoke with several Fresno-area fans about their memories of Fernández and the impact his music has had on their lives.
Fresno musician inspired by Fernández
Jennie Lopez inherited her love for Fernández from her 88-year-old grandmother and Roberto Lopez’s mother, Andrea Gutierrez Lopez. Jennie Lopez said her grandmother has been “obsessed” with his music ever since she was a young woman.
One of her grandmother’s favorite memories is meeting Fernández at a concert in 1974, Jennie Lopez recalled. A photo memorializes that moment. It shows Andrea Gutierrez Lopez, grinning and with her hair in an up-do, clasping hands with Fernández, who is dressed in a traditional mariachi outfither and wears an ornate, emblazoned belt with a gun holster.
Roberto Lopez keeps the photo of his mother and Fernández in his wallet. Fernández, he said, “single-handedly raised the bar in mariachi ranchera music.”
Roberto Lopez has operated his own musical company, called Mariachi San Joaquin, for his entire career. He was about to perform one of Fernández’s songs at a Virgen de Guadalupe celebration in Sanger on Sunday when he heard of the singer’s death. After his performance, he said a woman turned to him and told him: “Chente didn’t die. He lives in you and all of us.”
“I thought that was so poetic, many people in the room were crying,” he said. “There are many talented mariachis in Fresno, but what we all have in common is that we strive to sing like Chente. Thank you, Chente, for making us want to be mariachis.”
Programmer plays Chente’s mariachi, ranchera songs on radio
Fresno resident Maripaz Covarrubias, who is originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, said she loves Fernández because they are paisanos, explaining that they both descend from “the same land.”
She often plays famous Fernández songs like “Volver, Volver,” “Por Tu Maldito Amor” and “Mujeres Divinas” as a music programmer for the Spanish-language public radio station Radio Bilingüe, which is based in the Valley.
Covarrubias loves Fernández’s songs about heartbreak and lost love, but she is also a fan of songs such as “Una Noche Como Esta,” which is about a person who loves to sing mariachi music. She said it is one of her favorites because “it felt as though it was written for me.”
“The lyrics say ‘the most valuable thing that my God has given me is this voice that, more than mine, is my people’s,’” she said in Spanish. “This song was made for me.”
She said Fernández’s legacy will live on through his music, which she will continue to share on the radio program. She loves playing his lesser-known songs for Radio Bilingüe’s audience.
“I feel that he is one of those artists that has had one of the largest trajectories in Mexican music,” she said. “Why should we always play the same songs? He has such a variety (of songs) that I like to play on the radio and I love it when people get to discover that.”
Concert organizer grew up listening to Fernández’s music
Tony Lopez, who is not related to Jennie and Roberto Lopez, met Fernández several times over the past four decades. He helped coordinate Fernández’s concerts throughout the Valley while he worked for la Empresa Valdivia, the Fresno-based company that owns and operates The Rainbow Ballroom, a local concert venue featuring music from Latin American artists.
Long before he saw Fernández perform in the Valley, Lopez said heard the musician’s songs at home. Lopez has fond memories of his father, who was a farmworker, crooning some of Fernández’s greatest hits.
“I have been listening to him since I was very young, because my dad would wake up in the morning before going to work in the fields and the first thing he would do is put on one of his songs,” Lopez said in Spanish. “You have no idea how it felt when I met him. He was one of us, humble, very nice to all of us and cared deeply about his fans.”
Lopez said Fernández was “one of the greatest,” and that he will remain “one of his most-beloved artists of all time.”
“I was so intimidated when I met him for the first time in the 90s,” he said. “But I’m grateful I did. For me, he will always be one of the best.”