{"id":27893,"date":"2021-12-15T14:57:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T22:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000023970"},"modified":"2021-12-16T17:44:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T01:44:30","slug":"long-beach-mariachi-groups-reflect-on-vicente-fernandezs-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/arts-culture\/long-beach-mariachi-groups-reflect-on-vicente-fernandezs-legacy","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Every mariachi\u2019s biggest influence\u2019: Long Beach\u2019s mariachi groups reflect on Vicente Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/espanol\/la-mayor-influencia-de-todos-los-mariachis-los-mariachis-de-long-beach-reflexionan-sobre-el-legado-de-vicente-fernandez\"><em>Lea esta historia en espa\u00f1ol<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>North Long Beach mariachi musician Rodrigo Rodriguez was performing at St. Edward&#8217;s Catholic Church in Corona for a Virgin of Guadalupe gathering when he received the shocking news that legendary mariachi singer Vicente Fern\u00e1ndez died early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The news spread quickly across the world and now, Fern\u00e1ndez and his memory will live on as musicians like Rodrigo, of Mariachi Romanza, perform his songs. Multi-Grammy-winning Fern\u00e1ndez was known globally for performing mariachi songs, a traditional genre of Mexican music. He was 81.<\/p>\n<p>Rodrigo, originally from Mexico City, said he actually didn\u2019t grow up listening to \u201cChente\u201d as Fern\u00e1ndez was called by fans. His musical career began with ballads, and when he switched to mariachi, Chente\u2019s songs would become some of the most requested from his clients.<\/p>\n<p>Even non-Spanish speakers, he said, asked for his songs, even if they didn\u2019t know the names of them.<\/p>\n<p>From private birthday performances to funerals to anniversaries, even divorces, song requests for Chente \u201cnever fail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPractically 99% of what we play at gigs, someone will say, \u2018Play one of Vicente,\u2019\u201d Rodrigo said in Spanish.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Vicente Fern\u00e1ndez - El Rey (En Vivo)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YGbiWnoWTto?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In Mexican culture, similar to the United States, a composer of a song doesn\u2019t become popular, the singer does. Often, even cover songs, if done well and uniquely, can make a singer famous.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, many of the versions of songs that mariachi groups play are those of Chente, said Elias Rodriguez (no relation to Rodrigo), who\u2019s part of an informal mariachi group at Cal State Long Beach and a musician for Los Angeles-based Mariachi Quinto Sol.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom his earlier stuff to his latest stuff, it\u2019s very musical, it\u2019s very catchy, very energetic,\u201d Elias said. His family from Guadalajara, the capital city of the Mexican state of Jalisico, play in a mariachi group and have performed for Chente, he added.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Diaz, owner and director of Mariachi Quinto Sol, was also born in Jalisco and he said he\u2019s listened to Chente\u2019s songs since he was a baby. Diaz was shocked upon hearing of Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s death and didn\u2019t believe it at first, referencing past fake news of the singer&#8217;s supposed death.<\/p>\n<p>But when the news of his death finally sunk in, \u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d Diaz said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery party, every gathering\u2026 he\u2019s a big, big part of Hispanic and Mexican culture,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cBut as a musician, of course, he\u2019s even greater because a lot of the music that we play, a lot of that is based on what he created \u2026 He\u2019s probably every mariachi\u2019s biggest influence out there for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While he\u2019s unsure of the dates, Diaz said that local communities are planning events to honor the life of Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Rodrigo and his mariachi group left the church in Corona to another gig at Zamora Bros., a meat market in Los Angeles. There, they played a popular birthday song, \u201cLas Ma\u00f1anitas,\u201d for the Virgin of Guadalupe. &#8220;And later, they already started asking for (other) Vicente songs,&#8221; Rodrigo said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody\u2019s gonna be able to fill up this hole, but I don\u2019t feel like anybody really needs to because he did what he did and he\u2019s gonna be continued to be listened to,&#8221; Elias said. &#8220;His music is gonna be played for the next 200-300 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/a-song-for-the-dead-mariachis-comforted-families-who-lost-loved-ones-to-covid-19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vicente Fern\u00e1ndez and his memory will live on as local musicians perform his songs. The multi-Grammy-winning icon was known globally for performing mariachi songs, a traditional genre of Mexican music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":71844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5322],"tags":[679,1526,292],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[25587],"class_list":["post-27893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-culture","tag-mexican","tag-music","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27893"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=27893"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=27893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}