Vicente Fernandez songs are timeless. They have been the soundtrack to wedding parties, quinceañeras, Mothers Days, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, funerals, and even to a relaxing Saturday afternoon with family and friends. I can’t remember celebrating a special occasion without his music blasting on max volume.
Always performing in a charro costume and accompanied by a mariachi ensemble, Vicente Fernandez sang about honor and courtship and love and heartbreak. His music also meant intense feelings of longing for something, something that one has lost or been separated from. It was either a lost love and for many of us, immigrant folks, the memory of our homelands.
Vicente Fernandez music was also the introduction to the values and traditions of rural Mexico. In other words, he was Mexico. I remember my abuelo singing his songs with melancholy and sometimes even in tears, and commenting that he wanted to visit Mexico someday, “la tierra del Chente.”
Over a six-decade career, Vicente Fernandez songs spans generations. He recorded more than 50 albums and contributed to more than 30 films, becoming a cultural icon in Latin music. Today there’s an immense sense of loss for what he means to Mexico, Latin America, culture, our abuelos, and us.
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“Volver, Volver”
And come back, come back to
your arms again
I’ll get where you are
I know how to lose, I know how to lose
I want to come back, come back, come back”
“El Rey”
With money and without money
I always do what I want
And my word is the law
I have no throne or queen
Nor anyone who understands me
But I’m still the king
“Mujeres Divinas”
We could die in the canteens
And we could never forget them
Women, oh women so divine
There is no other way but to worship them
Women, oh women so divine
There is no other way but to adore them”
“¿De Qué Manera te Olvido?”
And I am not ashamed,
that even with the experience
that life gave me.
I cling to your love,
and although I no longer have you,
I cannot forget you”
“Por Tu Maldito Amor”
For your damn love
I can’t end with so many sorrows
I would like to burst into my veins
For your damn love
For your damn love”
“Para Siempre”
“Forget the past
And what people say
The truth is, that I love you
And you love me, forever
Forget the past
And live the present
What matters is that you love me
And I love you, forever”
“Mi Viejo”
“Old man, my dear old man
Now you walk slowly
As if forgiving the wind
I am your blood, my old man
I am your silence and your time”
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