Vicente Fernández Gómez (17 February 1940 – 12 December 2021) was a Mexican mariachi singer, actor and film producer.

[7] Vicente Fernández was born on 17 February 1940[2] in the village of Huentitán El Alto, Jalisco, the son of a rancher and a housewife.

[12] On 27 December 1963 he married Maria del Refugio Abarca Villaseñor,[12] with whom he had his first son, Vicente, who was born premature and had to be incubated at home because Fernández could not pay the hospital.

With the death in 1973 of José Alfredo Jiménez, one of the great icons of rancheras, Fernández became a reference point in the music industry.

[10][11][8] That song came to be covered by more than twenty singers, including Chavela Vargas, Ry Cooder, and Nana Mouskouri.

In fact, the song Los Mandados was a reference to those Mexicans migrating to the United States and reproduced macho and patriotic stereotypes.

[13] In 1983 he released his album 15 Grandes con el Numero Uno, which was the first to exceed one million copies sold.

[17] The U.S. press in 1991 was already talking about Fernández as the "Mexican Sinatra" and he released ranchera classics such as Las clásicas de José Alfredo Jiménez (1990), Lástima que seas ajena (1993), Aunque me duela el alma (1995), Mujeres divinas, Acá entre nos, Me voy a quitar de en medio (1998), and La mentira (1998), which all became classics.

After Fernández Sr. paid $3.2 million dollars to free him Vicente Jr. was abandoned outside the family ranch 121 days later with two of his fingers having been amputated.

Fernández did all this without going to the police; both he and his other son Alejandro continued to perform concerts to maintain the appearance of normalcy to the public.

[16] In 2006 Vicente Fernandez released the album La tragedia del vaquero, which was certified platinum in the United States.

[21][16] The concert he performed at the Zócalo in Mexico City on 14 February 2009 broke attendance records, with almost 220,000 people gathered to hear him.

[16] In September 2010 the album El Hombre Que Más Te Amó was released, produced by Vicente himself, for which he won a Latin Grammy again.

[24] On February 8, 2012, he announced in a press conference, surprisingly, his intention to retire from the stage, but he specified that he would continue recording albums and that it was not for health reasons but because it was time to enjoy his work.

[21] On November 28, 2013 Fernández presented his book entitled Pero sigo siendo el rey in which he collects anecdotes and more than two hundred unpublished photographs about his professional career.

[10] During the 20 years he dedicated to acting, he starred in 30 films, 18 of which were under the direction of Rafael Villaseñor Kuri, and shared the stage with nationally renowned actors such as Blanca Guerra, Sara García, Fernando Soto, Resortes, and Lucía Méndez.

[36] Fernández married María del Refugio Abarca "Cuquita" on 27 December 1963, the sister of a close friend of his whom he met in his hometown.

In 2013 he suffered a thrombosis that caused him to lose his voice temporarily and in 2015 he underwent surgery to remove abdominal hernias.

[46] On 16 April 2016, at the end of his farewell concert, he cried out that he would "spit on" the then Republican Party primary candidate for the U.S. presidential election Donald Trump for his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Also on Twitter, other leaders including the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, the Mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, the former President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe, and of Bolivia Evo Morales as well as numerous Mexican and Latin American entertainment personalities offered their condolences.

[62] Fernández's body was transferred from the funeral home to the Arena VFG, which the artist had donated to his city of Guadalajara, where his family and at least six thousand fans were already waiting for him.

[64] In 1990, Fernández released the album Vicente Fernandez y las clásicas de José Alfredo Jiménez, a tribute to Mexico's famous songwriter from Guanajuato known as The "God of Ranchera Music" José Alfredo Jiménez, who was also his main musical influence.

The album earned him Billboard and Univision's Latin Music Award for Mexican Regional Male Artist of the Year, which he won five times from 1989 to 1993.

[67] That year he celebrated his 35th anniversary in the entertainment industry, a career in which he sold more than 50 million records and was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.

[71] Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson on 16 July 2008 declared 12 June as Vicente Fernández Day in the state.

[73] In 2012, Chicago gave Fernández the key to the city and renamed the Little Village neighborhood's West 26th Street in his honor.

[74][75] On 6 October 2019 in Guadalajara, Fernández unveiled a statue created in his honor at the "Plaza de los Mariachis".

Fernández received eight awards from fourteen nominations and also earned the Latin Recording Academy for Person of the Year.