Here is a translated excerpt from my interview with Vicente Fernandez:
Sarah: Did you one day imagine you would have such a wonderful career?
Vicente: When I started my career, I always had the confidence that I would one day make it, but I never imagined that I would reach the heights at which the public has placed me.
Sarah: When did you start to sing? As a child?
Vicente: Yes, from the time I was young, but really my career started when I was 19 years old on a show called La Calandria Musical in Guadalajara. After that I would go sing at the Plaza of the Mariachis and would perform serenades for tips. Then I went to Mexico and I worked in a restaurant also singing for customer for whatever tips they wanted to give me. I left there one day when Vicente [my son] was going to be born. I left to Guadalajara and dedicated myself to cattle ranching, delivering milk in the afternoons and the morning, but one day, I felt like singing again. So I would go to the town squares around Guadalajara, and one place gave me a contract. My son was born premature at the time and with that contract I paid off the expenses of his birth. But since little Vicente was 6 and a half months premature, we had to put him in a makeshift incubator. We placed warm water bottles around him [in a crib] and a warm light above him. So when he turned one, I heard the news that Javier Solis had died. I recorded my first record, and then at my second record, the song, Palabra de Rey became a hit. Then at the third or fourth album, came Volver, Volver.
Sarah: And that's when every took off! Where do you continue to find that passion and intensity to keep performing?
Vicente: The truth is, I don't know. These days I have the flu, but when I go on stage, and the public begins to cheer, my fatigue disappears.
Sarah: Why do so many people identify with you? Rich, poor, old young?
From the time I was little until I was 12, my father was our town's rancher, but then he lost the ranch and we went to Tijuana. I was there 5 years working as a bolero, dish washer, cook, cleaning floors and restrooms. But I left to Guadalajara to work as a cashier at a restaurant, but I would step away from that to sing to the customers. That's when La Calandria Musical happened. I went, and won and that's where I started. Javier Solis died, i got the call, and my career took off.
Sarah: Do you have a routine? Exercise?
Vicente: No routine, never. I walk every day for an hour. At the ranch, I ride horses, but when I travel I don't leave the hotels. Still, that keeps me healthy. My voice is well rested. When I hear the public's applause, I don't know where the voice comes from, but it does for 3 hours. You'll have to ask God to find out how he blesses me every time.
Sarah: Your songs are very romantic. How important is that element?
Vicente: When I record a song, I don't need to have a lover or a girlfriend apart from my wife, I can interpret the song the way the composer intended it to be. If it's a festive song, then the happiness that the songs requires.
Sarah: Your songs transcend culture, generations. Why do you think you have that ability?
Vicente: As I mentioned Sarah, I never imagined that I would reach these heights, but I give thanks to God and to the public that for 44 years has kept me here and they continue to love me the same, if not more than when I started my career.
Sarah: Do you have a fondness for San Antonio and the South Texas area?
Vicente: I like San Antonio very much. I have a ranch there. At my ranch, the rancho de los tres potrillos -- because I like a real working ranch. I like eating fresh eggs.
Sarah: How do you dress when you're not performing? Like a cowboy?
Vicente: I wear Levis and a Texan style.
Sarah: Have you ever thought of singing in English?
Vicente: No, but not because it's from another world, but I feel I would defraud my country. Because I come to sing my style of music, to promote the music from Mexico. If I sing in English, I would tell myself, don't be a fake, you don't know how to do that.
I hope I can win over the American public but by singing Charro style.
Sarah: Won't you sing a little something for me?
Vicente: (singing) My love, your divine face can't hide the secrets of love, I find myself in your glorious intimacy.
Sarah: How beautiful, you are so sweet! Thanks for talking with us!