Vicente Fernandez: A Biography
Vicente Fernandez is a well know Mexican actor, producer and singer, Vicente is known as the king of ranchera music all over the world. Vicente started singing on the streets when he was a young boy for tips, Vicente came from a very poor family, he was forced to drop out of fifth grade to support his family. He got little jobs around his home town. He says he would stop cars and offer to sing to them for a few pesos in Guadalajara, but has now won seven Latin Grammys and one Grammy. Vicente was born in huentitan el alto Jalisco, Mexico February 17 1940. He grew up in his father’s ranch in Guadalajara, at age eight Vicente got his inspiration from Pedro Infante when his mom took him to see one of his favorite movies. Pedro infant was a famous actor and singer who was born April fifteen 1917 and died at the age of thirty nine. After watching Pedro infant, Vicente was inspired and bought a guitar and started to play and study folk music. At age fourteen Vicente entered in an amateur contest in Guadalajara and one first place. After that Vicente started playing for local restaurants, weddings and family. In the sixties Vicente played with local mariachi bands then he moved to Mexico City and joined pepe Mendoza’s band amanecer. In 1963 Vicente’s mother died of cancer at age forty-seven. On that same year, in December twenty seven Vicente married his neighbor from Guadalajara, Maria Del Refugio, they had four children: Vicente, Gerardo, Alejandro, and Alexandra. Vicente was rejected many times by record labels but In 1966 Vicente signed his first contract with CBS Mexico recording his first hit tu Camino y el mio he did not take off quickly but he did sale some albums. He later started his acting career in 1971, Vicente acted in Uno y medio contra el mundo, later he started in his first hit film la ley Del monte. Ten years later vicentes career started to take off. In the early seventies Vicente was at the top of his career he was el idolo de Mexico. In