Dave Acosta

El Paso Times

Juan Gabriel — a gifted singer and songwriter, flamboyant performer and Juárez's favorite son — died at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday. He was 66.

Juan Gabriel, whose music has impacted and defined generations of Mexicans and Hispanic Americans, was set to serenade his beloved borderland at a sold-out Don Haskins Center on Sunday night.

Instead, droves of fans tearfully gathered at the venue to pay tribute to "Juanga," breaking out in a soulful "Amor Eterno," or eternal love, the mournful ballad he penned about longing for someone after their death.

Juan Gabriel embarked on his latest tour on Aug. 19, and performed to a sold-out Forum in Los Angeles on Friday.

Local fans honor 'Divo de Juárez' with prayer, song

Sunday, signs posted outside the Don Haskins Center said the concert had been canceled, but made no mention of Juan Gabriel's death. Crowds gathered in song and prayer outside the venue as crews began dismantling the stage inside.

“We were watching movies and getting ready (for the concert),” Norma Angelica Guillermo said, fighting back tears “One of my daughter’s friend’s texted me, but we didn’t believe it so we kept on coming (to the Haskins Center).”

Juan Gabriel brings music, memories to El Paso

In Juarez, thousands gathered around the home where Juan Gabriel once lived, some with guitars in hand leading the crowd in song. Many others placed flowers and candles along the home's chain link fence. A sign read simply, "Rest in Peace, Our Juan Gabriel."

Born Alberto Aguilera Valadez in the small town of Parácuaro, Michoacán, Mexico, to Gabriel Aguilera, a farmer, and Victoria Valadez, Juan Gabriel was the youngest of 10 children. His father died when Juan Gabriel was still a baby, and his mother moved to Juárez to support her family by cleaning houses, the singer told the Los Angeles Times in 1993.

At the age of 5, however, Juan Gabriel was sent to live in an orphanage, where he found solace in music. It was at the orphanage where he met his music teacher and mentor, Juan Contreras. Juan Gabriel said his stage name was a tribute to Contreras and his father.

Juan Gabriel left the orphanage when he was 13 years old and was soon performing in Juárez’s nightclubs, including the famous Noa Noa which he would later immortalize in one of his most popular songs.

“I have no bitterness (about the way I was raised),” Juan Gabriel told the Los Angeles Times. “Everything I went through had to happen that way, and the most important thing is that I'm here now helping so that others don't have to suffer like me.”

In 1987, Juan Gabriel founded Semjase, a home for Juárez’s orphaned and underserved children, which he maintained until 2015 when he gave control of the orphanage to the city of Juárez due to “financial problems,” according to the magazine TV y Novelas.

Juan Gabriel left to Mexico City as a teenager trying to catch his big break. He often slept on the street or in train stations. During that time, he was accused of robbery and sent to jail.

"I was good writing songs, but I was innocent for many other things and when I ended up in jail I didn't know how to defend myself," he told La Jornada.

The prison director and his wife helped get Juan Gabriel freed.

In 1971, at the age of 21, Juan Gabriel signed his first recording contract with RCA Records. His debut album, “El Alma Joven,” featured his first hit record, “No Tengo Dinero.”

It was the moment Juan Gabriel had dreamed of for years.

“When I was 15, all I knew was that I had to be somebody and that I could be somebody,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “So I exploited the only thing I knew, which was singing and songwriting. Even if my childhood had been different, I would've still sung. But the (hardships) gave me strength and made me realize that I must do something if I wanted to get out of that situation. I'm glad it paid off.”

Juan Gabriel became Mexico’s biggest pop star, selling more than 100 million albums and writing songs in diverse genres, from ranchera, to pop ballads, disco, rock and more. He also wrote and produced music for a variety of artists such as Luis Miguel, Ana Gabriel, Aida Cuevas, Marc Anthony and Paul Anka.

Juan Gabriel broke ground in Mexico in 1990 by becoming the first commercial singer to present a show at Mexico City's majestic Palace of Fine Arts, until then a forum reserved for classical musicians. The proceeds from the three sold-out concerts went to support the National Symphony Orchestra and became one his most celebrated performances. His album "Juan Gabriel live from the Palace of Fine Arts" set record sales.

Artists pay tribute to Juan Gabriel

A six-time Grammy nominee, Juan Gabriel was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and received countless industry awards, including ASCAP Songwriter of the Year in 1995, Latin Recording Academy's Person of the Year 2009, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that same year.

The singer’s many hits also include “Querida,” “Hasta Que Te Conocí,” and “Siempre En Mi Mente.”

In tribute to Juárez, he also wrote "La Frontera," and "Juárez Es Numero Uno," planting the city at the root of his rags to riches story.

While Juan Gabriel cancelled several shows in 2014 due to pneumonia, he returned bigger than ever in 2015, becoming the year’s top-grossing Latin tour and top-selling Latin artist behind his albums “Los Dúo” and “Los Dúo, Vol. 2.”

Juan Gabriel performed two sold-out concerts at the Haskins Center in February and December 2015.

He also sent an estimated 120,000 fans into a frenzy in a free outdoor concert in the Plaza de la Mexicanidad in March 2015 — a concert he said was a gift and thank you to his lifelong followers. The concert followed the unveiling of a large mural of his image overlooking Juárez Avenue, the Downtown strip where he got his start.

Juan Gabriel immortalized in giant mural in Juárez

As news spread about Juan Gabriel's death Sunday, even those closest to him were in disbelief.

The concert’s promoter Lazaro Negret, who said he knew Juan Gabriel personally for more than 25 years, told the El Paso Times that he “was shocked.”

“We were waiting for him, and then we got the call saying that he’s not coming tonight, that we have to postpone the show,” Negret said. “Two minutes later we got the news that he passed away. His son was here (in El Paso). The crew came yesterday. Everybody here was in a good mood; we were waiting for him. We had heard his people had put the luggage in the car to take him to the airport.”

In a statement, Juárez mayor Javier González Mocken said that Juan Gabriel’s death was a “great loss that will be deeply felt in this border town.”

“On behalf of the city and its government, we mourn deeply for the death of one of Ciudad Juárez's most brilliant sons, and the greatest Mexican composer that the country has produced over the last decades,” he said.

“Mexico has lost one of its favorite sons; Juárez, Chihuahua, and Latin America are mourning,” he said.

On his Twitter, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto wrote: “I regret the death of Juan Gabriel, one of the great musical icons of our country. My condolences to his family and friends.”

Mexico’s Secretary of Culture, Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, told Mexico’s La Voz that, while it would be up to the singer’s funeral arrangements were up to his family, the country’s premier performance venue, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, would be open to pay homage to “one of Mexico’s greatest singer-songwriters.”

“President Enrique Pena Nieto instructed me to make available the Palacio de Bellas Artes, where we have bid farewell to the greatest artists, like Maria Feliz, Cantinflas, Tamayo and many other distinguished Mexicans… But it will be up to his family to decide,” Tovar y de Teresa said.

“Juan Gabriel is one of the purest expressions of Mexican music,” he added. “He played across all genres, from son to huapango, ranches, pop, all genres.”

The singer fathered four children with his friend Laura Salas.

"I'm not married; I don't ever plan to marry. I'm happy single," Juan Gabriel is quoted as saying in his biography by Mexico's Society of Music Authors and Composers. "I have many loves but the most important are: my mother, my children, my sister, my brothers, my nieces and nephews and my songs."

Dave Acosta may be reached at 546-6138; dacosta@elpasotimes.com; @AcostaDavidA on Twitter.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.