September 18, 2024 • 29 mins
In true cowboy fashion, Vicente Fernandez called his sons “los potrillos” – the three colts. His love for them went beyond supporting their musical careers; Chente even established a ranch, Los Tres Potrillos, the perfect place to foster a dynasty. But life wasn’t all smooth sailing from there. Today, on Becoming an Icon, we explore the peak of Chente’s career. And in true telenovela style, Vicente’s world was about to get dramatic.
Lilliana Vazquez and Joseph Carrillo are the hosts of Becoming An Icon with production support by Nick Milanes, Santiago Sierra, Rodrigo Crespo, Evelyn Uribe and Edgar Esteban of Sonoro Media in partnership with iHeart Radio's My Cultura Podcast network.
If you want to support the podcast, please rate and review our show.
Follow Lilliana Vazquez on Instagram and Twitter @lillianavazquez
Follow Joseph Carrillo on Instagram @josephcarrillo
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
When Vicenta Fernandez was just a young boy, he wanted
to grow up to be just like Vedin Fante.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
By the time he had made his dreams happen, he
was the father of three boys. Eldest boy descenta junior
middle child, Carrado, and little Alejandro.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
And all of them wanted to grow up to be
just like their dad, the undisputed king of rancherra music
and a mainstay of the silver screen.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Easy to see why these apples didn't want to get
too far from the tree.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
In true cowboy fashion, Vicenta Fernandez calls his son Los
Potrios the three Cults, and when he was just five
years old, the youngest colt, Alejandro, was already off to
the races.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
In nineteen seventy six, Cent brought Alejandro to a special
taping of Sian Bren Domingo in San Antonio, Texas.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Little ali Is saying in front of an audience for
the very first time, debted out in the crisp boy
chatto suit with a classic sombrero and ukays it's a
doors like Tell me this did not send me running
to downtown La to secure a chatto suit for my
tiny song, Oh my.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
God, yes, yes, he has to be a chato, but
also like totally, you guys know, seriously, he looks so
social adorbs.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It was clear that the littlest Potrio had inherited his
father's very big voice, but he was only five. His
nerves took over as he froze mid song.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Girl, I have PTSD from giving an oral presentation about
dinosaurs in the third grade.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Like, I do not blame him.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Lucky for little Tent that was there to run on
stage and help him with a verse, and after calming
down some we sent his youngest finished out the song.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I'd bet my presentation would have gone fine if I
had a parent in there to jump.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Like that one thousand percent. And you know what, Joseph,
your scars are what make you you? Anyway, Tent was
love for his sons went beyond supporting their musical careers.
In nineteen eighty, Bernandez bought over one thousand acres of
land in Guadalajara and established Rancho Lostres Portrios, a sprawling
(02:07):
ranch named for his kids.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Y'all, graceland achiz on this place. It's got its own
rodeo arena for international contests. A guitar shaped swimming pool,
a bandshell.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Wait, is this available to rent on Airbnb? We are
going we should look, I'm looking right now?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Hold please just kidding.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Plus, in addition to all of that, there are stables
for animals, because duh, it's a ranch and all in all,
not a bad place to spend the better part of
your childhood or to foster a dynasty.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But it was about to get real crowded back at
the ranch, pain.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Because outside the ranch, Vicente Fernandez was.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
How can I put this?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Staying busy, I'm your host, Lilianabosquez.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon a.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on how
today's most famous latinv stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
And given the world some extra level.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Because we are going in the only way we know how,
with buenos vida, a.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Buenas risas and a lot of opinions as we relive
their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what
makes them so iconic. In nineteen seventy six, we sent
(03:41):
pe Fernandez was invited to perform at the twenty fourth
annual Senorita Mexico beauty pageant. It was this year's pageant
that Patrisa Rivera, a young woman from Guawila, shout at Guahila,
that's where my family is first introduce ourself in the
world of entertainment.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
And it was at this pageant that Chene introduced himself
to Patricia, probably in the full Chao suit. They wouldn't
meet again until the next year, on the set of
the film El Aracas.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
This movie was an action western starring Fernandez as a
man seeking revenge for the murder of his father, featuring
Rivera as a mysterious woman caught up in his quest,
and this second meeting would lead to their now notorious affair.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
An affair that started the very same year that little
Portrio Alejandro saying on Sian Brendomingo, I got to point
that out.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yes, we stay very clean with the facts. Here we
give you all of the deeds right now. It is
said that Fernandez's friend Felippe Ariaga supported their relationship by
lending them a luxury apartment in his own name, giving
Fernandez a totally off the books casita. By the way,
I need better friends like my friends are not giving
(04:56):
me condos why are you not supporting me?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Not in my affair.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I let's be very clear, I am happily married, But
why do my friends not show up for me like this?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Do you know what I'm gonna say? Though I was
going to say that I know you would show up
for me.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Like I'm tired of giving the besitas. Somebody give me
a damnus true.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
The Rivera Fernandez affair would go on for a full
ten years, and throughout those ten years, Patricia was on Fernandez's.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Schedule, which included world tours, recording promotions, not to mention
film shoots.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Despite having an acting career of her own, and sneaking
in visits where she could ended up costing her opportunities.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
All the while, Fernandez's wife, Kukita knew nothing until nineteen
eighty seven, in the lead up to Be sent It
and Takit twenty fifth wedding Annie, the couple learned that
the Scent had had a child out of wedlock, Rodrigo
the fourth Potrio.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
El Potrio o scuro. Some telling Nanny's about to go
down in honey.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Luckily for Rodrigo and his half brothers, not so much,
not yet anyway, I should say, because Couquita made a
lemonade out of lemons and accepted Rodrigo.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Into the family.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Wait stop, and even welcome Patricia into the ranch like a.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Fucking sister wife.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Damn did don't call Hernqa for nothing like what made
her such a saint?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Okay, Well, this wasn't the first unexpected edition to be
sent in Gouquita's family, because a couple of years earlier,
in nineteen eighty four, Gouquita's sister had arrived at the
ranch on Gouquita's birthday.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Not oh my god, what are you going to tell me?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Caring hold on carrying a newborn baby girl and just
left her there in her sister and brother in law's care.
Gougita played with her niece until she was sleepy enough
to put her down in the crib, and with that
Gouquita decide to accept full responsibility for little Alexandra.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Which, by the way, is the name of the song
Alejandro sang on sian Brendo mingo.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
That is wild and child wild. So Vicente and Kurita
raised Alejandra as though she were their own child. Alejandra
came to believe that Gloria her mother was actually her
thea and wouldn't learn the truth for years, and Gloria
was just like, okay, cool. No, there was one minute
(07:32):
where Gloria changed her mind and took Alejandra back, but
it naturally caused her daughter so much distress that Gloria
decided it would be best for her to live on
the ranch.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Bitch, I would cry too if I couldn't swim in
that guitar or anymore, like it would be over.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Can we also discuss that Segnoras of that era were
made a fucking steal? Yeah, because their ability to put
up with trash men and raise the family and still
turn up every day like a loyal, loving wife, Like
that is some shit. I will never understand that entire
(08:09):
generation of Latina women, specifically Mexican women. I'm telling you,
they're like they're built of something else.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I have no comment. Then you're absolutely right, Listen. I
don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I think it's a combination of my life is too
good and I don't want it to change, okay, and
what will I do without him?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Right?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Like we have evolved, thank God, so much. Like I
heard someone call that type of life a gilded cage.
And that's exactly what it was. And I think for
so many women in that position of privilege that was
acquired through their husbands, that is a gilded cage. Like
that shit's gold. You got a guitar, ship, swimming pool,
(08:50):
but it's lonely.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Okay, okay, okay, But I'm going to say this so like,
but for her to accept this baby, like what if
someone showed up at your house.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Well, hold on the baby. I understand that's her sister's baby.
Like if my brother came to me, it was like
in distress and like I can't take care of this baby,
and you're like, that's different. I think accepting a child
that belongs to your sibling is different accepting the child
of your husband's other woman girl and her at her No, no, no, no,
(09:22):
I'm telling you I'm not built for that life.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
I'm not built for that life.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
These senoras don't fuck with these senoras. There are another species. True,
rightly or wrongly, under Kuquita's eye, the children were grow
up happy and healthy, paving the way for a sparkling
new dynasty. Despite all the dramlin is personal life. They've
sent a fact noan of this train kept on chugging,
and in the eighties it made some of its most
(09:48):
important stops.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Nineteen eighty three is can You Think.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Nineteen eighty fours those and Ferdananda's biggest record of the
decade nineteen eighty nine's for to malt More.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Which was a tie into the nineteen eighty nine film
of the same name. In it, we sent the plaza
rancher who returns home from a long absence to find
his beloved has married somebody else, thinking he wouldn't ever
come back. Her husband attacks and he flees to the
jungle who is writing these.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Scripts, where Unachika, with some land to her name, takes
him in. He gets engaged with her and makes some
local macho's jealous. Then he has an affair with her sister,
and the whole thing ultimately gets him killed.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Here, what do you think some type casting happening in
these groups?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I think, like, I really can't even deal with whatever
the fuck that was.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
That's all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
You know what, It's an interesting companion to the film
that would follow two years later, Mika Rido Yeho, because
here we sent the plays a singer who falls in
love with a journalist. They eventually marry and have a son,
and that son.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Is played by Alejandro Fernandez, the Littlest Potrio, who keeped
off this episode and was about.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Twenty by the time the movie came out.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Things get rocky for the singer and the journalist. His
commitments become too much for her, and they divorce. The journalist,
feeling wrong, teaches their son to despise his father, But
as the years go on, Rodrigo, I mean, wait, wait,
I know the singer and the journalist's son realizes that
(11:32):
his mother was in the wrong all along and that
he actually does love his father. I need to check
in with you, Joseph. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
No?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Literally, If this isn't about Patricia and the Rodrigo, I
don't know what.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Is straight slanderous?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Do you think that he wrote this? Do you think that, like,
how is this possible? Oh? God?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Because he was in a position of power and all
of the executives at the studio were Mexican men, Like
I mean, hello, why do we think we have all
of these movies that never reflect a female narrative or
a female protagonist.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Because men make the movies.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
This is why it's important to have people in the
room that represent other p ovs.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I love that there you go, there you go.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
And honestly, whatever audiences saw in the story when they
watched it in theaters, the song they heard as the
story concluded with Alejandro singing to an aging Vicente Fernandez
was an instant classic.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Miki l Yako is a mega tear jerker for anyone
with a close relationship to an aging father.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
And in Mexico these days, it's the song you throw
on at the family gathering to remember somebody you've lost.
Not like Coco style though, no like not like that,
but you know, when you're thinking about your here yajito,
that's what you put on. But apart from all of that,
(13:01):
it was also the song that kicked off Alejandro Fernandez's career.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
In earnest, the same Botrillo who froze on stage at
age five in a white chadle suit, was all grown
up and ready to sell records.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
His self titled debut Sanem on a tour through Mexico
and a few cities in the US. Off the strengths
of tracks like Mississito, vidarl Brumas and Eguiva Gadamente.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Al quickly became a mainstay of ranchero music over the
course of the nineties, and even ventured into pop later
in his career. The Fernandez dynasty was now in full effect.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
And that meant there was a target on Alrancho Tres Potrios.
By the late nineties, the Fernandez dynasty was in full
effect and with its patriarchy sent there, receiving a star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the spot in
(13:58):
Billboard Magazine's Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
But royalty can make you a target, and something unthinkable
was about to happen.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
On May thirteenth, and nineteen ninety eight, we sent this
eldest son. We sent the Junior was driving back to
Rancho Dres Bortrios when out of nowhere, a group of
trucks cut him off.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Man rushed out of the truck carrying guns and demanded
that we sent the junior get out.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Of his car.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
He sent the junior ov obeyed and then was let
at gunpoint into one of the trucks.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Meanwhile, we sent this senior was just a few hours
away from taking the stage when he got a phone call.
He picked up the phone and heard an unfamiliar voice
tell him.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
We have your son.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
The kidnappers were cray and demanded a ransom of five
million vessels, which with inflation would be like demanding eighteen
point five million pessels today.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I mean, listen, Vicenta was printing money, but like not
that kunt of money. Like he's not Bill Gates Jeff
Bezos rich, nor.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Could he chase after the bad guys on horseback with
a the one hand like in his movies.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
No you didn't, No you didn't, just I did.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I did.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
So that left him with no choice but to negotiate.
But first this g went ahead and performed the show,
like what the.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Show must go on.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
We need better parenting. Let's just be honest. I'm sorry.
You can come for me all you want, like be
a parent first and a performer second. Afterwards. Once he
wrapped his show, negotiations took place over.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Many days, then weeks, then months.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
The whole time, the family stayed tight lipped, saying nothing
to the media out of concern for vicenta juniors of safety,
like you didn't call the police.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Tempa even kept doing concerts now wait listen, which the
authorities wreckediately.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
To jail and immediately to jail.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
For your authorities recommended to keep things looking normal.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So I totally get it, and I'll say it again. Listen,
the show.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Must go on, says are child free co hosts.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
True.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
But eventually the kidnappers decided that things just weren't moving
fast enough. They decided to send a message, and that message.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Was uh, chop chop, honey.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
No, but I know literally no, it's like like cut
cut because they chopped off not one, but two of
vicent It Junior's fingers, the pinky, not the fucking pinky,
man pink, the pinky and the ring finger.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Okay, well, it looks like they're going from the least
useful to the most.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
So clock is ticking.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
The sent This Senior a total of one hundred and
twenty one days. During that time, the family negotiated, gathered money,
and continued supporting vicent This Senior's live performances.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
I can't see it. I have good news. I have
good news.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Finally, they managed to scrounge a cool three point five
million for the ransom. The cash was packed in a
bag and thrown from an airplane into an open field
in Nayai, the state neighboring Jalisco.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
The Fernandez homestate.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You guys, you're listening to this going did they make
this shit up? We did not make it up. I promised.
This is not like an April Fool's Day episode. This
is legit, sighted sourced, fact checked by our producers.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Now, days later, the family was getting ready for bed,
just another normal night at his ranchel, when the phone rang.
It was one of the kidnappers telling them to come
to the front gate of the ranch.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
We sent.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
This senior ran out of the house to the gate
and found his son standing there, totally disoriented, tired, and
sporting a beard one hundred and twenty one days long.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Tenth.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
They told interviewers. The first thing I said to him was,
don't think for a moment that I didn't want to
pay what they asked for. If they had asked for
my life, I would have given it.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Whatever lies Okay to even called a doctor in the
family to see if he could transplant his own fingers
onto his son's hand.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I mean, Latino parents, man, we always make it about ourselves.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
They're wild Latino Latino him is wild. But then he
kind of sat back into it and he was like,
you know what, I didn't give you my life. Let
me give you these two fingers.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Though, I mean, listen, we are joking and laughing because
it's such a wild story that it almost sounds like
it's a made for TV movie, like a Sunday Night
tele novela story or something. But have you ever heard
of this happening to another celebrity? Like I can only
(18:37):
think of no, no kidnappings. I mean I can think
of like massive threats on their life, like obviously the
Kim Kardashian burglary in Paris.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I think the first thing I heard of was was
more like Paris Hilton and the Bling Ringer. I think
that was before Kim's remember that. Yeah, so that was
kind of the biggest thing that I guess I had
heard of, and then obviously the Kim thing was huge.
But remember that I'm from Alpastro, Texas, and like, what
is so? Like I had did hear about? Like kidnappings
(19:09):
weren't crazy? For yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Uncommon?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, I mean they happen all the time throughout Latin America,
like if you I mean for our non Latino listeners
who have not had a chance to like travel through
And I don't mean like can kun. I mean, although
things happen there too. I'm saying, if you've never had
a chance to actually like travel through whether it's Mexico,
Central America, or Latin America, oftentimes you'll see like fleets
(19:33):
of SUVs pulling up to a restaurant and you think
it's the president and it's not. It's just a well
off family coming to dinner. Because the threat of kidnapping
is so high that whenever they leave the gates of
their safety, whether that's a ranch or their home or
they're building, they are flanked by private security, armed private
(19:54):
security because the threat of these kidnappings is so commonplace.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
So this is not such a wild story to me.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
The wildest part of the story is that this lasted
for over four months, and that during that entire time
he sent there was like, yo, I got to get
on stage.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Wait, well, hold on, That's where I wanted to stop
you because I kind of want to play the ils
out of a kid.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
You know it was the authorities who told him he
was in concert. He was on a concert, right, Like,
It's not like he was just randomly fucking trying to
solicit concerts randomly just to you know, make money.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
He like actually had.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
He was doing concerts and if he were to stop,
it would be weird.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Right. Maybe he was trying to make more money for
the ransom because you couldn't afford it on his.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Own, you know, like we actually don't know and we're
joking about it and being like, oh, the show must
go on, but.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Like imagine to actually be there, like yeah, like he
has to make that money no matter what if he stops,
he's not generating money. That's why he's playing these concerts,
you know, such a crazy like it is just a
crazy spot to be in.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Fine, where's gooo? Keep that on? All this?
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I need to hear from her, right, I need to
hear from her and listen. Vicenta Junior would eventually manage
to live with and overcome the trauma. I mean, also,
I need to hear from Vicente Junior.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
I was about to say.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
We haven't even asked about the person who's fucking kid
that bro, he's fine.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
He would even venture into music a few years later,
dropping three albums El Major de Loos, Potrios, Vicente Fernandez,
Ijo con Mariacci and Juamentos.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
But alas the eldest Potrio didn't quite inherit his father's
star power the way Alejandro had, and after three albums,
he retired from music because y'all, being a Nepple baby
is hard.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
It's hard out here for a nepo. Look.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
It was back to El Rancho for Vicenta Junior, where
he returned to the thing he loved most, riding horses,
something he wasn't sure he'd ever do again given his injury.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
The family would move on from this unthinkable ordeal, but
another shock to the system was on its way the
late nineties and early aunts. Savi sent the Fernandez and
(22:15):
his number one son number once in a while.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
My god, why are we ranking children?
Speaker 1 (22:20):
And his number one son Alejandro during victory laps, Santi, honey,
you're number one and I have no other children, but
he is the favorite.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Okay, but listen, number one meaning most successful, because his
firstborn and he sent the Junior was back at the
ranch riding horses.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Right, that's right, that's right, that's right. Alejandro, meanwhile, had
been topping the charts for almost a decade and.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Chent they marked a new millennium with the two part
Greatest Hits album that scored him double platinum certification and
a Billboard Latin Music Award.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
The following year, we sent that Alejandro went on tour
together on the Lassos in Sebliss Tour, a special nine
night circuit all up and down the US West Coast
and Mexico.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Tenta would then score a Latin Grammy for Best on
Shadow Album and a Person of the Year Award for
the Latin Recording Academy.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
The award honored him not just for his artistic achievements,
but for his philanthropy, having made donations to the National
Hispanic Scholarship Fund and having long performed for free at
rural Mexican town fairs.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I can't think of a better way to spend your sixties.
I feel like our parents all dreamt of being praised
and sent off to retirement like this.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
So true, but life isn't always like that, And unfortunately
for tenthe his world was about to be turned upside
down right as he was reaching sixty five Girl.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
The novela continues.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
So years after the kidnapping of Assentha Junior, the family
patriarch decides to purchase kidnap and ransom insurance for his
entire family.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Sounds like Tenta took a big hit from that three
point five million dollar rant payment and not so fun fact,
in twenty ten, criminal gangs made an estimated five hundred
million a year for ransom payments.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
We're in the wrong business, bitch, I was about to say,
hydid wife, Hydra husband, Honey, I'm coming for everybody like
I'm about to get paid. So the insurance definitely felt
in line with a proper reasonable measure. But now, as
a part of the agreement with the insurance company, each
(24:29):
member of the family had to undergo a DNA test.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Oh my god, are we about to get all fucking
Jerry Springer mypovitch up on this, bitch.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
M because it turns out one of the four Portrios
was not the sent the senior's biological son. He is
not the father.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Oh my god, wait wait, wait, hold on, hold on.
But what if it was Dona Coqita? What if she
had a secret life of her own? No, she's the
hero all of this, Okay, but who does that leave
So Rodrigo remember him?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
He was Decenta's illegitimate son with Patrisa Rivera.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yes, Well, it turns.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Out Patricia had lied about him being the scent son.
When the test results came. Rodrigo was eighteen years old,
and all of those years he had lived on a
rancho as just another member of the family.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
They never ever made him feel like a black sheep.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
But now the entire family cut him out. They kicked
him out of the rancho and ceased communication.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
I have no comment. I need to think about that.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Okay, But again we have to point out none of
this was the child's fault, and of course he tried
to reason with the family and find reconciliation, but to
no avail.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I kind of have a bad taste in my mouth
from this, and it is not the popcorn that I
had earlier.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Bad taste, Like I am throwing this entire family in
the garbage, Like I'm done with you, all of you,
all of you. I was already done with Jenta a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I kind of just Likeita raised but where are you baby?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Like I'm done with her too, don't like she was
my hero. She was my hero and now she is
the villain? Like what an art?
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Yeah? Right, I mean can you imagine?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
I mean I think about all of my friends that
are adopted, and like how deep the bond is that
they have with their families. Like can you imagine if,
like all of a sudden, their parents that raise them
forever just decided one day to like be like you
know what, no, not enough, not enough, We decided you're
(26:49):
not ours anymore.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yeah, I don't have I don't have words. I could
say this.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I know poor that you go, I get it, but
like just know this too, like they be sent there
must have felt obviously he felt betrayed. Imagine I think
something is yours for so long and.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
You go get Patricia, like, go figure it out with her, Like,
go get her. Don't take it out on your poor son,
who knows nothing different. I mean, we're talking about a
lifetime of therapy. And what's crazy is Fernandez did offer
to pay for Rodrigo's education, but like, hello, bu like
are you going to pay for my therapy too? And
by the way, rumors also suggest that ed Chadle paid
(27:31):
his former son millions to just vanish. He just wanted
nothing to do with him.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
It's got the cope taste I was having. But believe
what you want, I guess.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
And we're not done. There's still a little bit more
to Rodrigo's story, though. All Throughout his teen years, he
had been studying and practicing music.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Same as that Alekandro. He wanted to be just like
his dad.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
After the ordeal that the family put him through, Rodrigo
landed himself a meeting with EMI where he performed the
rancherra music that he had learned at Rancho Tres Potrios.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Our Portrioscuro. Got signed Bitch, and his debut record.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Was a hit.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
It Begatomas Bayo made waves and got Rodrigo the title
of Musical Revelation of the Year at the two thousand
and seven oh Ye Awards. Rodrigo put in work and
earned a solid reputation in the regional Mexican music scene,
but eventually he'd hang up his hat and since then
he stayed out of the spotlight and as far as
(28:32):
the public knows, out of contact with the Fernandez dynasty.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Damn sad.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Y'all sad and dark, and we're not even done. There's
still another episode on the next Becoming an Icon vicent
that Fernandez leaves behind a checkered legacy. Becoming an Icon
(29:00):
is presented by Sonoo and Iheart'smichael Duda podcast network. Listen
to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,
or wherever you get your podcast
When Vicenta Fernandez was just a young boy, he wanted
to grow up to be just like Vedin Fante.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
By the time he had made his dreams happen, he
was the father of three boys. Eldest boy descenta junior
middle child, Carrado, and little Alejandro.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
And all of them wanted to grow up to be
just like their dad, the undisputed king of rancherra music
and a mainstay of the silver screen.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Easy to see why these apples didn't want to get
too far from the tree.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
In true cowboy fashion, Vicenta Fernandez calls his son Los
Potrios the three Cults, and when he was just five
years old, the youngest colt, Alejandro, was already off to
the races.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
In nineteen seventy six, Cent brought Alejandro to a special
taping of Sian Bren Domingo in San Antonio, Texas.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Little ali Is saying in front of an audience for
the very first time, debted out in the crisp boy
chatto suit with a classic sombrero and ukays it's a
doors like Tell me this did not send me running
to downtown La to secure a chatto suit for my
tiny song, Oh my.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
God, yes, yes, he has to be a chato, but
also like totally, you guys know, seriously, he looks so
social adorbs.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It was clear that the littlest Potrio had inherited his
father's very big voice, but he was only five. His
nerves took over as he froze mid song.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Girl, I have PTSD from giving an oral presentation about
dinosaurs in the third grade.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Like, I do not blame him.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Lucky for little Tent that was there to run on
stage and help him with a verse, and after calming
down some we sent his youngest finished out the song.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I'd bet my presentation would have gone fine if I
had a parent in there to jump.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Like that one thousand percent. And you know what, Joseph,
your scars are what make you you? Anyway, Tent was
love for his sons went beyond supporting their musical careers.
In nineteen eighty, Bernandez bought over one thousand acres of
land in Guadalajara and established Rancho Lostres Portrios, a sprawling
(02:07):
ranch named for his kids.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Y'all, graceland achiz on this place. It's got its own
rodeo arena for international contests. A guitar shaped swimming pool,
a bandshell.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Wait, is this available to rent on Airbnb? We are
going we should look, I'm looking right now?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Hold please just kidding.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Plus, in addition to all of that, there are stables
for animals, because duh, it's a ranch and all in all,
not a bad place to spend the better part of
your childhood or to foster a dynasty.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
But it was about to get real crowded back at
the ranch, pain.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Because outside the ranch, Vicente Fernandez was.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
How can I put this?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Staying busy, I'm your host, Lilianabosquez.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon a.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on how
today's most famous latinv stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
And given the world some extra level.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Because we are going in the only way we know how,
with buenos vida, a.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Buenas risas and a lot of opinions as we relive
their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what
makes them so iconic. In nineteen seventy six, we sent
(03:41):
pe Fernandez was invited to perform at the twenty fourth
annual Senorita Mexico beauty pageant. It was this year's pageant
that Patrisa Rivera, a young woman from Guawila, shout at Guahila,
that's where my family is first introduce ourself in the
world of entertainment.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
And it was at this pageant that Chene introduced himself
to Patricia, probably in the full Chao suit. They wouldn't
meet again until the next year, on the set of
the film El Aracas.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
This movie was an action western starring Fernandez as a
man seeking revenge for the murder of his father, featuring
Rivera as a mysterious woman caught up in his quest,
and this second meeting would lead to their now notorious affair.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
An affair that started the very same year that little
Portrio Alejandro saying on Sian Brendomingo, I got to point
that out.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yes, we stay very clean with the facts. Here we
give you all of the deeds right now. It is
said that Fernandez's friend Felippe Ariaga supported their relationship by
lending them a luxury apartment in his own name, giving
Fernandez a totally off the books casita. By the way,
I need better friends like my friends are not giving
(04:56):
me condos why are you not supporting me?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Not in my affair.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I let's be very clear, I am happily married, But
why do my friends not show up for me like this?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Do you know what I'm gonna say? Though I was
going to say that I know you would show up
for me.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Like I'm tired of giving the besitas. Somebody give me
a damnus true.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
The Rivera Fernandez affair would go on for a full
ten years, and throughout those ten years, Patricia was on Fernandez's.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Schedule, which included world tours, recording promotions, not to mention
film shoots.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Despite having an acting career of her own, and sneaking
in visits where she could ended up costing her opportunities.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
All the while, Fernandez's wife, Kukita knew nothing until nineteen
eighty seven, in the lead up to Be sent It
and Takit twenty fifth wedding Annie, the couple learned that
the Scent had had a child out of wedlock, Rodrigo
the fourth Potrio.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
El Potrio o scuro. Some telling Nanny's about to go
down in honey.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Luckily for Rodrigo and his half brothers, not so much,
not yet anyway, I should say, because Couquita made a
lemonade out of lemons and accepted Rodrigo.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Into the family.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Wait stop, and even welcome Patricia into the ranch like a.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Fucking sister wife.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Damn did don't call Hernqa for nothing like what made
her such a saint?
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Okay, Well, this wasn't the first unexpected edition to be
sent in Gouquita's family, because a couple of years earlier,
in nineteen eighty four, Gouquita's sister had arrived at the
ranch on Gouquita's birthday.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Not oh my god, what are you going to tell me?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Caring hold on carrying a newborn baby girl and just
left her there in her sister and brother in law's care.
Gougita played with her niece until she was sleepy enough
to put her down in the crib, and with that
Gouquita decide to accept full responsibility for little Alexandra.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Which, by the way, is the name of the song
Alejandro sang on sian Brendo mingo.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
That is wild and child wild. So Vicente and Kurita
raised Alejandra as though she were their own child. Alejandra
came to believe that Gloria her mother was actually her
thea and wouldn't learn the truth for years, and Gloria
was just like, okay, cool. No, there was one minute
(07:32):
where Gloria changed her mind and took Alejandra back, but
it naturally caused her daughter so much distress that Gloria
decided it would be best for her to live on
the ranch.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Bitch, I would cry too if I couldn't swim in
that guitar or anymore, like it would be over.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Can we also discuss that Segnoras of that era were
made a fucking steal? Yeah, because their ability to put
up with trash men and raise the family and still
turn up every day like a loyal, loving wife, Like
that is some shit. I will never understand that entire
(08:09):
generation of Latina women, specifically Mexican women. I'm telling you,
they're like they're built of something else.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I have no comment. Then you're absolutely right, Listen. I
don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I think it's a combination of my life is too
good and I don't want it to change, okay, and
what will I do without him?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Right?
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Like we have evolved, thank God, so much. Like I
heard someone call that type of life a gilded cage.
And that's exactly what it was. And I think for
so many women in that position of privilege that was
acquired through their husbands, that is a gilded cage. Like
that shit's gold. You got a guitar, ship, swimming pool,
(08:50):
but it's lonely.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Okay, okay, okay, But I'm going to say this so like,
but for her to accept this baby, like what if
someone showed up at your house.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Well, hold on the baby. I understand that's her sister's baby.
Like if my brother came to me, it was like
in distress and like I can't take care of this baby,
and you're like, that's different. I think accepting a child
that belongs to your sibling is different accepting the child
of your husband's other woman girl and her at her No, no, no, no,
(09:22):
I'm telling you I'm not built for that life.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
I'm not built for that life.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
These senoras don't fuck with these senoras. There are another species. True,
rightly or wrongly, under Kuquita's eye, the children were grow
up happy and healthy, paving the way for a sparkling
new dynasty. Despite all the dramlin is personal life. They've
sent a fact noan of this train kept on chugging,
and in the eighties it made some of its most
(09:48):
important stops.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Nineteen eighty three is can You Think.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Nineteen eighty fours those and Ferdananda's biggest record of the
decade nineteen eighty nine's for to malt More.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Which was a tie into the nineteen eighty nine film
of the same name. In it, we sent the plaza
rancher who returns home from a long absence to find
his beloved has married somebody else, thinking he wouldn't ever
come back. Her husband attacks and he flees to the
jungle who is writing these.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Scripts, where Unachika, with some land to her name, takes
him in. He gets engaged with her and makes some
local macho's jealous. Then he has an affair with her sister,
and the whole thing ultimately gets him killed.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Here, what do you think some type casting happening in
these groups?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I think, like, I really can't even deal with whatever
the fuck that was.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
That's all I'm going to say.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
You know what, It's an interesting companion to the film
that would follow two years later, Mika Rido Yeho, because
here we sent the plays a singer who falls in
love with a journalist. They eventually marry and have a son,
and that son.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Is played by Alejandro Fernandez, the Littlest Potrio, who keeped
off this episode and was about.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Twenty by the time the movie came out.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Things get rocky for the singer and the journalist. His
commitments become too much for her, and they divorce. The journalist,
feeling wrong, teaches their son to despise his father, But
as the years go on, Rodrigo, I mean, wait, wait,
I know the singer and the journalist's son realizes that
(11:32):
his mother was in the wrong all along and that
he actually does love his father. I need to check
in with you, Joseph. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
No?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Literally, If this isn't about Patricia and the Rodrigo, I
don't know what.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Is straight slanderous?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Do you think that he wrote this? Do you think that, like,
how is this possible? Oh? God?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Because he was in a position of power and all
of the executives at the studio were Mexican men, Like
I mean, hello, why do we think we have all
of these movies that never reflect a female narrative or
a female protagonist.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Because men make the movies.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
This is why it's important to have people in the
room that represent other p ovs.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
I love that there you go, there you go.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
And honestly, whatever audiences saw in the story when they
watched it in theaters, the song they heard as the
story concluded with Alejandro singing to an aging Vicente Fernandez
was an instant classic.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Miki l Yako is a mega tear jerker for anyone
with a close relationship to an aging father.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
And in Mexico these days, it's the song you throw
on at the family gathering to remember somebody you've lost.
Not like Coco style though, no like not like that,
but you know, when you're thinking about your here yajito,
that's what you put on. But apart from all of that,
(13:01):
it was also the song that kicked off Alejandro Fernandez's career.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
In earnest, the same Botrillo who froze on stage at
age five in a white chadle suit, was all grown
up and ready to sell records.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
His self titled debut Sanem on a tour through Mexico
and a few cities in the US. Off the strengths
of tracks like Mississito, vidarl Brumas and Eguiva Gadamente.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Al quickly became a mainstay of ranchero music over the
course of the nineties, and even ventured into pop later
in his career. The Fernandez dynasty was now in full effect.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
And that meant there was a target on Alrancho Tres Potrios.
By the late nineties, the Fernandez dynasty was in full
effect and with its patriarchy sent there, receiving a star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the spot in
(13:58):
Billboard Magazine's Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
But royalty can make you a target, and something unthinkable
was about to happen.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
On May thirteenth, and nineteen ninety eight, we sent this
eldest son. We sent the Junior was driving back to
Rancho Dres Bortrios when out of nowhere, a group of
trucks cut him off.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Man rushed out of the truck carrying guns and demanded
that we sent the junior get out.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Of his car.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
He sent the junior ov obeyed and then was let
at gunpoint into one of the trucks.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Meanwhile, we sent this senior was just a few hours
away from taking the stage when he got a phone call.
He picked up the phone and heard an unfamiliar voice
tell him.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
We have your son.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
The kidnappers were cray and demanded a ransom of five
million vessels, which with inflation would be like demanding eighteen
point five million pessels today.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I mean, listen, Vicenta was printing money, but like not
that kunt of money. Like he's not Bill Gates Jeff
Bezos rich, nor.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Could he chase after the bad guys on horseback with
a the one hand like in his movies.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
No you didn't, No you didn't, just I did.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I did.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
So that left him with no choice but to negotiate.
But first this g went ahead and performed the show,
like what the.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Show must go on.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
We need better parenting. Let's just be honest. I'm sorry.
You can come for me all you want, like be
a parent first and a performer second. Afterwards. Once he
wrapped his show, negotiations took place over.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Many days, then weeks, then months.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
The whole time, the family stayed tight lipped, saying nothing
to the media out of concern for vicenta juniors of safety,
like you didn't call the police.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Tempa even kept doing concerts now wait listen, which the
authorities wreckediately.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
To jail and immediately to jail.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
For your authorities recommended to keep things looking normal.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So I totally get it, and I'll say it again. Listen,
the show.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Must go on, says are child free co hosts.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
True.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
But eventually the kidnappers decided that things just weren't moving
fast enough. They decided to send a message, and that message.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Was uh, chop chop, honey.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
No, but I know literally no, it's like like cut
cut because they chopped off not one, but two of
vicent It Junior's fingers, the pinky, not the fucking pinky,
man pink, the pinky and the ring finger.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Okay, well, it looks like they're going from the least
useful to the most.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
So clock is ticking.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
The sent This Senior a total of one hundred and
twenty one days. During that time, the family negotiated, gathered money,
and continued supporting vicent This Senior's live performances.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
I can't see it. I have good news. I have
good news.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Finally, they managed to scrounge a cool three point five
million for the ransom. The cash was packed in a
bag and thrown from an airplane into an open field
in Nayai, the state neighboring Jalisco.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
The Fernandez homestate.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You guys, you're listening to this going did they make
this shit up? We did not make it up. I promised.
This is not like an April Fool's Day episode. This
is legit, sighted sourced, fact checked by our producers.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Now, days later, the family was getting ready for bed,
just another normal night at his ranchel, when the phone rang.
It was one of the kidnappers telling them to come
to the front gate of the ranch.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
We sent.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
This senior ran out of the house to the gate
and found his son standing there, totally disoriented, tired, and
sporting a beard one hundred and twenty one days long.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Tenth.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
They told interviewers. The first thing I said to him was,
don't think for a moment that I didn't want to
pay what they asked for. If they had asked for
my life, I would have given it.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Whatever lies Okay to even called a doctor in the
family to see if he could transplant his own fingers
onto his son's hand.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I mean, Latino parents, man, we always make it about ourselves.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
They're wild Latino Latino him is wild. But then he
kind of sat back into it and he was like,
you know what, I didn't give you my life. Let
me give you these two fingers.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Though, I mean, listen, we are joking and laughing because
it's such a wild story that it almost sounds like
it's a made for TV movie, like a Sunday Night
tele novela story or something. But have you ever heard
of this happening to another celebrity? Like I can only
(18:37):
think of no, no kidnappings. I mean I can think
of like massive threats on their life, like obviously the
Kim Kardashian burglary in Paris.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I think the first thing I heard of was was
more like Paris Hilton and the Bling Ringer. I think
that was before Kim's remember that. Yeah, so that was
kind of the biggest thing that I guess I had
heard of, and then obviously the Kim thing was huge.
But remember that I'm from Alpastro, Texas, and like, what
is so? Like I had did hear about? Like kidnappings
(19:09):
weren't crazy? For yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Uncommon?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, I mean they happen all the time throughout Latin America,
like if you I mean for our non Latino listeners
who have not had a chance to like travel through
And I don't mean like can kun. I mean, although
things happen there too. I'm saying, if you've never had
a chance to actually like travel through whether it's Mexico,
Central America, or Latin America, oftentimes you'll see like fleets
(19:33):
of SUVs pulling up to a restaurant and you think
it's the president and it's not. It's just a well
off family coming to dinner. Because the threat of kidnapping
is so high that whenever they leave the gates of
their safety, whether that's a ranch or their home or
they're building, they are flanked by private security, armed private
(19:54):
security because the threat of these kidnappings is so commonplace.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
So this is not such a wild story to me.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
The wildest part of the story is that this lasted
for over four months, and that during that entire time
he sent there was like, yo, I got to get
on stage.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Wait, well, hold on, That's where I wanted to stop
you because I kind of want to play the ils
out of a kid.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
You know it was the authorities who told him he
was in concert. He was on a concert, right, Like,
It's not like he was just randomly fucking trying to
solicit concerts randomly just to you know, make money.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
He like actually had.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
He was doing concerts and if he were to stop,
it would be weird.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Right. Maybe he was trying to make more money for
the ransom because you couldn't afford it on his.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Own, you know, like we actually don't know and we're
joking about it and being like, oh, the show must
go on, but.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Like imagine to actually be there, like yeah, like he
has to make that money no matter what if he stops,
he's not generating money. That's why he's playing these concerts,
you know, such a crazy like it is just a
crazy spot to be in.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Fine, where's gooo? Keep that on? All this?
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I need to hear from her, right, I need to
hear from her and listen. Vicenta Junior would eventually manage
to live with and overcome the trauma. I mean, also,
I need to hear from Vicente Junior.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
I was about to say.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
We haven't even asked about the person who's fucking kid
that bro, he's fine.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
He would even venture into music a few years later,
dropping three albums El Major de Loos, Potrios, Vicente Fernandez,
Ijo con Mariacci and Juamentos.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
But alas the eldest Potrio didn't quite inherit his father's
star power the way Alejandro had, and after three albums,
he retired from music because y'all, being a Nepple baby
is hard.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
It's hard out here for a nepo. Look.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
It was back to El Rancho for Vicenta Junior, where
he returned to the thing he loved most, riding horses,
something he wasn't sure he'd ever do again given his injury.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
The family would move on from this unthinkable ordeal, but
another shock to the system was on its way the
late nineties and early aunts. Savi sent the Fernandez and
(22:15):
his number one son number once in a while.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
My god, why are we ranking children?
Speaker 1 (22:20):
And his number one son Alejandro during victory laps, Santi, honey,
you're number one and I have no other children, but
he is the favorite.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Okay, but listen, number one meaning most successful, because his
firstborn and he sent the Junior was back at the
ranch riding horses.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Right, that's right, that's right, that's right. Alejandro, meanwhile, had
been topping the charts for almost a decade and.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Chent they marked a new millennium with the two part
Greatest Hits album that scored him double platinum certification and
a Billboard Latin Music Award.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
The following year, we sent that Alejandro went on tour
together on the Lassos in Sebliss Tour, a special nine
night circuit all up and down the US West Coast
and Mexico.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Tenta would then score a Latin Grammy for Best on
Shadow Album and a Person of the Year Award for
the Latin Recording Academy.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
The award honored him not just for his artistic achievements,
but for his philanthropy, having made donations to the National
Hispanic Scholarship Fund and having long performed for free at
rural Mexican town fairs.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I can't think of a better way to spend your sixties.
I feel like our parents all dreamt of being praised
and sent off to retirement like this.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
So true, but life isn't always like that, And unfortunately
for tenthe his world was about to be turned upside
down right as he was reaching sixty five Girl.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
The novela continues.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
So years after the kidnapping of Assentha Junior, the family
patriarch decides to purchase kidnap and ransom insurance for his
entire family.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Sounds like Tenta took a big hit from that three
point five million dollar rant payment and not so fun fact,
in twenty ten, criminal gangs made an estimated five hundred
million a year for ransom payments.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
We're in the wrong business, bitch, I was about to say,
hydid wife, Hydra husband, Honey, I'm coming for everybody like
I'm about to get paid. So the insurance definitely felt
in line with a proper reasonable measure. But now, as
a part of the agreement with the insurance company, each
(24:29):
member of the family had to undergo a DNA test.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Oh my god, are we about to get all fucking
Jerry Springer mypovitch up on this, bitch.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
M because it turns out one of the four Portrios
was not the sent the senior's biological son. He is
not the father.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Oh my god, wait wait, wait, hold on, hold on.
But what if it was Dona Coqita? What if she
had a secret life of her own? No, she's the
hero all of this, Okay, but who does that leave
So Rodrigo remember him?
Speaker 1 (25:06):
He was Decenta's illegitimate son with Patrisa Rivera.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yes, Well, it turns.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Out Patricia had lied about him being the scent son.
When the test results came. Rodrigo was eighteen years old,
and all of those years he had lived on a
rancho as just another member of the family.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
They never ever made him feel like a black sheep.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
But now the entire family cut him out. They kicked
him out of the rancho and ceased communication.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
I have no comment. I need to think about that.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Okay, But again we have to point out none of
this was the child's fault, and of course he tried
to reason with the family and find reconciliation, but to
no avail.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I kind of have a bad taste in my mouth
from this, and it is not the popcorn that I
had earlier.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Bad taste, Like I am throwing this entire family in
the garbage, Like I'm done with you, all of you,
all of you. I was already done with Jenta a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I kind of just Likeita raised but where are you baby?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Like I'm done with her too, don't like she was
my hero. She was my hero and now she is
the villain? Like what an art?
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Yeah? Right, I mean can you imagine?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
I mean I think about all of my friends that
are adopted, and like how deep the bond is that
they have with their families. Like can you imagine if,
like all of a sudden, their parents that raise them
forever just decided one day to like be like you
know what, no, not enough, not enough, We decided you're
(26:49):
not ours anymore.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yeah, I don't have I don't have words. I could
say this.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I know poor that you go, I get it, but
like just know this too, like they be sent there
must have felt obviously he felt betrayed. Imagine I think
something is yours for so long and.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
You go get Patricia, like, go figure it out with her, Like,
go get her. Don't take it out on your poor son,
who knows nothing different. I mean, we're talking about a
lifetime of therapy. And what's crazy is Fernandez did offer
to pay for Rodrigo's education, but like, hello, bu like
are you going to pay for my therapy too? And
by the way, rumors also suggest that ed Chadle paid
(27:31):
his former son millions to just vanish. He just wanted
nothing to do with him.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
It's got the cope taste I was having. But believe
what you want, I guess.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
And we're not done. There's still a little bit more
to Rodrigo's story, though. All Throughout his teen years, he
had been studying and practicing music.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Same as that Alekandro. He wanted to be just like
his dad.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
After the ordeal that the family put him through, Rodrigo
landed himself a meeting with EMI where he performed the
rancherra music that he had learned at Rancho Tres Potrios.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Our Portrioscuro. Got signed Bitch, and his debut record.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Was a hit.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
It Begatomas Bayo made waves and got Rodrigo the title
of Musical Revelation of the Year at the two thousand
and seven oh Ye Awards. Rodrigo put in work and
earned a solid reputation in the regional Mexican music scene,
but eventually he'd hang up his hat and since then
he stayed out of the spotlight and as far as
(28:32):
the public knows, out of contact with the Fernandez dynasty.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Damn sad.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Y'all sad and dark, and we're not even done. There's
still another episode on the next Becoming an Icon vicent
that Fernandez leaves behind a checkered legacy. Becoming an Icon
(29:00):
is presented by Sonoo and Iheart'smichael Duda podcast network. Listen
to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,
or wherever you get your podcast
Hosts And Creators
Lilliana Vazquez
Joseph Carrillo
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.