After four years of dating, this is what it came to for Art Castillo: sitting alone in his blue truck in Waco, Texas, listening to his girlfriend on speaker.
“I hanged up and put Vicente Fernández on,” said Mr. Castillo, 30.
For generations, Mr. Fernández’s often sorrowful songs have served as a balm for the heartbroken.
“When Vicente Fernández sang, he expressed all of those emotions that we keep held inside: that silent cry, that silent scream that’s happening when you’re heartbroken, when you just cannot anymore,” Dr.
On a cool March night in Oxnard, Calif., a brokenhearted Jaime Tapia grabbed some beers, invited a friend to his house and put on a Vicente Fernández playlist.
“In Mexican culture, men are supposed to be strong, valiant, proud and void of any sentiment,” she said.
“I’m sitting there looking down at the floor like, ‘Oh my God, there’s literally a mariachi in my house,’” said Ms. Figueroa, now 39.
But perhaps it worked, he said, because they married, had children and listened to ranchera music together for decades.