For José Alfredo Guerrero, a gay Latino singer and music teacher in Pilsen, Juan Gabriel proved “that you can be yourself and people will still love you.”
“The first time that I sang a Juan Gabriel song, it completely changed the way that I sang and the way people reacted,” said Jose Alfredo, “Juan Gabriel is my idol.”
Almost every month, Guerrero, Sam Castro, Mario Hernández, and Daniel Flores, who together form the band Madera Once, go to Caminos de Michoacan, 1659 W Cullerton St., a popular bar in Pilsen, to “play the Mexican cantina songs your parents used to drink and cry to,” he said.
For Guerrero José Alfredo, Juanga was as much a link to the past of his parents, as a modern day musical hero.
“As long as I can sing and even after stop singing his legacy will always be inside of me because I feel like I had a piece of it by being able to sing his songs” Guerrero said.
