The walls are covered by murals with famous singers of rancheras: Pedro Infante, José Alfredo Jiménez, Chavela Vargas and Juan Gabriel. Singer Alvaro Hurtado is doing the rounds with a mariachi.

Trying to explain what música ranchera is to non-Mexicans reminds me of the apocryphal quote attributed to–take your pick–Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington, when someone asked what jazz is.

He was 81. "It was an honor and a great pride to share with everyone a great musical career and to give everything for his audience," read a post on Fernández's account translated from Spanish.