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CIUDAD DE MEXICO (AP) -- Juan Gabriel fue un ídolo de masas que iba en contra de todos los estereotipos. En un continente conservador y machista como Latinoamérica, fue la antítesis de la masculinidad enaltecida por las generaciones que le precedieron.
Y sin embargo fue adorado por personas de todos los estratos sociales, edades y sexos.
Juan Gabriel fue un músico con un don enorme que supo tocar las fibras más profundas de millones, incluyendo a muchísimos de sus colegas músicos que le decían maestro.
Hubo una época, no muy lejana, en la que una buena fiesta, de esas que terminan en la madrugada, no podía faltar la música de Juan Gabriel. La gente lo daba por hecho: comida, bebida y Juan Gabriel, sin excepción.
Pero también estaba ahí los fines de semana comunes en los que uno quería sentirse alegre con "El Noa Noa", o cuando las señoras estaban molestas con sus maridos y les tocaban las de Juanga y Rocío Durcal para mandarles un mensaje subrepticio, o no tanto.
Ese jovencito que se dio a conocer en los años 70, con camisas desabotonadas, pantalones acampanados, sin "dinero ni nada que dar", era bien parecido pero nada excepcional. Con el cabello oscuro y la piel morena, era sencillamente un mexicano más, casi tirando a lo corriente.
Su imagen se fue refinando y en los 90 pasó a la posteridad con el vestuario de su presentación en Bellas Artes, una llamativa fusión entre traje de luces y chaqueta de ranchero con cuentas y flequillos dorados que para su época era una excentricidad bastante afeminada. Ya en las décadas de los 2000 comenzó su deterioro físico y subió bastante de peso, pero no perdió el estilo con un aire hindú, acompañado de pañuelos e incluso turbantes. A esta imagen se sumaba su impresionante voz de contralto que llegaba a unos agudos imponentes, aún en sus últimos años.
En los años 70 y 80 dejaba entrever un cierto amaneramiento que se intensificó a lo largo de los años y que confirmó con un histórico "dicen que lo que se ve no se pregunta" en el 2002. Él era consciente de esto. En la serie biográfica "Hasta que te conocí" se abordaba el tema y la voz en off que narraba su historia mantenía su peculiar manera de hablar. Esto provocó burlas y escorna, pero no evitó que la gran mayoría se entregara a su música.
Juan Gabriel escribió unas 1.500 canciones. Algunas muy sencillas, simplonas incluso, como "Buenos días Señor Sol", que parece sacada de un jardín de infancia. Pero también estaban las tonadas tristes ("Hasta que te conocí", "Amor eterno", "Abrázame muy fuerte") y sobre todo las rancheras ("Te voy a olvidar, "Quisiera saber", "Se me olvidó otra vez", "Juro que no volveré"), que provocaban dolor y placer por igual, al grado de estar reservadas como un veneno infalible para cuando uno quisiera llorar y cantar a grito tendido, sin importar si se era hombre o mujer. Porque el dolor en el corazón se siente igual para todos.
Como escribió Juan Gabriel en una de sus piezas: "Me gusta cantar y cantar y hacer canciones que hablen de amor para enamorados, tristes y alegres que hablen siempre con la verdad".
¿Y qué decir de su figura en el escenario? ¿Quién en su sano juicio hace un concierto de seis horas? Juan Gabriel no solo podía, lo deseaba, y verlo en vivo era una experiencia indeleble. La gente se entregaba a todos sus movimientos, coreaba todas con él mientras pasaba del country a la balada, a las rancheras y el bolero por igual. Y nunca dejó de hacerlo.
Ahora que los conciertos difícilmente llegan a las dos horas y a veces no atrapan la atención de la gente que está pegada a sus celulares, o que artistas jóvenes fallan llegando tarde y cancelando, los videos en los que quedaron registradas sus presentaciones deberían ser tomados en cuenta como una escuela.
El último, en Inglewood, California, como parte de su gira "MéXXIco Es Todo Tour 2016", fue apenas el pasado viernes.
Boxing great Manny Pacquiao close to Philippine Senate win
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Boxing great Manny Pacquiao appears to have won a seat in the Philippine Senate, according to unofficial results.
Pacquiao has garnered more than 15 million votes, with about 93 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday. That places him eighth among candidates for 12 Senate seats, and nearly 3 million votes ahead of the candidate in 13th place. Official results are days away.
Pacquiao ran under the losing ticket of presidential candidate Jejomar Binay but has also been endorsed by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the winner of the presidential race according to unofficial results.
New Philippine leader seen as emancipator, looming dictator
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Rodrigo Duterte, the bombastic mayor of a major southern city, was heralded Tuesday as president-elect of the Philippines after an incendiary campaign that projected him alternatively as an emancipator and a looming dictator.
US-Afghan raid rescues abducted son of former Pakistan PM
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. and Afghan forces conducting a raid Tuesday against Islamic militants unexpectedly found and rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister who had been abducted three years ago, officials said.
Ali Haider Gilani, believed to be about 30, was discovered in good health during the raid near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan. The operation killed four of the extremists, the officials said.
Israeli police say 2 Israeli women stabbed in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (AP) — Two masked attackers stabbed two Israeli women taking a walk in a Jerusalem forest on Tuesday, police said, setting off a manhunt to capture the assailants.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said five women were walking along a Jerusalem promenade near the "Peace Forest" when they were attacked from behind. Two of them, both said to be about 70 years of age, were stabbed and were taken to a hospital with moderate injuries.
After setting up checkpoints and searching an Arab area of east Jerusalem, police arrested two men, but they were released soon after.
Officials: Germany stabbing suspect mentally unstable
GRAFING, Germany (AP) — A German man yelled out "infidel, you must die" and "Allahu akbar" as he stabbed four people at a Bavarian train station Tuesday, witnesses said. But authorities say they've found no links to any Islamic extremist network and that he appears to be psychologically disturbed.
One victim died in a hospital and three others were being treated for their wounds.
The 27-year-old was taken into custody near the scene at the Grafing Bahnhof just before 5 a.m. and had a 10-centimeter (4-inch) survival knife tucked into his belt, authorities said.
Rights group claims Turkish border guards killed 5 refugees
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A rights advocacy group claimed Tuesday that Turkish border guards have in the past two months killed five Syrians who were trying to cross into Turkey, and called on the country to investigate the reported use of excessive force by soldiers.
In a statement, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused border guards of shooting and beating asylum-seekers and at least one smuggler. It said that five refugees — including a child — were killed and 14 others were wounded in March and April.
A Turkish Interior Ministry official denied that the incidents cited by Human Rights Watch had occurred and insisted that the country, which is home to 2.7 million Syrian refugees, does not shoot at asylum-seekers. The official cannot be named because of regulations that bar civil servants from speaking to journalists without prior authorization.
London mayor slams Trump's 'ignorant' view of Islam
LONDON (AP) — London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Tuesday slammed Donald Trump's "ignorant" view of Islam, after the Republican presidential contender suggested Khan could be exempted from a proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Khan, the London-born son of Pakistani immigrants, was elected last week by a wide margin after a campaign that saw his Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith accuse him of having shared platforms with Islamic extremists.
Khan, a former human rights lawyer and Labour Party lawmaker, accused Goldsmith of trying to frighten and divide voters in a multicultural city of 8.6 million people — more than 1 million of them Muslims.
By PETER PRENGAMAN and JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press
Investigators on Tuesday recovered all 10 bodies from a remote site in Argentina where helicopters serving a reality TV show apparently collided, killing prominent French athletes and leaving the European nation in mourning.
The helicopters crashed Monday afternoon near Villa Castelli, about 730 miles (1,170 kilometers) northwest of Buenos Aires, said La Rioja regional Secretary of Security Cesar Angulo. All aboard - eight French nationals and two Argentine pilots - were killed.
Among the dead were Olympic champion swimmer Camille Muffat, Olympic boxer and bronze-medalist Alexis Vastine, and pioneering sailor Florence Arthaud. They had been among the contestants in the reality TV show "Dropped."
The bodies were being transported to the regional capital of La Rioja province, where autopsies would be conducted, Judge Virginia Illanes Bordon told television channel Todo Noticias. Illanes Bordon said the rough terrain made recovering the bodies late Monday impossible.
Television images showed investigators pulling cellphones, papers and other charred, unrecognizable items from the wreckage in dry scrubland of a sparsely populated area along the Andes mountain range that separates Argentina and Chile.
The crash was believed to be one the deadliest incidents yet related to reality TV shows, a sub-genre of which involves taking celebrities and others to far-flung places to face challenges both physical and mental.
French President Francois Hollande expressed "immense sadness" about those who died, and the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation into possible involuntary manslaughter, which is to be conducted by a research unit of the French air transport police, a French police official said.
The remaining victims were identified as Laurent Sbasnik, Lucie Mei-Dalby, Volodia Guinard, Brice Guilbert and Edouard Gilles, as well as pilots Juan Carlos Castillo and Roberto Abate.
The wife of Castillo, Cristina Alvarez, told Todo Noticias that her husband was a veteran of the Falklands War and had vast experience flying helicopters, including in places like Antarctica and the Falkland Islands.
Her voice cracking, she said her husband was "extremely happy" because he had recently found out he was going to be a grandfather.
Angulo, the security secretary, said one of the helicopters belonged to La Rioja province and the other to neighboring Santiago del Estero province.