

Others took flowers and candles to the Burbank office of radio station KBUE-FM (105.5), La Que Buena, which broadcast 24 hours of the singer’s music over the weekend. In Southern California, thousands of mourners gathered Sunday at Lincoln Park in East Los Angeles. “It was something so impressive and unprecedented here, and that’s when I realized how famous this young man was and what a great loss this has been for all of us.” “Almost the whole town of Escuinapa came out when they heard the news, carrying placards and playing his records and singing and dancing all through the night,” Olivas said. to Escuinapa, lighting votive candles and playing Sanchez’s CDs and singing along to his simple but catchy love songs. Within hours, news of the accident sparked tearful calls to radio stations from fans and public vigils on both sides of the border, signals of the growing popularity of the charismatic artist who had made an impressive debut as a mainstream headliner 10 days ago at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre. I can say, from what I know, that he led quite an impeccable life. “He was one of the very few good role models for Latino kids. “There was just this wholesome quality about him, very down to earth,” said Marco Antonio Gonzales, a spokesman for Univision Music Group who worked closely with the younger Sanchez. But unlike his gun-slinging father, the younger Sanchez nurtured an image as a suave, sharply dressed, romantic teenage idol. Sanchez was 8 in 1992 when his father was kidnapped and killed after a performance in Sinaloa. But police said there was no indication of foul play.

The coincidence of his son dying in an area known for its drug cartels and violence fueled speculation that the car crash had not been an accident. Sanchez’s father, a singer/songwriter who had gained notoriety for his musical tales, known as narco-corridos, about criminal escapades, was slain execution-style 12 years ago in the same state. Three others were injured in the crash - the singer’s manager, a friend and the driver. The handsome singer, who was not wearing his seat belt, sustained severe head injuries and died instantly, said Julieta Olivas, owner of Funeraria San Fernando, a mortuary in Escuinapa, Sinaloa, about 45 miles southeast of Mazatlan. Sanchez, of Paramount, was on a promotional trip through northwestern Mexico on Saturday when the 1989 Ford Crown Victoria he was in blew a tire and overturned, the Mexican highway patrol said. Adan Sanchez, the son of slain narco-corrido music legend Chalino Sanchez who was nurtured in Southern California’s burgeoning immigrant music scene and emerged this year as a star in his own right, has died in a car crash in Sinaloa, Mexico.
