MEXICO CITY-Juan Gabriel was more than just a singer and songwriter for the hundreds of fans who thronged Mexico City's Plaza Garibaldi to wish him farewell Monday.
He was a legend, an artist who marked an era in people's lives.
The statue of Juan Gabriel in Garibaldi was adorned with flowers and candles. Those standing around it were not only Mexicans; it seemed the world was united by his death.
One of them Marshall Gourley, a tourist from Denver, Colorado, who said that "it would be a mortal sin to be in Mexico and not come to Plaza Garibaldi to remember him."
"His music is universal, and eternal, his music has been a part of all of us since the early '70s," said Gourley, who noted "Amor Eterno" was played at his mother's funeral.
In Ciudad Juarez, the border city where Juan Gabriel grew up, dozens of people gathered outside a house he owned to place flowers and candles and sing his songs.
Juan Gabriel was Mexico's leading singer-songwriter and top-selling artist.
His ballads about love and heartbreak and bouncy mariachi tunes became hymns throughout Latin America and Spain as well as with Spanish speakers in the United States.
He brought fans to tears with songs, including top hits such as "Hasta Que Te Conoci" ("Until I Met You"). "Querida" ("Dear") topped Mexico's charts for an entire year.