Nov. 19, 2025
365: The Death of Chalino Sanchez
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A musician's 1992 murder remains a mystery.
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WEBVTT
00:00.031 --> 00:05.063
[SPEAKER_00]: a death note, I'm Jason Horton, I'm Rebecca Leib, and this is Ghost Town.
00:20.804 --> 00:25.274
[SPEAKER_00]: If you Google Chulino Sanchez, one clip comes up more than any other.
00:25.915 --> 00:38.121
[SPEAKER_00]: It is May 15, 1992, and Sanchez, one of the most influential Mexican singers of the late 20th century, is performing at the Salon Bugombilius in Coolicon, Mexico.
00:38.101 --> 00:42.926
[SPEAKER_00]: He's in a suit and cowboy hat, front and center on a dimly lit stage.
00:43.827 --> 00:48.873
[SPEAKER_00]: As the band warms up for his next song, Sanchez has handed a note from someone in the crowd.
00:49.694 --> 00:56.241
[SPEAKER_00]: Reading the note, the handsome 31-year-old seems disoriented, wiping sweat from his brow.
00:57.122 --> 01:03.028
[SPEAKER_00]: A consummate professional, however, Sanchez collects himself and continues on with the show.
01:03.008 --> 01:09.176
[SPEAKER_00]: The clip isn't haunting in and of itself until you put it into its own grim context.
01:09.937 --> 01:17.686
[SPEAKER_00]: Just one day later, the body of Cheleno Sanchez would be found lying on an abandoned road, two gunshot wounds to his head.
01:18.627 --> 01:28.780
[SPEAKER_00]: Today on Ghost Town, the story of the legendary and revolutionary entertainer Cheleno Sanchez, and the note that would seal his undoing.
01:30.076 --> 01:40.517
[SPEAKER_00]: The youngest of eight children born into violence and poverty, Rosalino Sanchez-Felix was born on August 30, 1960, at a small ranch in St. Aloa, Mexico.
01:40.537 --> 01:49.435
[SPEAKER_00]: Though he grew up around organized crime, Rosalino, nicknamed Chilino, had a deep sense of justice that was articulated early in his life.
01:49.938 --> 01:53.424
[SPEAKER_00]: A want for more and better for himself and his family.
01:54.245 --> 02:03.100
[SPEAKER_00]: This sentiment came to a head when in September 1975, Sanchez shot and killed a cartel higher-up who had sexually assaulted his sister.
02:03.821 --> 02:08.529
[SPEAKER_00]: Just 15 years old, Sanchez then moved to Tijuana, where he worked as a coyote.
02:09.531 --> 02:13.397
[SPEAKER_00]: Smuggling undocumented immigrants into the United States.
02:13.377 --> 02:20.165
[SPEAKER_00]: Soon it was Sanchez's turn, and in January 1983 he fled with his aunt to Inglewood, California.
02:20.185 --> 02:27.814
[SPEAKER_00]: There he worked multiple jobs, washing dishes, selling cars, whatever he could do to make ends meet.
02:28.775 --> 02:35.082
[SPEAKER_00]: In May 1983 Sanchez met the woman who had become his wife, Maricella, and had two children with her.
02:35.551 --> 02:40.761
[SPEAKER_00]: all the while working and raising his family and discovering his love of expressing himself through music.
02:41.542 --> 02:52.182
[SPEAKER_00]: In July 1984, Sanchez's brother Armando was shot and killed in a hotel in Tijuana, which inspired Sanchez to compose his first Carrito, or ballad about the event.
02:52.983 --> 02:56.209
[SPEAKER_00]: It was called Recordando A Armando Sanchez.
02:56.189 --> 03:01.695
[SPEAKER_00]: Around this time, Sanchez was back in Tijuana, and was arrested for petty crimes.
03:02.296 --> 03:11.667
[SPEAKER_00]: In prison, he was hired to compose corridors for his fellow inmates, based on their own histories and crimes, turning their stories into song and recording them on cassettes.
03:12.267 --> 03:15.892
[SPEAKER_00]: For his trouble, Sanchez was paid in cash, watches, and even guns.
03:16.893 --> 03:22.399
[SPEAKER_00]: This was where Sanchez developed his contentious, but soon to be popular, signature style.
03:22.379 --> 03:29.429
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez's voice had a raw nasal tone stripped down into some sounding somewhat amateurish.
03:30.190 --> 03:40.184
[SPEAKER_00]: According to a medium piece about Sanchez by RF Wilds, Sanchez didn't consider himself a traditional singer, saying that he would often bark the lyrics that he wrote.
03:41.005 --> 03:42.447
[SPEAKER_00]: Says Wild Quote,
03:42.427 --> 03:46.491
[SPEAKER_00]: This raw unschooled vocal quality was a major part of Sanchez's appeal.
03:47.091 --> 03:54.478
[SPEAKER_00]: It made him sound authentic and unspoiled by pop polish, convincing listeners that he genuinely lived the outlaw life of his lyrics.
03:55.399 --> 04:11.995
[SPEAKER_00]: Juan Carlos Ramirez Pimenta, a professor of literature and cultural studies at San Diego State University, also says of Sanchez's vocals, quote,
04:13.156 --> 04:15.580
[SPEAKER_00]: Out of prison, Sanchez became more popular.
04:16.161 --> 04:20.969
[SPEAKER_00]: He was introduced to Angel Para, who arranged for the singer to record his first demos in 1987.
04:21.210 --> 04:30.726
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez recorded 15 songs, with local community members, undocumented immigrants, petty criminals, and ranchos, as his Carrito subjects.
04:30.706 --> 04:45.522
[SPEAKER_00]: It was revolutionary, because, unlike mainstream music at the time, these protagonists were just like the listeners, whose realities were living paycheck to paycheck, existing in and among drug cartels and generally just trying to survive.
04:46.303 --> 04:53.090
[SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly, Sanchez's cassettes became hugely popular, selling quickly out of the trunk of his car and at local flea markets.
04:53.811 --> 04:57.675
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez also began performing at kinsanaras and baptisms.
04:57.655 --> 05:06.124
[SPEAKER_00]: Though his recordings remained raw and unvarnished compared to mainstream Mexican folk music, fans were drawn to Sanchez's stripped-down singing and lyricism.
05:06.685 --> 05:23.123
[SPEAKER_00]: His style would soon create a new type of music, the Narco Corrito, or Drug Ballad, a greedy sub-genre of the rejected pop-fineers of the time, and embodying a sense of unapologetic realism, reflective of the escalating drug cartel activity in Mexico.
05:23.103 --> 05:33.313
[SPEAKER_00]: Songs like Nevis to Enreau and Alma and Amarada became anthems for the working class Latino experience in such a challenging and uncertain context.
05:34.294 --> 05:40.000
[SPEAKER_00]: According to LA Weekly quote, As a performer, Cheleno had a distinctly American, democratic ethic.
05:40.480 --> 05:48.368
[SPEAKER_00]: He dressed like his audience, a cocked cowboy hat, large belt buckle, cowboy boots, and usually gold chains and watches.
05:48.348 --> 05:50.111
[SPEAKER_00]: He often tucked a gun in his belt.
05:50.772 --> 05:59.206
[SPEAKER_00]: He broke two with the traditional Mexican entertainment style, where the singer was the star, the audience, the adoring public, and everyone knew his place.
05:59.927 --> 06:02.571
[SPEAKER_00]: He would pose for photographs with fans when he was singing.
06:03.873 --> 06:08.080
[SPEAKER_00]: By 1989, Sanchez had become a musician that was by and for the people.
06:08.802 --> 06:13.950
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd given up his day jobs, formed his own record label, and was hustling his cassettes full time.
06:15.230 --> 06:21.157
[SPEAKER_00]: The previous year he'd met Nacho Hernandez, who's been Los Amoblos to North, became his regular accompanies.
06:21.978 --> 06:31.831
[SPEAKER_00]: Now the King of Corrito, Cheleno Sanchez, had arrived, had record deals, tens of thousands of cassette sales, and a multitude of concert dates all in front of him.
06:32.512 --> 06:39.280
[SPEAKER_00]: He was famous both in the US and in Mexico, performing steadily in both countries in the early 1990s.
06:39.260 --> 06:57.044
[SPEAKER_00]: On January 25, 1992, Sanchez performed at the Plaza-Los Arcos Restaurant and Nightclub in Coachella, California, an attendee named Eduardo Galejoz, an unemployed mechanic under the influence of heroin and alcohol, requested Sanchez play the song, El Galo de Sinaloa.
06:57.084 --> 07:02.972
[SPEAKER_00]: After his request, Galejoz jumped on stage and fired four shots at Sanchez.
07:02.952 --> 07:10.400
[SPEAKER_00]: In retaliation, Sanchez fired his own gun that he carried on him, but the gun jammed and then he threw it at Galejo's.
07:11.361 --> 07:20.331
[SPEAKER_00]: Says an L.A. Times piece about the incident, quote, after clamoring drunkenly onto the stage of a nightclub Galejo stood face-to-face with a singer, Cholino Sanchez.
07:20.932 --> 07:22.734
[SPEAKER_00]: Both men had traveled similar paths.
07:23.274 --> 07:31.103
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Cholino, Galejo was a teenager when he left his home state of Sinaloa, Mexico, where his family worked the fields in poverty.
07:31.083 --> 07:35.349
[SPEAKER_00]: Glejoz was looking for the American dream to earn money he would say decades later.
07:35.369 --> 07:37.031
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't turn out that way.
07:37.953 --> 07:42.859
[SPEAKER_00]: Glejoz's four shots hit Sanchez twice in the chest near his armpit, striking his lung.
07:43.420 --> 07:46.064
[SPEAKER_00]: One bullet hit Sanchez's accordionist in the thigh.
07:46.685 --> 07:52.753
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez's shots missed Glejoz entirely, but hit and killed 20
07:52.733 --> 07:54.636
[SPEAKER_00]: who was dancing to the music with his wife.
07:55.538 --> 08:01.488
[SPEAKER_00]: In total, nine to 15 shots were fired in that night club, and tragically, 10 people were hit.
08:02.149 --> 08:07.518
[SPEAKER_00]: Glejos was eventually wrestled to the floor by a bystander and was shot in the mouth with his own pistol.
08:08.440 --> 08:14.590
[SPEAKER_00]: As it turns out, Glejos and Sanchez stories continued to be similar, both were in critical condition.
08:14.570 --> 08:20.597
[SPEAKER_00]: Both were transported to the desert regional hospital in Palm Springs, California, and both survived their wounds.
08:21.578 --> 08:27.065
[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, Glejoz was convicted of attempted murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
08:27.565 --> 08:28.667
[SPEAKER_00]: He was hurled in 2023.
08:30.068 --> 08:38.198
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez eventually healed from his wounds, and the additional press only increased his mythology, his sales and his radio airplay.
08:38.178 --> 08:43.327
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1992, Cheleno Sanchez returned to his old stopping grounds of Culiacan.
08:43.949 --> 08:48.777
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1992, Cheleno Sanchez returned to his old stopping grounds in Mexico to perform.
08:49.338 --> 08:59.477
[SPEAKER_00]: The stories collected by experts say that many people recommended he not travel to that part of Mexico, due to the violence and the hold of the drug cartels, and, of course, Sanchez's own fame.
08:59.457 --> 09:08.539
[SPEAKER_00]: but Sanchez had come so far, heading back gave him a sense of perspective and a sense of purpose to continue to share his music with those who grew up like him.
09:08.579 --> 09:13.771
[SPEAKER_00]: But the trip and the concert in his hometown venue would be his last.
09:14.653 --> 09:16.217
[SPEAKER_00]: More after this break.
09:17.446 --> 09:26.758
[SPEAKER_00]: After the January 1992 shooting, and the increase in his own notoriety that followed, Julino Sanchez became a bit paranoid, maybe even fearing for his life.
09:27.519 --> 09:37.311
[SPEAKER_00]: He distributed his gun collection to his friends and sold the rights to his song to Muse Art Records, receiving enough money that he gave to his wife to buy their family a house and her name.
09:37.291 --> 09:45.719
[SPEAKER_00]: Still, he was set on performing, and in the spring of 1992, he went back to Kulia Khan, his childhood home, for a series of gigs.
09:46.639 --> 09:57.809
[SPEAKER_00]: On May 16, 1992, during a performance at the Salon Boogumbilius and Kulia Khan, Mexico, Sanchez was doing his thing, readying himself for his next song.
09:58.550 --> 10:07.298
[SPEAKER_00]: As the musicians played the introductory bars of the song,
10:07.278 --> 10:11.206
[SPEAKER_00]: This moment is captured on video and I suggest you watch it.
10:11.226 --> 10:16.476
[SPEAKER_00]: It is unique, unnerving, and honestly very brief.
10:17.078 --> 10:21.366
[SPEAKER_00]: You might not even notice it being strange if you watched the show and it's entirety.
10:21.927 --> 10:27.278
[SPEAKER_00]: But now this moment and its own importance is frozen in time.
10:27.258 --> 10:29.722
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez reads the note to himself in the video.
10:30.423 --> 10:36.832
[SPEAKER_00]: He pauses, takes in whatever information is on the paper, and seemingly worried wipes his brow.
10:36.872 --> 10:45.225
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he crumples up the note and continues on with the show, singing a ballad about love and death, called, of course, soul and love.
10:45.365 --> 10:55.560
[SPEAKER_00]: The video captures just a couple seconds of vulnerability, a fear that immediately dissolves as Sanchez grounds himself back into his
10:55.540 --> 11:00.927
[SPEAKER_00]: Personally, it's kind of haunting, but only if you know what comes next.
11:02.209 --> 11:07.436
[SPEAKER_00]: After midnight, Sanchez left the club with two of his brothers, a cousin and a couple of friends in a fort.
11:08.016 --> 11:22.375
[SPEAKER_00]: As they drove away, their vehicle was pulled over by a group of armed men in black Chevrolet suburbans, said that they were the state police, and showed Sanchez in his entourage some kind of identification, telling him that their commander wanted to see him.
11:22.355 --> 11:25.579
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez agrees and gets into one of their cars.
11:26.921 --> 11:36.713
[SPEAKER_00]: On May 16, 1992, the very next morning, two farmers were working at an irrigation canal by Mexican Federal Highway 15 in a nearby neighborhood.
11:36.753 --> 11:48.328
[SPEAKER_00]: There, they found the body of Chulino Sanchez, blindfolded with burn marks from rope on his wrists and shot twice in the back of the head.
11:48.308 --> 12:08.983
[SPEAKER_00]: When the news hits Sanchez's popularity sword again with hundreds of songs dedicated to the musician, while it couldn't find much on the investigation itself, when the news hits Sanchez's popularity sword with hundreds of songs, other people's corridors dedicated to the slain musician, while it couldn't find much on the investigation itself,
12:08.963 --> 12:20.203
[SPEAKER_00]: Many have their own theories, which we'll discuss in a bit, calling the mysterious note given to Sanchez, a quote, death note, a note spelling out his demise that would come to fruition that very night.
12:20.865 --> 12:30.482
[SPEAKER_00]: The note, unfortunately, was never found, but presumably Sanchez stared death in the face that night, determined to keep singing no matter what the cost.
12:30.462 --> 12:43.304
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez was buried in the Pentan de los Pacitos and Sinaloa, Mexico, and his music continues to be played and appreciated all over the world, with, as a note, an unlikely fan of Sanchez is Snoop Dogg.
12:44.125 --> 12:50.175
[SPEAKER_00]: He has murals depicting him and celebrating his impact, including a very famous one in Paramount, California.
12:50.813 --> 13:04.485
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2021, Harvard Journalists looked into the assassinations by the Mexican government around the time of Sanchez's death, concluding that the government had consistently covered up the mysterious and accidental murders of these three controversial politicians.
13:04.645 --> 13:05.526
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to get to that.
13:05.586 --> 13:10.271
[SPEAKER_00]: That could be a story in and of itself, but it is important and timely.
13:10.291 --> 13:20.820
[SPEAKER_00]: These requests inspired a relook at Sanchez's death and queries on documents
13:20.800 --> 13:22.883
[SPEAKER_00]: So, who killed Chilino Sanchez?
13:23.504 --> 13:32.695
[SPEAKER_00]: Some theorized that the Mexican government were in bed with the local cartels, and were not happy with Sanchez's musical transparency about cartels and the criminal life as a whole.
13:32.716 --> 13:39.785
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people think that way back when Sanchez pissed off the wrong people in retaliation for his sister's sexual assault.
13:40.005 --> 13:44.631
[SPEAKER_00]: They were in fact many times during his short life that Sanchez spoke up against the cartel.
13:44.611 --> 13:52.665
[SPEAKER_00]: or advocated against its hold on his community that could have ignited violence and of course the death note spelling out his own murder.
13:53.486 --> 14:05.607
[SPEAKER_00]: But Chalena Sanchez of course slips on, his legacy extends all over Mexico and the U.S. like I said, and he sold over 200 million records, making him one of the most influential Mexican artists of all time.
14:05.587 --> 14:09.435
[SPEAKER_00]: Likely, in some part, bolstered by his mysterious death.
14:10.437 --> 14:18.975
[SPEAKER_00]: In his podcast, the ballad of Chulino Sanchez, podcaster Alejandro Mendoza, aptly summarizes the tragic moment of the musician's death.
14:19.537 --> 14:24.928
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, whoever wanted Chulino dead screwed up, because it made him eternal.
00:00.031 --> 00:05.063
[SPEAKER_00]: a death note, I'm Jason Horton, I'm Rebecca Leib, and this is Ghost Town.
00:20.804 --> 00:25.274
[SPEAKER_00]: If you Google Chulino Sanchez, one clip comes up more than any other.
00:25.915 --> 00:38.121
[SPEAKER_00]: It is May 15, 1992, and Sanchez, one of the most influential Mexican singers of the late 20th century, is performing at the Salon Bugombilius in Coolicon, Mexico.
00:38.101 --> 00:42.926
[SPEAKER_00]: He's in a suit and cowboy hat, front and center on a dimly lit stage.
00:43.827 --> 00:48.873
[SPEAKER_00]: As the band warms up for his next song, Sanchez has handed a note from someone in the crowd.
00:49.694 --> 00:56.241
[SPEAKER_00]: Reading the note, the handsome 31-year-old seems disoriented, wiping sweat from his brow.
00:57.122 --> 01:03.028
[SPEAKER_00]: A consummate professional, however, Sanchez collects himself and continues on with the show.
01:03.008 --> 01:09.176
[SPEAKER_00]: The clip isn't haunting in and of itself until you put it into its own grim context.
01:09.937 --> 01:17.686
[SPEAKER_00]: Just one day later, the body of Cheleno Sanchez would be found lying on an abandoned road, two gunshot wounds to his head.
01:18.627 --> 01:28.780
[SPEAKER_00]: Today on Ghost Town, the story of the legendary and revolutionary entertainer Cheleno Sanchez, and the note that would seal his undoing.
01:30.076 --> 01:40.517
[SPEAKER_00]: The youngest of eight children born into violence and poverty, Rosalino Sanchez-Felix was born on August 30, 1960, at a small ranch in St. Aloa, Mexico.
01:40.537 --> 01:49.435
[SPEAKER_00]: Though he grew up around organized crime, Rosalino, nicknamed Chilino, had a deep sense of justice that was articulated early in his life.
01:49.938 --> 01:53.424
[SPEAKER_00]: A want for more and better for himself and his family.
01:54.245 --> 02:03.100
[SPEAKER_00]: This sentiment came to a head when in September 1975, Sanchez shot and killed a cartel higher-up who had sexually assaulted his sister.
02:03.821 --> 02:08.529
[SPEAKER_00]: Just 15 years old, Sanchez then moved to Tijuana, where he worked as a coyote.
02:09.531 --> 02:13.397
[SPEAKER_00]: Smuggling undocumented immigrants into the United States.
02:13.377 --> 02:20.165
[SPEAKER_00]: Soon it was Sanchez's turn, and in January 1983 he fled with his aunt to Inglewood, California.
02:20.185 --> 02:27.814
[SPEAKER_00]: There he worked multiple jobs, washing dishes, selling cars, whatever he could do to make ends meet.
02:28.775 --> 02:35.082
[SPEAKER_00]: In May 1983 Sanchez met the woman who had become his wife, Maricella, and had two children with her.
02:35.551 --> 02:40.761
[SPEAKER_00]: all the while working and raising his family and discovering his love of expressing himself through music.
02:41.542 --> 02:52.182
[SPEAKER_00]: In July 1984, Sanchez's brother Armando was shot and killed in a hotel in Tijuana, which inspired Sanchez to compose his first Carrito, or ballad about the event.
02:52.983 --> 02:56.209
[SPEAKER_00]: It was called Recordando A Armando Sanchez.
02:56.189 --> 03:01.695
[SPEAKER_00]: Around this time, Sanchez was back in Tijuana, and was arrested for petty crimes.
03:02.296 --> 03:11.667
[SPEAKER_00]: In prison, he was hired to compose corridors for his fellow inmates, based on their own histories and crimes, turning their stories into song and recording them on cassettes.
03:12.267 --> 03:15.892
[SPEAKER_00]: For his trouble, Sanchez was paid in cash, watches, and even guns.
03:16.893 --> 03:22.399
[SPEAKER_00]: This was where Sanchez developed his contentious, but soon to be popular, signature style.
03:22.379 --> 03:29.429
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez's voice had a raw nasal tone stripped down into some sounding somewhat amateurish.
03:30.190 --> 03:40.184
[SPEAKER_00]: According to a medium piece about Sanchez by RF Wilds, Sanchez didn't consider himself a traditional singer, saying that he would often bark the lyrics that he wrote.
03:41.005 --> 03:42.447
[SPEAKER_00]: Says Wild Quote,
03:42.427 --> 03:46.491
[SPEAKER_00]: This raw unschooled vocal quality was a major part of Sanchez's appeal.
03:47.091 --> 03:54.478
[SPEAKER_00]: It made him sound authentic and unspoiled by pop polish, convincing listeners that he genuinely lived the outlaw life of his lyrics.
03:55.399 --> 04:11.995
[SPEAKER_00]: Juan Carlos Ramirez Pimenta, a professor of literature and cultural studies at San Diego State University, also says of Sanchez's vocals, quote,
04:13.156 --> 04:15.580
[SPEAKER_00]: Out of prison, Sanchez became more popular.
04:16.161 --> 04:20.969
[SPEAKER_00]: He was introduced to Angel Para, who arranged for the singer to record his first demos in 1987.
04:21.210 --> 04:30.726
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez recorded 15 songs, with local community members, undocumented immigrants, petty criminals, and ranchos, as his Carrito subjects.
04:30.706 --> 04:45.522
[SPEAKER_00]: It was revolutionary, because, unlike mainstream music at the time, these protagonists were just like the listeners, whose realities were living paycheck to paycheck, existing in and among drug cartels and generally just trying to survive.
04:46.303 --> 04:53.090
[SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprisingly, Sanchez's cassettes became hugely popular, selling quickly out of the trunk of his car and at local flea markets.
04:53.811 --> 04:57.675
[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez also began performing at kinsanaras and baptisms.
04:57.655 --> 05:06.124
[SPEAKER_00]: Though his recordings remained raw and unvarnished compared to mainstream Mexican folk music, fans were drawn to Sanchez's stripped-down singing and lyricism.
05:06.685 --> 05:23.123
[SPEAKER_00]: His style would soon create a new type of music, the Narco Corrito, or Drug Ballad, a greedy sub-genre of the rejected pop-fineers of the time, and embodying a sense of unapologetic realism, reflective of the escalating drug cartel activity in Mexico.
05:23.103 --> 05:33.313
[SPEAKER_00]: Songs like Nevis to Enreau and Alma and Amarada became anthems for the working class Latino experience in such a challenging and uncertain context.
05:34.294 --> 05:40.000
[SPEAKER_00]: According to LA Weekly quote, As a performer, Cheleno had a distinctly American, democratic ethic.
05:40.480 --> 05:48.368
[SPEAKER_00]: He dressed like his audience, a cocked cowboy hat, large belt buckle, cowboy boots, and usually gold chains and watches.
05:48.348 --> 05:50.111
[SPEAKER_00]: He often tucked a gun in his belt.
05:50.772 --> 05:59.206
[SPEAKER_00]: He broke two with the traditional Mexican entertainment style, where the singer was the star, the audience, the adoring public, and everyone knew his place.
05:59.927 --> 06:02.571
[SPEAKER_00]: He would pose for photographs with fans when he was singing.
06:03.873 --> 06:08.080
[SPEAKER_00]: By 1989, Sanchez had become a musician that was by and for the people.
06:08.802 --> 06:13.950
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd given up his day jobs, formed his own record label, and was hustling his cassettes full time.
06:15.230 --> 06:21.157
[SPEAKER_00]: The previous year he'd met Nacho Hernandez, who's been Los Amoblos to North, became his regular accompanies.
06:21.978 --> 06:31.831
[SPEAKER_00]: Now the King of Corrito, Cheleno Sanchez, had arrived, had record deals, tens of thousands of cassette sales, and a multitude of concert dates all in front of him.
06:32.512 --> 06:39.280
[SPEAKER_00]: He was famous both in the US and in Mexico, performing steadily in both countries in the early 1990s.
06:39.260 --> 06:57.044
[SPEAKER_00]: On January 25, 1992, Sanchez performed at the Plaza-Los Arcos Restaurant and Nightclub in Coachella, California, an attendee named Eduardo Galejoz, an unemployed mechanic under the influence of heroin and alcohol, requested Sanchez play the song, El Galo de Sinaloa.
06:57.084 --> 07:02.972
[SPEAKER_00]: After his request, Galejoz jumped on stage and fired four shots at Sanchez.
07:02.952 --> 07:10.400
[SPEAKER_00]: In retaliation, Sanchez fired his own gun that he carried on him, but the gun jammed and then he threw it at Galejo's.
07:11.361 --> 07:20.331
[SPEAKER_00]: Says an L.A. Times piece about the incident, quote, after clamoring drunkenly onto the stage of a nightclub Galejo stood face-to-face with a singer, Cholino Sanchez.
07:20.932 --> 07:22.734
[SPEAKER_00]: Both men had traveled similar paths.
07:23.274 --> 07:31.103
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Cholino, Galejo was a teenager when he left his home state of Sinaloa, Mexico, where his family worked the fields in poverty.
07:31.083 --> 07:35.349
[SPEAKER_00]: Glejoz was looking for the American dream to earn money he would say decades later.
07:35.369 --> 07:37.031
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't turn out that way.
07:37.953 --> 07:42.859
[SPEAKER_00]: Glejoz's four shots hit Sanchez twice in the chest near his armpit, striking his lung.
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[SPEAKER_00]: One bullet hit Sanchez's accordionist in the thigh.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez's shots missed Glejoz entirely, but hit and killed 20
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[SPEAKER_00]: who was dancing to the music with his wife.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In total, nine to 15 shots were fired in that night club, and tragically, 10 people were hit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Glejos was eventually wrestled to the floor by a bystander and was shot in the mouth with his own pistol.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As it turns out, Glejos and Sanchez stories continued to be similar, both were in critical condition.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Both were transported to the desert regional hospital in Palm Springs, California, and both survived their wounds.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, Glejoz was convicted of attempted murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He was hurled in 2023.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez eventually healed from his wounds, and the additional press only increased his mythology, his sales and his radio airplay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In 1992, Cheleno Sanchez returned to his old stopping grounds of Culiacan.
08:43.949 --> 08:48.777
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1992, Cheleno Sanchez returned to his old stopping grounds in Mexico to perform.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The stories collected by experts say that many people recommended he not travel to that part of Mexico, due to the violence and the hold of the drug cartels, and, of course, Sanchez's own fame.
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[SPEAKER_00]: but Sanchez had come so far, heading back gave him a sense of perspective and a sense of purpose to continue to share his music with those who grew up like him.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But the trip and the concert in his hometown venue would be his last.
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[SPEAKER_00]: More after this break.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After the January 1992 shooting, and the increase in his own notoriety that followed, Julino Sanchez became a bit paranoid, maybe even fearing for his life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He distributed his gun collection to his friends and sold the rights to his song to Muse Art Records, receiving enough money that he gave to his wife to buy their family a house and her name.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Still, he was set on performing, and in the spring of 1992, he went back to Kulia Khan, his childhood home, for a series of gigs.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On May 16, 1992, during a performance at the Salon Boogumbilius and Kulia Khan, Mexico, Sanchez was doing his thing, readying himself for his next song.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As the musicians played the introductory bars of the song,
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[SPEAKER_00]: This moment is captured on video and I suggest you watch it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It is unique, unnerving, and honestly very brief.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You might not even notice it being strange if you watched the show and it's entirety.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But now this moment and its own importance is frozen in time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez reads the note to himself in the video.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He pauses, takes in whatever information is on the paper, and seemingly worried wipes his brow.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Then he crumples up the note and continues on with the show, singing a ballad about love and death, called, of course, soul and love.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The video captures just a couple seconds of vulnerability, a fear that immediately dissolves as Sanchez grounds himself back into his
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[SPEAKER_00]: Personally, it's kind of haunting, but only if you know what comes next.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After midnight, Sanchez left the club with two of his brothers, a cousin and a couple of friends in a fort.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As they drove away, their vehicle was pulled over by a group of armed men in black Chevrolet suburbans, said that they were the state police, and showed Sanchez in his entourage some kind of identification, telling him that their commander wanted to see him.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez agrees and gets into one of their cars.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On May 16, 1992, the very next morning, two farmers were working at an irrigation canal by Mexican Federal Highway 15 in a nearby neighborhood.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There, they found the body of Chulino Sanchez, blindfolded with burn marks from rope on his wrists and shot twice in the back of the head.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When the news hits Sanchez's popularity sword again with hundreds of songs dedicated to the musician, while it couldn't find much on the investigation itself, when the news hits Sanchez's popularity sword with hundreds of songs, other people's corridors dedicated to the slain musician, while it couldn't find much on the investigation itself,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Many have their own theories, which we'll discuss in a bit, calling the mysterious note given to Sanchez, a quote, death note, a note spelling out his demise that would come to fruition that very night.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The note, unfortunately, was never found, but presumably Sanchez stared death in the face that night, determined to keep singing no matter what the cost.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sanchez was buried in the Pentan de los Pacitos and Sinaloa, Mexico, and his music continues to be played and appreciated all over the world, with, as a note, an unlikely fan of Sanchez is Snoop Dogg.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He has murals depicting him and celebrating his impact, including a very famous one in Paramount, California.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In 2021, Harvard Journalists looked into the assassinations by the Mexican government around the time of Sanchez's death, concluding that the government had consistently covered up the mysterious and accidental murders of these three controversial politicians.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to get to that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That could be a story in and of itself, but it is important and timely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: These requests inspired a relook at Sanchez's death and queries on documents
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, who killed Chilino Sanchez?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some theorized that the Mexican government were in bed with the local cartels, and were not happy with Sanchez's musical transparency about cartels and the criminal life as a whole.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some people think that way back when Sanchez pissed off the wrong people in retaliation for his sister's sexual assault.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They were in fact many times during his short life that Sanchez spoke up against the cartel.
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[SPEAKER_00]: or advocated against its hold on his community that could have ignited violence and of course the death note spelling out his own murder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But Chalena Sanchez of course slips on, his legacy extends all over Mexico and the U.S. like I said, and he sold over 200 million records, making him one of the most influential Mexican artists of all time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Likely, in some part, bolstered by his mysterious death.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In his podcast, the ballad of Chulino Sanchez, podcaster Alejandro Mendoza, aptly summarizes the tragic moment of the musician's death.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, whoever wanted Chulino dead screwed up, because it made him eternal.
