Guide following the footsteps of Juan Gabriel through Ciudad Juárez
There was a time when Alberto Aguilera walked without a name, searching for a stage that would listen to him. He found one, and he filled it with light.
Since then, Juan Gabriel became the echo of all the emotions we didn’t know how to express. He sang with his body, with his gaze, with his memory.
His voice crossed generations, languages, and borders, but it never stopped feeling close. He was spectacle and tenderness, excess and truth. Juan Gabriel held many lives in one: the dreaming child, the overflowing artist, the man who—even after leaving—keeps returning every time someone sings “Querida.”
Noa Noa
Av. Juárez 290
In 1966, at 16 years old, Adán Luna managed to slip past security to make his debut singing a Manzanero song. The story wouldn’t be very significant if Adán Luna hadn’t been Juan Gabriel’s first stage name. Noa Noa burned down in 2004. Today, it’s a parking lot.
The House of Juan Gabriel
Av. Lerdo 356
When the family arrived from Michoacán, his mother worked as a housekeeper here. Years later, he gifted her the home. The doors open to the public on special dates, and the Divo’s absence still spills into the space.
Burritos El Centenario
Av. 16 de Septiembre s/n
Flour tortillas filled with stews, just as the Ciudad Juárez handbook dictates. It’s said that Juanga once ordered up to 80 burritos at this little spot, which still serves the people of Juárez today.
Shangri-La
Av. de las Américas 133
It was one of his favorite restaurants. He ordered rice noodles with vegetables and other veggie dishes—remember he was vegetarian (though some say he allowed himself a carnivorous indulgence from time to time). It wasn’t luxurious; it was intimate. Here, he wasn’t the Divo—he was Alberto Aguilera.
