Angelenos mourn Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, who starred for the Dodgers in the 1980s

LOS ANGELES — Julia Mendez carefully positioned three candles in a row beneath a sign welcoming fans at Dodger Stadium. Then she grabbed a foil-wrapped burrito and propped it against the post.

“I know he’s been eating burritos his whole life,” said the 70-year-old fan from North Hollywood who filled the flour tortilla with nopales and scrambled eggs in her kitchen.

The city of Los Angeles was in mourning Wednesday for Mexican-born Fernando Valenzuela, the Dodgers pitcher who inspired “Fernandomania” with his unique delivery and dominant pitching performances in the early 1980s.

He died on Tuesday night at the age of 63.

“I came to the United States in 1976. He came in 1979. That’s when all my pride and joy began,” said Mendez, from the same Mexican state of Sonora as Valenzuela. “He put our names so well around the world that the entire community became fans. My love for so many years.”

Valenzuela’s rise from humble beginnings as the youngest of 12 children in Mexico and his exploits on the mound made him extremely popular and influential in the Los Angeles Latino community, while also helping to attract new fans to Major League Baseball. Their affection for him continued after his retirement.

On the other side of the intersection, Jaime Cuéllar’s Mariachi Garibaldi ensemble played guitars and trumpets.

The group performs frequently at Dodger games and was brought together for a scheduled television interview before the World Series against the New York Yankees. They stuck around to pay their musical tributes to the man nicknamed “El Toro.”

Major League Baseball and the Dodgers were working on a plan to honor Valenzuela before Game 1 of the World Series on Friday.

In the left corner of the blue and white sign hung a large sombrero and a colorful poncho. Mendez added white butterfly wings above the second ‘D’ in Dodger. The plaque was a similarly emotional rallying point in 2022, when Dodgers Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully died at age 94.

Henry Gomez, of Gardena, took his 6-year-old daughter, Tianna, to the growing memorial outside the closed stadium. She carried a street sign as a souvenir where she and her father had written and planned to leave.

“He’s one of the Hispanic idols for us,” the elder Gomez said. “He opened a lot of doors for a lot of people behind him. We are proud of that.”

In the Boyle Heights neighborhood, not far from the stadium, Robert Vargas was busy painting a mural of Valenzuela on the side of a building. The artist of Mexican descent is known for his large-scale works in outdoor locations around the world. His mural of Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani on the side of a hotel in Little Tokyo has become a tourist attraction.

Back at the stadium, three men stood in the shade exchanging stories about Valenzuela’s exploits on the mound.

Gomez has had the opportunity to shake Valenzuela’s hand a few times over the years.

“He was really cool, a great guy,” he said. “When you’re famous, that’s how it should be, like Fernando’s way.”

Fans had been gathering outside the stadium since the sad news broke on Tuesday night.

Marcello Ambriz showed a photo of himself at age 2 with the pitcher.

“Mexicans wouldn’t be Dodger fans without Fernando,” he said.

The land where Dodger Stadium stands was purchased from Spanish-speaking owners in the early 1950s by the city of Los Angeles. Initially, they refused to sell and the city used eminent domain to acquire the property from the close-knit Mexican-American families, many of whom lived there after being discriminated against elsewhere in the city.

“There are a lot of very sad feelings about this,” Ambriz said. “Fernando somehow managed to fix this. Obviously today there are a lot of people who are hurt and can’t let it go, and that’s understandable, but Fernando’s presence and the fact that he’s Mexican managed to bring that together.”

Valenzuela would have turned 64 on Nov. 1, when the Dodgers could host Game 6 of the World Series. Next Friday is also Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, in Mexican culture, when deceased loved ones are honored.

“There is no reason to be sad because he will live forever in our hearts,” Mendez said. “He achieved the American dream, more than the American dream, actually.”

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AP photographer Julio Cortez contributed to this report.