His journey from a small town in Mexico to rousing success in Major League Baseball inspired generations of fans and created a seismic shift in the demographics of the Dodgers fan base.

His unorthodox pitching motion, distinct physique and seemingly mysterious aura left an indelible mark on people from all walks of life, whether it was Los Angeles’ Latino community grappling with the displacement created when the Dodgers built their stadium, Mexican immigrants and their families or artists inspired by his wizardry on the mound.

Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela died Tuesday at age 63. He is survived by his wife, Linda, four children, seven grandchildren and extended family.

Valenzuela’s impact endured for so long and so powerfully that the Dodgers retired his jersey number in 2023 despite a long-standing rule that the team only did so for those who were in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It was a fitting bookend to a public baseball life that had an unprecedented beginning, a surprising and stirring stretch in 1981 that became forever known as “Fernandomania.”

And though the left-hander never quite reached those heights in his playing career again, Valenzuela remained a beloved and enigmatic hero who was never far from fans’ hearts, as evidenced by the preponderance of No. 34 Dodgers jerseys in the stands and ovations he would receive at home games when he was shown on the scoreboard while working games at Dodger Stadium as part of the team’s Spanish-language broadcast team.

“On behalf of the Dodger organization, we profoundly mourn the passing of Fernando,” Dodgers team president and chief executive Stan Kasten said in a statement. “He is one of the most influential Dodgers ever and belongs on the Mount Rushmore of franchise heroes. He galvanized the fan base with the Fernandomania season of 1981 and has remained close to our hearts ever since, not only as a player but also as a broadcaster. He has left us all too soon. Our deepest condolences go out to his wife Linda and his family.”

Valenzuela’s relationship with the Dodgers included some difficult stretches, with the star contesting his release from the team and taking years to eventually accept an ambassador role with the franchise.

How did the man who remained guarded in the spotlight all his life forge such a close and enduring connection with Dodger fans?

“Fernando is the uncle who made good,” playwright Luis Alfaro said during The Times’ award-winning “Fernandomania at 40” series in 2021. “He is the relative who is forever a superstar. He’s immortalized, he’s the María Félix of sports.”

For Valenzuela, it was a bond that was cemented early in his rookie season.

During that heady 1981 season, Valenzuela used an assortment of pitches that included a screwball to become the first, and to this day only, player to win the National League Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards during the same season. With a windup in which he would look skyward almost as if he sought guidance from a higher power, he won his first eight starts — five by shutout — shocking longtime baseball observers.

“It is the most puzzling, wonderful, rewarding thing I think we’ve seen in baseball in many, many years,” Vin Scully exclaimed on the air after the fifth of those shutouts, a 1-0 win over the Mets in New York, adding: “And somehow this youngster from Mexico, with the pixie smile on his face, acts like he’s pitching batting practice.”

After a midseason players’ strike interrupted the regular season, the Dodgers would go on to win the World Series, beating the New York Yankees in six games. During the team’s postseason run, Valenzuela was the winning pitcher in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series, holding the Montreal Expos to one run in 8 ⅔ innings and helping the Dodgers secure the pennant.

He started Game 3 of the World Series, following two losses by the Dodgers in New York, and gutted out a complete-game, 5-4 victory despite throwing 147 pitches, giving up nine hits and walking seven. It was the first of four consecutive victories by the Dodgers to clinch their fifth championship in franchise history.

The Dodgers, longing for a Mexican star to connect with the Latino population in L.A., had finally found one in Valenzuela, whose impact would transform what had been predominantly a white fan base.

It’s a profound legacy that has lasted for generations and could be felt as tributes to Valenzuela came in Tuesday night.

“A shining light that illuminated baseball has gone out when Fernando Valenzuela passed away,” Jaime Jarrín, the Dodgers’ longtime Spanish-language announcer who retired in 2022, said in a statement. “I have lost a dear friend; a man of integrity; an exemplary father and husband who, without knowing it elevated me to an international pedestal.”

“Fernando was an outstanding ambassador for baseball,” Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “He consistently supported the growth of the game through the World Baseball Classic and at MLB events across his home country. … Fernando will always remain a beloved figure in Dodger history and a special source of pride for the millions of Latino fans he inspired. We will honor Fernando’s memory during the 2024 World Series at Dodger Stadium.”

“To millions, Fernando Valenzuela was more than a baseball player. He was an icon that transcended the limits of hope and dreams,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “He was the voice of a game that we hold close in our hearts. His charisma was palpable, and his excellence was undeniable.”

For Valenzuela, 1981 was a remarkable season, perhaps surpassed only by the events leading up to it.

The youngest of 12 children, Fernando Valenzuela was born in Etchohuaquila, a small farming village in the state of Sonora, Mexico, on Nov. 1, 1960. His parents, Avelino and Emergilda, and his six brothers and five sisters lived in a whitewashed adobe house with five rooms and no running water in a community that during Valenzuela’s youth consisted of a few dirt roads and had a population of 140.

In addition to helping tend to the family’s crops, Valenzuela and his brothers played baseball. Valenzuela stood out even at a young age and by 1977, he was signed by Etchohuaquila’s local team, the Navojoa Mayos.

“By that point, I told myself, ‘now it’s a career, it’s not for fun,’” Valenzuela told The Times in 2021.

Facing players much older than him, Valenzuela successfully pitched for several teams before moving on to the Yucatan Leones of the Mexican League in 1979 by the age of 18.

By this point, he was on the radar of Dodgers scout Mike Brito. Himself a distinct figure, with his Panama hat, mustached grin and ubiquitous cigar, Brito first spotted Valenzuela when he was pitching for Guanajuato in 1978. The Dodgers scout was on hand to see a shortstop on the other team, but Valenzuela quickly got his attention.