La Bamba

La Bamba is the sad story of a life lived too short. This story of Ritchie Valens was one of the first movies I can remember watching as a child. It stuck with me. I can remember feeling pride in a poor boy who makes it to the top. I remember the sadness that came when news hits the radio waves of Ritchie’s death and his brother and mother are inconsolable. And most of all, I can remember rocking out to La Bamba even though I thought the lyrics were so strange and made little sense to me (and I am a Spanish speaker).

The great thing about this movie is that even though I watched it more than 20 years later, I am still entertained. Its hard for me to feel that way about most movies. The premise of the movie seems a little too fairy-tale-like, but La Bamba was an actual life story (with a sprinkle of Hollywood of course). The poor kid from the valley really does become an American icon. Lou Diamond Phillips does a good job portraying Valens and takes you back to the late 50’s to witness the genius of Ritchie Valens. Although La Bamba was around for many years before Ritchie sang it, it was he who made it into the international hit it continues to be. The entire movie is hit after hit after hit. I can definitely say that this movie is what made me an Oldies fan. Twenty plus years later, Ritchie’s version of La Bamba still makes me rock out.