Ritchie Valnes

Ritchie Valnes the pioneer of Latin rock has inspired many, including my parents. While reading chapter two The Nations White Spot from Eric Avila’s book I came across familiar names of songs like ‘La Bamba’ and ‘Oh Donna’. Influenced by the vibrant Hispanic culture, his songs were played at every family gathering. I remember my father always asking my mother to dance with him whenever that song started playing. The type of dance he did I think is called ‘jive’. I thought of looking deeper into the life of this rock star and tried to find a connection between his music and its influence on the multi ethnic culture of the post war period.
Valnes began learning the guitar at the age of five. At the age of sixteen, he started playing and singing for the local band ‘The Silhouettes’. After seeing Ritchie play at a Saturday morning matinee movie theater in San Fernando, Bob Keane the owner of a small record label Del-Fi Records invited Ritchie to audition at his place in Silver Lake. Impressed with his first audition, he signed Ritchie to Del Fi on May 27, 1958. Taking advantage of the ambiguity in defining the Mexican American identity during the postwar period, Keane decide to change his name form Ricardo Steven Valenzuela to Ritchie Valnes in order to gain better commercial success amongst the white community. Progressing form the basement of Keans studio Valnes now recorded at Gold Star, where he recorded "Come On, Let's Go" and "Framed," in a single studio session one afternoon. After his success with his first record, he played my favorite “La Bamba” and “Donna” on his following record.
His success as a rock star required him to travel and perform across the country, but Valnes had a fear of flying on account of an accident that took place at his junior high. Ironically, overcoming his fear of flying only brought him closer to his death. After falling ill at the “The Winter Dance Party” accompanied by Buddy Holly, Tommy Allsup, Waylon Jennings and several others, the crew decided to charter a small plane to get to the next show on time. After the performance at Surf Ballroom in Salt Lake Iowa, Holly Richardson, Valnes who had won his seat with the results of a coin toss, and Buddy Holly were taken to the Mason City Airport. On account of bad weather conditions, the plane crashed into a cornfield instantly taking the lives of all three musicians and the pilot.
This event inspired Don McLean’s to produce the popular song American Pie by which he paid tribute to that day by calling it “The Day the Music Died”.
His music seemed to appeal to the audiences, as Valnes used his Mexican heritage to his advantage. As he was raised speaking English at first he was hesitant to sing the song. But after phonetically sounding out the words and altering the song to his style “La Bamba” hit billboards charts. In the mists of the racial animosity of the postwar period Riche Valnes left his mark on the musical scene and will be remembered as a great musician of his time.