Kiana Munoz
MAS 150C1 (Spring 2016)
April 8, 2016
Extra Credit

La Bamba

When watching the film La Bamba for the first time I really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t until I went back to re watch it a second time that I noticed the culturally significant scenes. The movie is about a young high school boy, Richard Steven Valenzuela who had a deep love for music and his beloved guitar. Through his struggles with money, family, love and culture, his career was born. When the movie first starts it shows Ritchie and his mother working with other people in what I assumed to be a peach plant, picking and packaging the peaches. What I didn’t notice the first time around is that they actually lived there with many other workers too. It reminded me of when slaves used to live a little ways from where their masters lived. That just shows how poor he and his family were but they didn’t seem to be affected by it until Ritchie’s brother stops by and tells them he’s buying them a house. The house was a huge step up from where they were living before but it is still a shack. In class we have seen many images of Mexican Americans living in poor neighborhoods with large families but they always appear to be content with what they have and that’s exactly how Ritchie and his family were. They value family more than material possessions. Another big thing that stuck out to me in this movie was the family units. Ritchie lived in the house with his mother and two little sisters and while outside his brother and his ex-girlfriend lived in a trailer. It seemed like a very dysfunctional family but they didn’t seem to pay much mind to that. Bob (Richie’s brother) and Rosie his girlfriend would always fight and argue. Bob was never home with her and left her there to cook and clean while he would go have fun with his friends and smoke weed. There was even a point in the movie where Rosie told him that she was pregnant and he said “it’s not my first and it won’t be my last”. Then he breaks open the door and basically rapes her because she was refusing to sleep with him. In many Mexican American movies we have seen scenes such as this one where the man controls the women and the women stay around to take the beatings. On the other hand Richie is falling in love with Donna a white girl from a very rich neighborhood and her dad doesn’t like it. He is the opposite of his brother Bob and he really loves this girl but her dad only knows the stereotypes of Mexicans. In class we have talked about how the misrepresentations of Mexicans are still carried over and are used to this day. After watching Baby Kake and comparing it to this movie one big thing stands out and it is the motherly role. In Baby Kake, the mother had a total disregard for her son, while in La Bamba Richie’s mother supported Richie and was there for him through thick and thin. When Richie’s career began to start with the Silhouette’s he wasn’t taken seriously as a musician and the lead singer wouldn’t let him sing. Richie quit the band so he can have his own freedom and stardom. When he started to get popular the record companies wanted him to change his name. The reason for this was that it was too hard to say and spell so they made him change his name to Richie Valens. Overall I really enjoyed this movie and learned a lot by watching it a second time. There were many parallels between this movie and our class readings and lectures. Richie Valens was a very talented man who sadly died at the age of 17. He will never be forgotten and is still a huge name and influence to this day.