Pacoima’s Favorite Son

PACOIMA —  Fans and family of Ritchie Valens packed a recreation center Sunday to celebrate his recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the culmination of the community’s long campaign to honor Pacoima’s favorite son and America’s first Latino rock star.

At his Hall of Fame induction on March 19, the baby-faced singer who recorded “Come On, Let’s Go,” “Donna” and “La Bamba” was recognized as a trailblazer in American music, the original crossover artist who enjoyed success in English and Spanish.

“He was in the forefront of showing that a Latino singer could be sexy and popular and get a diverse group of kids excited about his music,” said Hilary Rosen, president of the Recording Industry Assn. of America and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s board.

Rosen, who was among Valens’ fans in Pacoima on Sunday, said the late singer’s inclusion in the pantheon of rock legends was due in large part to his persistent fan club and relatives, who have crusaded over the years for a postage stamp in Valens’ honor and the Pacoima recreation center that bears his name.

“He clearly was inducted because of his talent, but the commitment of his community was certainly not lost on anyone involved in the Hall of Fame,” said Rosen, adding that she had never seen a musician’s hometown show such support for his induction.

On Sunday, more than 700 people packed the gymnasium of the Ritchie Valens Recreation Center to hear from Valens’ relatives and enjoy his music. Donations collected at the event will benefit a youth program at the center, which was built on the site of the former Laurel Drive-In theater, where Valens’ friends remember watching his movie “Go, Johnny, Go” from their Chevy convertibles not long after his fatal 1959 plane crash at age 17.

“His talent was so far ahead of his time,” said Gil Rocha, who played sock hops and dances at the San Fernando American Legion Hall with Valens as the Silhouettes. Rocha still tapes a picture of his friend to his vibraphone when he performs.

Richard Steven Valenzuela knew he was going to be famous, Rocha said.

But at home in Pacoima, he “was just Ritchie. He wasn’t a star to us,” sister Connie Lemos said Sunday.

Lemos was 8 when her brother died in the Iowa plane crash along with musicians Buddy Holly and J.P. Richardson, who was better known as the Big Bopper.

On May 13, Valens would have turned 60.

Lemos attended her brother’s induction ceremony last week in New York City and called it the “fulfillment of a dream for our family, the community here, the Valley and for Latinos everywhere.”

Valens memorabilia at the Hall of Fame in Cleveland includes the paper on which his aunt, Ernestine Reyes, translated “La Bamba” into English for him. Though he is known as the first American rock star with Mexican roots, his Spanish was “no good,” Reyes said Sunday.

“If he was here today, my goodness--we wouldn’t be here today,” she said. “We’d be in big places.”

While there were more than a few receding pompadours at the celebration, Valens’ younger fans turned out as well. Many sought autographs from his family, his manager and elected officials such as Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills), who had lobbied for Valens’ admission to the Hall of Fame.

A group of teenage girls who call themselves the “Kinky Pinx”--and wore monogrammed jackets to prove it--called Valens “the greatest.” Today’s music falls flat compared to the rhythm and blues and rockabilly sounds of the 1950s, they said.

“If we had one wish, it would be to go back to the ‘50s,” said Anabel Flores, 17, who is known among her fellow bobby-soxers as “Betty Dean.”