As a teenager in 1950s Pacoima, Richard Valenzuela joined a garage band called The Silhouettes and began to pack dance halls with his exuberant vocals and guitar playing. He drew the notice of Del-Fi Records, which signed him and gave him a less Chicano sounding stage name: Ritchie Valens.

Barely 16, Valens first single, "Come On, Let's Go," soared on the national pop charts. Then came "Donna," penned for his girlfriend at San Fernando High, and "La Bamba," his electrified version of a Mexican folk song, both national hits. Valens played New York and stayed at the Plaza, appeared on the popular TV dance show American Bandstand and portrayed himself in a rock and roll film, Go Johnny Go.

He returned home triumphant in December 1958 and performed for a student assembly at Pacoima Junior High about which esteemed rock critic Lester Bangs later wrote: "It would be hard to find a recorded rock concert in which the performer displays more honest, humble warmth...''

Ritchie Valens was the pride of the Pacoima barrio, the first homeboy to break into the big time. His starburst of fame lasted just eight months until the Iowa plane crash that also claimed rock and roll legend Buddy Holly and performer J. P. (The Big Bopper) Richardson on Feb. 3, 1959. They had been on tour and flying to the next stop, Fargo, ND.

Ritchie's body was returned to Pacoima by train. A thousand mourners squeezed into St. Ferdinand's in San Fernando for a Requiem High Mass that Saturday, February 7. As church bells pealed, nearly a hundred youths stood quietly outside in a mist. At San Fernando Mission cemetery, several hundred fans and former classmates watched as Richard Valenzuela was buried. Some of the Silhouettes acted as pallbearers.

John Lennon later credited "La Bamba" with influencing the Beatles' take on "Twist and Shout." In 1987, the film based on Ritchie's life, La Bamba, sent the song (covered by Los Lobos) to number one in the country.