La Bamba Thesis

February 3, 1959 will forever be known as “The Day the Music Died.” This marks the day when Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and J.P Richardson (also known as “The Big Bopper), were killed in a tragic plane crash. On July 24, 1957, Director Luis Valdez released his movie titled La Bamba. This movie told the story of Ritchie Valens life from when he was around fifteen until his death at age seventeen. In the film, La Bamba, director Luis Valdez kept some events from Ritchie Valens life the same, but changed the seriousness of his relationships in order to add drama and to add more poignant emotions.

In La Bamba, the relationships between some of the characters were altered from how they genuinely were during Ritchie Valens life. In the film Ritchie and Donna Ludwig’s relationship is portrayed as very serious and they even discuss getting married. However, in reality, “They would date other people, but whenever [Ritchie] was in town they would be together” (McIntosh). Furthermore, “There was never a ‘love triangle’ between

Luis Valdez was able to create a more dramatic and tear jerking production by adding and changing the relationships Ritchie Valens had throughout his teenage years. Valdez made Ritchie and Donna’s relationship more serious than it was in real life in order to make the audience feel intense grief and sadness while watching the scene when Donna finds out about Ritchie’s death. The love triangle shown in the movie was a device used to make the audience develop an affinity towards Ritchie and a detestation towards Bob. Valdez kept the biggest events the same because changing them would almost completely discredit anything that happened in the film. It would dishonour all the people that were involved in Ritchie’s life. La Bamba was created in order to give people insight about Ritchie Valens life before his tragic death in 1959. The tragic day of the crash will forever serve as a reminder of three incredibly talented musicians who perished way too