Valens’ Star to Shine in Hollywood Today

Famed Latino rocker Ritchie Valens, whose death in a 1959 plane crash with Buddy Holly is still considered one of the greatest tragedies in popular music history, will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today.

A ceremony unveiling the star is to be held at 12:30 p.m. at 6733 Hollywood Blvd., according to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

“I think this is long overdue,” Judy Rocha, secretary of the Ritchie Valens Recognition Committee, said Thursday. “He has never received the recognition he deserved. It was up to us to do something about that.”

Members of Valens’ family, including two sisters and two brothers, are expected to attend the ceremony, along with actor Lou Diamond Phillips, who starred in the movie, “La Bamba,” about Valens’ life, Rocha said. The Valens star will be the 1,913th such award on the Walk of Fame.

Valens, whose real name was Richard Valenzuela, rose from obscurity as a teen-age guitar player in Pacoima to become an internationally known performer on the strength of hits such as “Come On, Let’s Go” and “Donna,” a love song about his high school girlfriend. His rollicking version of the folk song, “La Bamba,” became a standard in greatest hits packages of the 1950s and helped clear the way for a generation of Latino rock ‘n’ rollers from Southern California.

He also recorded three gold albums.

Valens became a legend when the plane in which he was riding with Holly and J. P. (Big Bopper) Richardson crashed shortly after takeoff in a Feb. 3, 1959, snowstorm in Clear Lake, Iowa. Holly was an established star, but Valens was only 17 when he died.

“When Ritchie died, we felt cheated,” Gil Rocha, whose Mexican combo the Silhouettes first gave Valens a chance to play, said recently. “He was our hometown hero.”

Valens’ fame and influence continued to grow after his death, culminating in the production of the recent movie, “La Bamba.”

Friends of Valens organized the Ritchie Valens Recognition Committee in 1987 to campaign for a Walk of Fame star. The committee raised $3,500 to pay for installation of the star by holding a dance at the American Legion Hall in San Fernando, where Valens first played in public.

The ceremony will be followed by a tribute to Valens at the Chuck Landis Country Club in Reseda at 8 p.m., featuring Ernie Valens, a cousin who performs many of Ritchie’s songs in an evocative style. Also performing will be Bobby Cochran, a nephew of rocker Eddie Cochran, and Rosie of Rosie and the Originals, whose hit “Angel Baby” became an anthem of teen-age romance.