Dreams of Rhinestones and Blue Suede
Giovanni Figueroa wanted a stage.
And the 7-year-old from Inglewood got it on Saturday along with a rhinestone-studded white jumpsuit, hockey blade-sized sideburns, cool-looking aviator glasses, a microphone, a little mousse and the chance to curl his lip and perform as Elvis.
The second-grader, an olive-skinned brown-haired boy who was born with spina bifida and has to use a wheelchair, surprised Make-A-Wish-Foundation officials when he eschewed trips or a chance to meet a favorite celebrity.
It was the 5,000th wish granted by the organization, which since 1983 has helped fulfill the wishes of children with progressive, degenerative and other life-threatening medical conditions.
Giovanni wanted an experience.
“This was what he has always wanted,” said his mother, an emotional Angelica Figueroa, 33, who along with family, friends and teachers was among Giovanni’s adoring fans.
Giovanni was carried out of a black van and pushed down a red carpet, past screaming women and girls dressed as if they had stepped out of the movie “Grease” into a dressing room at the A Mi Hacienda Restaurant and Nightclub in Pico Rivera.
Moments later, he appeared at an elevated stage with an “Elvisito” marquee and silver streamers.
“Center stage?” George Thomas, an Elvis impersonator asked as he positioned his wheelchair. “Just so you girls get a look at this sexy guy.”
Then the dream became real:
Well, that’s all right, little mama/That’s all right for you/That’s all right, little mama/Just any way you do....
For more than an hour, his illness momentarily reduced to a bit player, he sang such songs as “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Viva Las Vegas,” “Jailhouse Rock,” and “Little Sister.”
Giovanni has undergone 12 surgeries since his birth, but even as a 3-year-old in a hospital waiting room, Giovanni loved to perform, his mother said.
“He would announce, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls’ ” before launching into a Disney tune or other song, his mother said. “I would get embarrassed. I would say, ‘I don’t know this little boy.’ ”
His father, Gabriel Figueroa, 36, a mechanic, enjoyed songs from the 1950s and 1960s, and would often find himself burping his infant son to the beat of a song.
“I told him, ‘You put the music into his lungs,’ ” Angelica Figueroa said.
About two years ago, Gabriel Figueroa gave his son an Elvis CD and the boy quickly learned the lyrics.
“I like the romantic songs,” Giovanni said. He studied Elvis’ hand gestures from movies.
Giovanni would ask his mother to set aside some time at parties for him to sing for guests. But he would be disappointed when people focused more on the food.”He wanted me to have a fiesta, but without food,” said his mother. “He thought that if he was singing, and people were eating, they wouldn’t pay attention.”
On Saturday, he got his wish as two Elvis impersonators -- an early Elvis and a Vegas-era, latter-day Elvis -- sang with him, and performed the King’s trademark moves.
Egged on by the towering Elvi, the slight, comparatively elfish Elvisito even flirted with the girls.
He got two kisses from “Priscillita” -- blushing 11-year-old Stephanie Zambrano -- who got his blue scarf in gratitude. Flung, of course.
“He’s cute,” she later confessed amid much squirming.
