MovieChat Forums > La Bamba (1987) Discussion > How much of this movie is based from Rit...

How much of this movie is based from Ritchie's real life status?

posted 10 years ago by IsaacMovieBuff2000
4 replies | jump to latest

I don't know how much of its material is true based on Ritchie Valens life

1)Did he had a girlfriend named Donna?

2)Did he had a brother named Bob, and was jealous of his fame?

3)how much of the music in the movie was performed by Ritchie Valens back in the day?

4)was the acting and story of the movie was all fiction, Did they had a girl Rosie in their life and the mother was Connie and did they had such a fight with Bob that they wouldn't let him to see the baby because he was drunk?

The only thing I can tell that was true was that night when he board the plane instead of taking the bus. I love the transition where the plane took off and we had a little moment of the dark sky, then we cut to the next morning Ritchie's Mother heard on the radio that there was a plane crash and of all the famous song artist's that was on that plane, Ritchie Valens was one of them and died

[–] estadefabula 10 years ago

You can find lots of information about him by typing his name on the search engine of your computer internet browser.

[–] pantherfan99 9 years ago

I read that the storyline involving Bob stealing Ritchie's girlfriend Rosie did not happen in real life , it was based on an incident involving the director and his brother

Boston and Philly love to slander us, but they don t have as many fans as us

[–] BeaverHole 9 years ago

1)Did he had a girlfriend named Donna?
Yes, Ritchie dated Donna Ludwig while in school. However at the time of his death they were no longer together.

2)Did he had a brother named Bob, and was jealous of his fame?
Ritchie has a brother whose name is Bob Morales. Bob and Rosie have seven kids together, however they split and both remarried. Bob and the rest of the family worked closely with the producers of La Bamba about getting the story accurate.

3)how much of the music in the movie was performed by Ritchie Valens back in the day? None of the music in the movie was performed by Ritchie, or by Lou Diamond Philips for that matter. The band Los Lobos covered the songs and Lou lip synched to them. Los Lobos can be seen in the brothel scene in Tijuana.

4)was the acting and story of the movie was all fiction, Did they had a girl Rosie in their life and the mother was Connie and did they had such a fight with Bob that they wouldn't let him to see the baby because he was drunk?
Most of the movie is fairly accurate. Rosie was Bob's real girlfriend and Ritchie's mom was indeed Connie. HOWEVER, Ritchie was raised during his teen years by his Uncle Lelo and Aunt Tia to assist Connie as Ritchie was beginning to get a little brash as he got older. Bob and Ritchie did get in a fight before Ritchie left for the Winter Dance Party. The fight wasn't over Ritchie's success or jealousy, it was about Bob buying Connie a dress for Christmas. Bob stated that he did not go with the family when they took Ritchie to the airport to leave for the tour.

[–] alyssie 9 years ago

After learning a few years ago that Ritchie's voice wasn't used at all in the film I got curious and youtubed and googled to hear his real voice. Now i'm amazed at the number of people that think that Los Lobos IS Ritchie on youtube. I saw a video of "We belong together" That was clearly not Ritchie but it was labeled as him and thousands of people commenting said how great a singer he was. I commented it wasn't him, but they didn't believe me.

Here's one of the videos people claim is his voice but you can tell is Los Lobos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkSfMj8D-7c