Talk:Ritchie Valens

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Contents 1 Legacy 2 Family 3 Of Yaqui Descent 4 Question about Valens manager 5 rearranged legacy section 6 Citations & References 7 Contradictory

[edit] Legacy

Valen's legacy is far,far more than just being one of those who perished in the Day the Music Died. He is without a doubt the father of Latin Rock/Alternative. Before Charly Garcia and Alex Lora he brought Latin Rock to the mainstream. What Enrique Guzman et al. where doing was merely translating English langauge songs into Spanish. Yes, Valens's best known song is a cover but La Bamba is one of the most influential recordings ever made. Blending traditional Latin American music is something that would prove to be what sets Latin Rock apart as a seperate genre and not just rock sung in Spanish with nothing new to add.

When Valens was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ricky Martin was chosen to sing some of his songs in his honor. Now I have absolutely nothing against Ricky Martin or his music (in fact I like the guy) but this was an incorrect decision. Martin was obviously chosen because he is Latino but other than that he and Valens have nothing in common. Ricky Martin is pop, Ritchie Valens was rock. Were Gustavo Cerati, Los Lobos, Julieta Venegas, the former members of Los Prisioneros,and La Ley all busy that night? Let's honor Valen's legacy by remembering his music for what is was. Thank you Ritchie. - User:Mymelody 16:52, 17 November 2006)

• lets also honor him by using his real name which is Ricardo Valenzuela. 71.149.244.74 21:04, 27 December 2006

[edit] Family

Additional information about Ritchie's mom & dad, siblings should be added to his bio. Pedianut 04:00, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Of Yaqui Descent

He is of partial Yaqui descent —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.94.209.180 (talk • contribs) 23:30, 14 April 2007

[edit] Question about Valens manager

I noted the following in the segment about his manager:

Similarly, it was Keane who decided to shorten his surname to Valens from Valenzuela, with the intention that a Latino name would make the DJs think that it was Latino music for a Latino audience - Keane wanted Ritchie's appeal to audiences of all kinds to be in the songs themselves.

While I'm no expert on Valens, I have never heard that his manager was a ... It's not on the Wikipage for his manager either. However, I thought I would make sure there is some basis for this before deleting it. If it's not true, then it is certainly defamation and should be removed. JimZDP 00:46, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] rearranged legacy section

i did it because it did not emphasize what was his most notable successes and why they were important. I shifted the info about burial and hall of fame stuff to the end of this section for that reason.Kitten b 06:31, 2 September 2007 (UTC)kitten b

[edit] Citations & References

See Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags Nhl4hamilton (talk) 04:49, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Contradictory

The article appears to contradict itself. Evidence:

"One day, a neighbor came across Ritchie trying to play a guitar that had only two strings. He re-strung the instrument, and taught Ritchie the fingerings of some chords." - Career, Paragraph I

"A completely self-taught musician," - Career, Paragraph III

Marikun (talk) 01:54, 22 May 2008 (UTC)