Six Degrees of Separation

Okay, you are wondering how can a girl from Georgia have six degrees of separation to a Southern California singer from the 50s. Well, I do.

I was living in the San Fernando Valley around the time the movie LaBamba was filmed. This movie focused on the life of Ritchie Valens.

While living in the Valley, I worked with Ritchie's niece. She said the actors were all really close to the family because they spent so much time with them. Lou Diamond Phillips played Ritchie, and she said how nice he was. The family was very involved in the movie, and looking on the internet, they are still very involved in keeping Ritchie's memory alive. She said that her grandmother (Ritchie's mother) never really got over the loss of him. In the movie, the story ended before her birth, so she had no movie counterpart in there. She never knew her uncle except through family stories.

It was interesting to see family photos with candid family photos (you know the ones we have and hide from other people) of someone I had only seen played by someone else, or album covers.

The six degrees of separation theory is still intact. I am separated from Ritchie Valens by only 3 degrees. Crazy huh?