LOS ANGELES -- On the 40th anniversary of Ritchie Valens death, his aunt Ernestine Reyes paid a quiet visit Wednesday to his grave to honor the Pacoima native, a rock pioneer.
"It still hurts, but not as much as it hurt in the beginning," said Reyes, who was joined by several other relatives at San Fernando Cemetery. "Now we think more about helping other people remember him, too."The memory of Valens has remained strong across the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere since his death on Feb. 3, 1959, at age 17, in a plane crash that also took the lives of Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.
Relatives reported that the 40th anniversary brought a larger-than-normal crowd to the small Iowa town.
Reyes' guitar-playing son, Ernie, sang and played in the traveling concert that stopped at most of the ballrooms and concert halls that Valens, Holly and Richardson visited during their ill-fated "Winter Dance Party."
"He sounds just like Ritchie," Reyes said.
Meanwhile, the big effort to preserve Valens' memory is the drive to get him inducted to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Valens' relatives, friends and his record label cleared a major hurdle last summer when their postcard campaign boosted Valens to the 15-member nomination list for the first time.
But when the Class of 1999 was announced in November, Valens hadn't made the final cut, which included Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Paul McCartney.
Bob Keane, who was Valens' manager at Del-Fi Records, hopes to hear better news this year.
"We've been yelling at them for years," Keane said. "I think they're just starting to listen."
Closer to Valens' home, relatives said their annual birthday celebration is set for May 8 at Ritchie Valens Recreation Center in Pacoima.
Since Valens became eligible for a Hall of Fame nomination in 1983, his popularity has clearly been on the rise.
"La Bamba," a major motion picture about the young Latino singer born Richard Valenzuela, came out in 1987. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990. A commemorative stamp was released in 1993.
But his life ended as his career began -- Valens was on his first major tour when he died -- leaving a far smaller catalog than other nominees who had decades to put a body of work together.
"The problem I've heard that's holding him back is that he was only around for nine months," Keane said. "Considering what he did in those nine months, I would think it's all the more reason to put him in the Hall."
Reyes and other relatives placed flowers on his grave, played his songs on a small boom box. They noted that the parties surrounding Valens' birthday and the date of his death have been getting bigger and bigger over the years.
The biggest celebration ever, Valens' relatives hope, will come before the end of 1999. "My last wish is that they put him in the (Rock 'n' Roll) Hall of Fame," said Ernestine Reyes, Valens' aunt. "That's going to be the biggest party of all."