An Ode to Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba"

Flavor Profile: Rize Up Gives Visibility to Black Bakers Like many others, Azikiwee Anderson took up making sourdough during the pandemic. Once he mastered the basics, he started experimenting with ingredients no one had ever put into sourdough: gojuchang, paella and ube. Those flavors transformed his hobby into a successful business that wholesales to bakeries and restaurants across the Bay Area. All this success has made Azikiwee rethink how the food industry brings equity into the workplace, and how to elevate cultural appreciation, not appropriation, through ingredients. He wants to give a chance to more Black and Brown bakers, because of his own experience feeling like an outsider as a Black man interested in commercial baking. Adhiti Bandlamudi brings us this story as part of our ongoing series Flavor Profile, which features folks who started successful food businesses during the pandemic. 'We Belong Together': How Ritchie Valens' Music Inspired a New Book of Poetry Growing up, poet J. Michael Martinez loved the “La Bamba,” a movie about the life and music of Ritchie Valens. Valens was a rising rock n’ roll star who died, tragically, in a 1959 plane crash at the age of 17. He was from the San Fernando Valley and had begun his recording career less than a year before his death. Yet, his legacy was already cemented through his timeless hits including, “We Belong Together,” “Donna” and his widely beloved interpretation of the Mexican folk song, “La Bamba.” Sasha Khokha talks to San José State professor J. Michael Martinez, who has created a new, poetic ode to Valens. Tarta Americana (Spanish for ‘American Pie’) uses the life and music of Valens to better understand issues around race, culture and politics as they show up in Martinez’s own life.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices