La Bamba

Hearing this song in a store recently sure brought back some memories! This was one of my favourite movies when I was younger (Oh Lou Diamond Phillips, come to me in a dream), despite being sure it was pretty scandalous with some kind of raunchy shower scene at the beginning that I most certainly was not meant to be watching. I was so sophisticated I could hardly stand it.

So naturally, when I was at some kind of community fair and there was a karaoke competition I knew exactly what I would sing to wow the judges. The fact that I didn't actually know the words or speak Spanish didn't bother me at all. However.....once on stage I quickly realised that 'Ba la la la la la bamba, spaghetti and meatballs, and maybe a pizza' wasn't going to cut it. I do realise that La Bamba is Spanish that those various foods are not, but I think the limited experience of 'foreign cultures' outside the Pacific at the time meant that to my 7 year old self, Italian and Spanish were one and the same.

Needless to say, the teenager (she was probably only 12, but seemed much older to me) who sang 'Like A Virgin' ended up winning.

Sigh.