Baseball in April and Other Stories Chapter Summary & Analysis - La Bamba Summary

La Bamba Summary

In La Bamba, Manuel is the fourth of seven children in his family and is Hispanic in origin. He attends elementary school with at least one of his younger siblings, Mario. Manuel lives with his mother and father, who is a pharmacist. When the elementary asks for volunteers for the after-school talent show, Manuel raises his hand. He plans to lip-sync to Ritchie Valens's La Bamba for his performance. After volunteering, Manuel has second thoughts. He wants to impress a particular girl and his friends but he also becomes very nervous about being on stage in front of the whole student body and their families. There is no easy way to back out however so Manuel attends the practice with his 45 RPM record in hand. During the practice Manuel is startled by a trumpet player and drops the record which rolls across the floor before Manuel retrieves it. Over...
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