La Bamba

I was washing our clothes while tuned in to RJ 100 FM, a music station that plays music from the 50’s to the present, when I heard Trini Lopez singing “If I had a Hammer.” Booom! Nostalgia hit me so hard that I choked. I’m being dramatic here but I almost cried; well, not cry as cry with tears but it’s close to that, I almost cried because I remember my father. (Here we go again.)

I don’t think that Trini Lopez will ring any bell today. But many may not know it but before the Latin invasion of the 90’s led by Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Selena etc. he’s the Latin guy who made Filipinos dance to that percussion driven Latin music way back during the 60’s and the 70’s.

My father loved dancing the cha-cha. I remember him picking me up from our bed, hugging me while he was holding my right arm like he was dancing with a woman, while my free left hand clings to his neck tightly afraid lest my father’s turns threw me on the floor, and then off he went back and forth, back and forth and turn and back and forth back and forth and turn like a steam train trying to maneuver into its garage. It was fun.

My father isdead and Trini reminds me of him.