In the 1950s and 60s, nearly every singer of Latin descent who pined to become a star in the US or UK had to eradicate any trace of ethnicity from their name. Thus, Richard Valenzuela became Ritchie Valens, Domingo Samudio morphed into Sam the Sham, Baldemar Huerta reimagined himself as Freddy Fender, and Florencia Cardona simply became Vikki Carr. In the most extreme example, a five-man Chicano band led by Rudy Martinez wound up hiding under the anonymous moniker Question Mark and The Mysterians before releasing their garage-rock classic 96 Tears.
Given all that, the choices Trini Lopez made about his moniker back then seem especially principled and brave. “Trini said to the world, ‘This is my heritage. I’m Mexican and there’s no reason I should have to erase that,’” said P David Ebersole, co-director of the new documentary My Name Is Lopez. “He was willing to walk out on a record deal if they wouldn’t use his real name. Back then, that was phenomenal.”
