INTERLAKEN – Bob Morales followed his own rules, of which he had a few: Men should show affection, for example.
Morales, who called Watsonville home, was known globally as Ritchie Valens’ hardened older brother, or La Bamba Bob, as he became known for a tough-guy portrayal in the 1987 hit biopic “La Bamba.”
Morales embodied his gritty reputation. He smoked pot every day of adulthood and wore a mohawk with pride when he died Saturday night at 81.
“We knew this day would come,” said Bly Olivia Morales, 39, his daughter.
Morales was with his wife, Joanie, when he died about 9 p.m. at his family home.
“He was a benefit-of-the-doubt kind of guy,” Joanie Morales said.
“He always told people, ‘Always tell the people you care about that you love them because you might not know when you will see them again,’” Joanie Morales said. “He told me every single day, ‘Somebody asks me about my brother.’”
Valens was 17 when he was in a plane crash Feb. 3, 1959, with musicians Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper — a famous point in rock n’ roll history known as “The Day the Music Died.” His mother, Concepcion Valenzuela, was born in Watsonville, where she died.
Morales came to Watsonville and worked at a rehabilitation center in Santa Cruz, where he became a popular figure known throughout town. He was working at the center when he met his future wife in 1975, but not because she needed help with addictions.
“He had holes in both his knees of his pants,” Joanie Morales said. “He had crazy hair. He was so creepy looking, but he was so sweet. He had a spirit like no other. We were lucky to have him as many years as we did.”
The couple wed on Feb. 24, 1979, at Janus of Santa Cruz, the addiction-treatment center. The reverend married them as a favor after Bob Morales retrieved the reverend’s pipe organ that had been stolen by one of the center’s clients, Joanie Morales said.
Morales, a mechanic who loved cars and speeding down California’s roads, didn’t have a driver’s license his last 25 years. And he was pulled over by police many times, only to be given warnings once they realized who he was.
“A few months ago, he went to the pot shop to get his medicine. It was closed and he flipped a U-turn and got pulled over,” Bly Morales said. “A cop asked for his license and registration. He said he doesn’t have a license. They got to talking about who my father was and he ran to his car and got a torn piece of paper. He said ‘Sign the paper, sir. Just sign it. Have a good night, grandpa. My daughter loves that movie.’”
She said that happened repeatedly throughout his life.
“He never got a ticket,” Bly Morales said.
Among his accomplishments: None of his children ever went to prison, Bly Morales said.
“He said, ‘That’s how I know I have succeeded as a father,” she said. “He put us through some major crap, but we held that man on the highest pedestal. We babied him. He was real. He never lied to us. He always said the truth needs no explanation.”
Morales was a man of style, known to wear elaborate custom leather coats, long coats with Nike shoes.
“He would get stopped on the street everywhere we went with people saying how they loved his hat or his shoes,” Bly Morales said.
Morales was a “broken” man, having spent from 12 to 16 years old in a group home and losing his younger brother tragically, the family said.
At their Royal Oaks home, Bob Morales would bring people seeking help, often people on the streets asking for money — he would welcome them in his home for a meal and shower, his daughter Genevieve Diamond-Morales said.
“We would always come home with someone in the house, dad’s new friend, we’d say,” Diamond-Morales said. “Dad would tell us, ‘Oh, he’s just going to take a shower and get some food.’ He was just real. He never judged you. He loved us no matter what and guided us to rise above.”
Bob Morales is survived by more than 30 grandchildren.
Morales returned home from the hospital two weeks ago. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer about eight years ago and had multiple remissions.
“He was where he wanted to be,” Bly Morales said. “He was home.”
