Ritchie Torres is so young that his mother named him after seeing “La Bamba,” a movie about Mexican-American pop singer Ritchie Valens who died in a plane crash in 1959. The movie, staring Lou Diamond Phillips, was released in 1987.

Though he just turned 25 in March, the precocious Torres is fast making a name for himself as a leading candidate in the wide-open 15th District Council race to replace majority leader Joel Rivera. The district includes the Fordham-Bedford area, as well West Farms and Crotona.

The baby-faced Torres, who’s as quick to flash a megawatt smile as he is to go off on obscure city housing regulations, leads all candidates in fundraising, having racked up more than $60,000 for his campaign since the beginning of the year.

Last week he picked up the endorsement of the Teamsters to add to his growing list of union support, which also includes Communications Workers, Sanitation Workers, Council of School Superintendents and Administrators, the Hotel Trades Council, 32BJ SEIU and UFCW local 1500.

He also enjoys the backing of his current boss, east Bronx Councilman Jimmy Vacca, and Mark Gjonaj, the assemblyman who defeated Joel Rivera’s sister, Naomi Rivera, in the 80th District Democratic primary last fall.

Despite his age, Torres says he’s the most experienced candidate in the race, although Rivera’s longtime chief of staff, Albert Alvarez, who’s backed by Rivera and his father, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, may beg to differ.

Torres got his start in politics early. As a 16-year-old high school junior, he was chosen to be Vacca’s District Manager for a Day (this was back when Vacca was still district manager for Community Board 10). Vacca was immediately impressed.

“I was floored,” Vacca says about his introduction to Torres. “This was a very bright young man.”

Vacca later invited Torres to work on his initial campaign for City Council in 2006.

After graduating from high school, Torres enrolled at New York University, but says he left after a year because he couldn’t afford it. Vacca hired him as a community liaison and he’s been on his payroll ever since.

From the beginning, Torres has worked on housing issues for Vacca, essentially becoming a tenant organizer for the Councilman, developing tenant associations and identifying distressed buildings with bad landlords. He eventually became Vacca’s official housing director.

Torres says he moved out of his mother’s place in Throgs Neck and into what is now the 15th District more than three ago, but that hasn’t stopped rivals from saying that he’s not really from the district. But Torres says he’s getting to know the 15th District through the campaign, which, like everything he does, he’s taking very seriously.

“My greatest quality and what people should know about me, is that I’m a very serious person,” Torres says. “While that doesn’t make me great at socializing, it will make me great as a lawmaker.”

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the May 2-15 print edition of the Norwood News. An earlier version mistakenly reported that Torres only recently moved to the district. In fact, Torres moved to the district more than three years ago.