Selena Quintanilla-Perez
Introduction: Hispanic Heritage Month
This webpage aims to talk about the famous singer and fashion designer: Selena Quintanilla-Perez, or just Selena. This webpage about Selena was written in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. National Hispanic Heritage Month is a yearly celebration in the United States. It spans from September 15 to October 15 and is meant to appreciate people of Hispanic and Latin heritage who have made significant contributions and have had major impacts on the growth and development of the Americas.
Gaining Fame
She and the band continued to tour and perform around Texas for years despite negative criticism due to the fact that Selena was a woman singing Tejano, which is a typically male-dominated genre of music. However, her popularity would eventually skyrocket in 1987 when she won the Tejano Music Award for “Female Vocalist of the Year,” and would continue to win the award for nine more consecutive years. Along with her fame as a Latin singer, Selena’s brother, A.B., became her producer and songwriter. Selena and Selena y Los Dinos produced songs that really boosted Latin music’s popularity in the US.
Early Life
Selena was a famous Mexican-American Tejano singer and fashion designer. Often referred to as the "Queen of Tejano Music," she was a part of the famous band “Selena y Los Dinos” as the lead singer. Selena’s music career technically started before the band was even formed. She was born on August 16th, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas. She grew up as the youngest child with her mom, dad, and her two older siblings. In 1980, her father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., who’s also a former Mexican-American musician, opened his first family Tex-Mex restaurant, Papa Gayos, in Lake Jackson. There, Selena, who was six when she started, along with her elder siblings, Abraham III, or just A.B., and Suzette would perform shows often at the restaurant. Abraham would be on the bass guitar, Suzette on the drums, and six-year-old Selena as the singer. The Quintanilla siblings would continue to perform at Papa Gayos until the following year when the 1980s oil glut occurred, thus causing a recession that forced the restaurant to close down. Selena and her siblings continued to perform for money at different events and locations under the band name "Selena y Los Dinos."
Fashion Line
Aside from recording songs, Selena would also delve into the fashion industry. She began designing and manufacturing a clothing line in 1994. She opened two boutiques called “Selena Etc.” One location was opened in Corpus Christi and another in San Antonio. Both boutiques were managed by the president of Selena’s fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, who would even become her registered agent just eight months later. This clothing line would become very successful, with Selena earning over five million dollars from these boutiques. Selena y Los Dinos would continue to tour and perform until 1995.
Selena’s Greatest Hits
One of her songs from her solo debut album, “Entre A Mi Mundo” was number one on the US Billboard Regional Mexican Album chart for eight months straight. In 1993, one of her most popular songs, “Live!,” won “Best Mexican/American Album” in the 1994 Grammy Awards, thus making it the first song recorded by a female Tejano artist to do so. This album was also No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart. In 1994, Selena released her album “Amor Prohibido” and it went on to become one of the best-selling Latin albums in the United States. Along with that, the album was critically acclaimed for launching Tejano music into its first marketable era as the album led it to become one of the most popular Latin music subgenres at the time. It really popularized Tejano music across a younger and wider audience than at any other time in the genre’s history.
Selena’s Impact
Selena’s success revolutionized Tejano music and really brought it into the spotlight in the US. helped redefine Latin music and its Tejano subgenre, as well as cumbia and Latin pop. She’s widely considered to be one of the most significant Mexican-American singers of the twentieth century. Selena was the best Latin artist of the 1990s and ranked No. 89 on Rolling Stone’s list of the top 200 greatest singers of all time. Along with this, she’s widely credited as the first woman to change public perceptions of Latin beauty in the Tejano market. This made her a feminist in a way because she blazed a trail for more female artists.
Selena also made an impact with her philanthropy. She was active in the US Latino community, often visiting high schools and educating the students to stay in school and to stay away from drinking and doing drugs. She always loved helping her community. After the events of Hurricane Andrew, she performed a Houston benefits concert to help out the victims of the hurricane. In August of 1994, she hosted a charity baseball game to raise money for multiple charities. In January of 1995, Selena performed a concert that funded a non-profit program to provide school supplies for children in need.
Her death was probably the most impactful. In fact, she became even more famous and popular in death than when she was alive. After her death, Selena was named one of the most influential Latin artists of all time. The New York Times called her “arguably the most important Latina musician in the country, on her way to becoming one of the most important, period.” She became a household name and a part of American pop culture. Her death also introduced many people in the US to Latin music. It even gave way for many other Latin artists like Jennifer Lopez (who ended up being cast as Selena for the film about her story) and Ricky Martin, who would eventually gain fame as well.
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Selena’s Murder
On March 31, 1995, Selena passed away due to a gunshot wound after being fatally shot by Yolanda Salvidar. In the months leading up to her murder, Selena had been notified of some concerns regarding Yolanda. Apparently, the boutiques began suffering because Yolanda dismissed staff members she disliked, which caused a decline in the number of staff workers. Abraham had also been contacted by fans of Selena saying that they never got anything after paying for their membership to Selena’s fan club. Selena was initially dismissive of these allegations, refusing to believe her friend would do such a thing. After some more investigating, Abraham eventually discovered that Yolanda had embezzled over $30,000 in forged checks from both the fans and the boutiques. On March 9th, 1995, Abraham held a meeting with Selena and Suzette to confront Yolanda. Yolanda denied the accusations, but Abraham threatened to involve law enforcement if she didn’t provide evidence that disproved the accusations. After the meeting, Abraham banned Yolanda from having any contact with Selena. But Selena didn’t want to immediately end her friendship with Yolanda, because one: Selena believed Yolanda was essential to her clothing line’s success, and two: Yolanda still had some bank statements and other important financial documents that Selena needed for tax preparation.
Several days before, Selena’s murder, Yolanda had been delaying handing over the financial documents because she alleged that she’d been assaulted in Mexico. On the day of Selena’s murder, she and Yolanda had gone to a medical clinic where Yolanda was given a physical examination for the assault which Yolanda claimed happened in Monterrey. A nurse at the clinic suggested that Yolanda should have the rape exam done in San Antonio, since Yolanda was a resident there and the clinic they were at was in Corpus Christi, and the assault took place in Mexico. Selena met up with Yolanda in her motel room at the Days Inn in Corpus Christi where she demanded that Yoland finally hand over the financial documents. Yolanda responded by pulling a gun out of her purse and aiming it at Selena. Selena tried to flee from Yolanda, but she was shot in the lower right shoulder which severed an artery. Leaving a trail of blood, Selena ran to the lobby where she told the clerk who shot her and Yolanda’s room number before collapsing on the floor as the clerk called emergency services. Yolanda tried to flee the crime scene, but was quickly found by a police cruiser, and eventually surrendered after a nine-and-half-hour standoff with the police and FBI and was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and ultimately sentenced to life in prison with a chance of parole after 30 years in 2025. Selena was immediately rushed to the hospital, but despite the doctor’s efforts to save and revive Selena, she still passed away due to extreme blood loss and cardiac arrest.