Getting married in secret. Dropping out of high school. And creating a hit song completely on the
fly. Keep watching to find out what else the world doesn't know about Selena Quintanilla.
While Selena Quintanilla grew up in a Mexican-American family
and became popular primarily through singing music in Spanish,
she didn't actually speak the language growing up. English was her first language. She learned
to sing in Spanish long before she learned to speak the language fluently. According to CNN,
Quintanilla was determined to master it and eventually began to give interviews in Spanish.
Quintanilla's husband, Chris Perez, revealed in his memoir, To Selena,
With Love, that Quintanilla rose to the challenge, as she always did,
in order to learn the language. According to Perez, she wanted to be truly accepted by her
Mexican fans and was afraid they might dismiss her if her Spanish wasn't perfect. Perez wrote:
"Selena mangled her conversations in Spanish [...] but not for long. She said,
'It'll be cool. You watch. I'm going to learn Spanish and surprise everybody.'"
While people all over the world are familiar with the name Selena Quintanilla — pop star
Selena Gomez is even named after her — Quintanilla was not an overnight success.
Years of hard work went into building her career. She was born into a musical family,
with her father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., playing in a band before quitting to support his family
with a job at Dow Chemical. When he heard his daughter sing for the first time as a little girl,
he recognized her talent and became determined to nurture her skill.
Her dad decided to start a family band,
declaring that Quintanilla's brother, A.B., would learn bass, and her sister, Suzette,
would learn drums. Their band was called Selena y Los Dinos after Abraham's old band,
Los Dinos. Abraham soundproofed the garage to give the band a place to record and rehearse.
According to the Texas State Historical Association,
the band's early gigs were at the family's restaurant and weddings. In 1981, the band
went pro, and they began playing in dance halls and nightclubs the following year.
While Selena Quintanilla loved to sing, her talent prevented her from having anything
resembling a normal childhood. She began performing while she was still a child,
so she missed a lot of school. As noted by María Celeste Arrarás in the book Selena's Secret:
The Revealing Story Behind Her Tragic Death, Quintanilla's seventh grade teacher,
Marilyn Greer, went head-to-head with the singer's father over Quintanilla's singing career.
Greer said that Quintanilla was a bright student who she could see finishing school
with honors and going on to college with a scholarship. But Greer was worried at how
performing in Selena y Los Dinos was impacting Quintanilla's academics, as she frequently
traveled across the state singing at parties, bars, and other venues late into the night.
Greer said she went so far as to threaten to report Quintanilla's father to the authorities.
At her father's request, she dropped out of school so she could focus on her music career without any
objections. Quintanilla later ended up completing her education via a correspondence course.
When Selena Quintanilla died, she left behind not just her parents,
siblings, and devoted fans, but also her husband, Chris Perez. Perez and Quintanilla
had only been married for a few years at the time of her death. They met when he
joined Selena y Los Dinos as a guitarist, and they quickly fell in love. While they
were serious about each other, Quintanilla's father did not approve of the relationship.
"Dad don't talk to him like that.”
“I can say anything I want to say to him. I'm not gonna have this in my family."
In an interview with CNN, Perez said things were tense with his then-girlfriend's dad. He said:
"I didn't let it get to me because I knew deep down he knew the kind of person I was."
He added that while Quintanilla's father didn't approve of their relationship,
the rest of the family was on board with their romance.
To avoid further confrontation, Quintanilla and Perez eloped in 1992 when they were 20
and 22 years old. Perez posted a picture of their marriage certificate on Facebook in 2017
on what would have been their 25th wedding anniversary. He wrote of their wedding day:
"What a rollercoaster ride THAT day was."
While Selena Quintanilla became the most famous member of the family band, it's her brother,
A.B. Quintanilla, who deserves credit for some of her most beloved songs.
The hit "Como El Flor" was written by A.B., who revealed to BuzzFeed News
that the song only took him 20 minutes to write. A.B. also wrote "Amor Prohibido,"
a song about a forbidden love story, which was based on his grandparents' relationship.
But one of Quintanilla's most popular hits didn't stem from songwriting. Quintanilla
improvised "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" because the band was running short on time during a set. Since
their pay could be docked if they didn't perform for the whole allotted time, A.B. told the band to
start playing a bass line, and Quintanilla began to improvise lyrics. He revealed:
"It used to be called 'Bidi Bidi Bubbles.'
She would say she was a fish under the sea and all kinds of jibber jabber."
The song continued to evolve until it became one of Quintanilla's biggest hits.
While it seems almost like Selena Quintanilla's phenomenal success was predestined,
establishing herself as a Latin recording artist wasn't easy. Although she had a beautiful voice
and a flair for performing, the industry at that time was dominated by male artists. Yet,
Quintanilla's success turned the genre upside down. She didn't just defy the patriarchal
hold on the industry — she smashed it. In 1994, she made history by becoming
the first Tejano woman to win a Grammy award for best Mexican-American album for her album Live.
The album also made it to No. 2 on Billboard's Latin Albums chart. In 1995,
her album Dreaming of You was released posthumously,
debuting at the top of the Billboard 200. It was another history-making event,
as it was the first predominantly Spanish language album to make it to the top of the chart.
On March 31, 1995, Yolanda Saldívar shot and killed Selena Quintanilla. According to Biography,
Saldívar was the founder of Quintanilla's fan club and managed Quintanilla's Selena Etc. boutiques.
Quintanilla began to grow suspicious of Saldívar after members of her fan club
complained about not receiving merchandise they had paid for.
Selena Etc. employees also reported that they suspected Saldívar of stealing money.
After Quintanilla discovered some financial records were missing, she confronted Saldívar.
According to Biography, the singer met with Saldívar to get the missing records on the day she
was killed. Quintanilla was shot in a Days Inn, where Saldívar had a room. Injured, Quintanilla
made her way to the lobby and told hotel employees what transpired before collapsing. She was brought
to the hospital, but the bullet had severed an artery, and Quintanilla passed away.
Saldívar maintained that the shooting was an accident, but she was convicted
of murder and sentenced to life in prison that October. Mourners turned out in droves
to honor Quintanilla, with more than 50,000 fans showing up at her funeral.
What may surprise you most, though, is that Saldívar may be eligible for parole in 2025.
Many people who weren't familiar with the singer were introduced to Selena Quintanilla through the
1997 biopic Selena, directed by Gregory Nava, and starring Jennifer Lopez in the lead role.
Not only was Selena a fitting tribute for an icon lost too soon,
but the film would also prove to be Lopez's breakthrough role. According to Variety,
Lopez earned $1 million for the role and made history in the process as the first Latina actress
to earn that much money for a movie. Lopez was also nominated for a Golden Globe for the part.
The role was a significant one for Lopez, not just because of the acclaim it brought her,
but because she was honored to tell Quintanilla's story. She told Variety:
"It was a Latin movie, starring a Latin girl,
playing a Latin artist and a Latin director. It was a statement to the world."
While Lopez and others involved in the film were disappointed that it
was snubbed by the Academy Awards, Lopez said that it ultimately didn't
matter because she felt the film made the impact it needed to make.
"Cuz it really did mark my life at that time and to get to know the family and work
with them and everything, it was just… it was an important part of my life."
In 2016, MAC cosmetics released a makeup line named after Selena Quintanilla.
The line came about in large part because of the number of people who,
even decades after the singer's death, were trying to emulate her beauty. Radio producer
Patty Rodriguez pitched the line after MAC launched a collection inspired by Marilyn Monroe.
Rodriguez campaigned for the line for two years,
even launching an online petition to convince MAC to launch the collection.
The petition amassed nearly 40,000 signatures by the time MAC agreed to the line.
Even Selena herself would have approved of the collection. Her sister, Suzette Quintanilla,
told PopSugar that the beauty icon had always wanted her own makeup line,
and that she'd actually been working on one when she died. Selena's family worked
with MAC to make sure the line honored the singer's memory. Suzette even sent
pictures of her sister's makeup to MAC so they could replicate the shades she wore. She said:
"I think since it's for Selena, it needs to be about Selena."
Even though Selena Quintanilla died decades ago, her legacy will endure.
In 2017, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Walk of Fame website reported that a record number of fans,
more than 4,000, came to see the star unveiled. According to Billboard, several celebrities turned
up at the event to commemorate the singer alongside Quintanilla's family and fans.
Eva Longoria spoke of Quintanilla's inspiration to others in the Latinx community, saying:
"She was the face I finally saw that looked like mine."
Also in attendance at the ceremony was actor Edward James
Olmos who played her father in the film Selena. Eric Garcetti,
then the mayor of Los Angeles, was also present at the ceremony and dubbed Quintanilla an angel.
The star was accepted on Quintanilla's behalf by her sister,
Suzette. She said when accepting the award:
"The goal isn't to live forever, but to create something that will."
Selena Quintanilla won't be forgotten any time
soon thanks to the Netflix show that ensured her ongoing legacy. The biopic series aired
in 2020 and was executive produced by her father and her sister, according to Al Día
The search for someone to play Quintanilla was conducted in several cities, with the
role eventually going to Christian Serratos. Quintanilla's father told Mexican newspaper
Reforma that, while his family didn't get very involved with the casting process,
he approved of Serratos playing his daughter.
According to Elle, the first installment of Selena:
The Series consisted of six one-hour episodes that tell the story of Quintanilla's rise to
success and the impact of her career on her and her family. The second season focuses
on Selena's experience as a successful singer and the resulting struggles she experienced.
Not knowing it would be her last interview,
Selena Quintanilla was asked how she'd want to be remembered after her death. She replied:
"Not only as an entertainer but as a person who cared a lot
and I gave the best that I could. I tried to be the best role model that I possibly could,
and the best person that I could, and I tried to help out."
Quintanilla's wish to be remembered positively was granted. She's commemorated today as a role
model and inspiration, with her music and style still captivating fans. Quintanilla
is also an inspiration, then and now, as she came to prominence in a time of
hostility towards Latin immigrants. José Limón, a professor at the
University of Notre Dame, told NBC News, that Quintanilla's legacy lasts because she, quote,
"Represents the possibility of being a complete American,
of having success, fame, [and] being in the public realm."
Decades after her death, Selena Quintanilla has not been forgotten. At the end of 2021,
a screenshot posted on her official Instagram account showed that Spotify
users had streamed her music 452.5 million times that year.
Her sister, Suzette Quintanilla, told PopSugar that the singer was down to earth and genuine,
adding that it's part of what made her so popular with her many fans. Suzette added that her sister
could captivate people, which is why her music and her story still resonate with so many today.
"She was so humble and so down to earth and she would really do anything
for anybody if she possibly could."
It's clear that a fan base for Quintanilla's music still exists,
and they're being rewarded with new music. In March 2022, Selena's father, Abraham, announced
that a new album of 13 songs would be released by Warner Music. He told Latin Groove News:
"What amazes me [...] is that 26 years later and the public still remembers
Selena. They haven't let go of her. They're waiting for a project like this to come out,
and I know it will be well received by the public."
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