"If you have a dream, don't let anybody take it away," said Tejano singer and pop star
Selena Quintanilla.
The events of her life proved this statement to be true in ways both wonderful and tragic.
Here are the key players in her story, and where they are today.
Yolanda Saldívar shot and killed Selena Quintanilla at a motel in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March
31, 1995.
The killing occurred after Quintanilla had fired Saldivar, the president of her fan club
and a manager of her clothing boutiques, over embezzling thousands of dollars from Selena's
businesses.
According to The New York Times, Saldívar was confronted by members of Quintanilla's
family over the embezzlement accusations earlier in March, and put in a deposit on a pistol
two days afterward.
She was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, with 30 years
to be served without the possibility of parole.
Following her conviction, Saldivar gave an interview with ABC's 20/20, where she maintained
her innocence in Selena's death, despite the overwhelming evidence.
"I did not kill Selena.
It was an accident, and my conscience is clear."
Saldivar claims she was threatening to commit suicide on the day she shot Quintanilla, and
that the gun went off as she was pointing to the door asking Quintanilla to leave.
But prosecutor Carlos Valdez told 20/20 there was no evidence to suggest an accident occurred,
and eyewitness accounts indicate a cold-blooded intentional act.
"I turned around and I saw Yolanda and Selena calling out from 158, and Selena was coming
out of the room yelling 'Help!
Help!'
And that's when Yolanda, you know, shot her in the back."
Following the shooting, Saldívar had a nine-hour standoff with police.
Twenty-five years later, she remains in prison.
Selena Quintanilla died two days before she and husband Chris Pérez, the guitarist for
her band Los Dinos, were to celebrate their third wedding anniversary.
"Half of me died with her.
I'm not, I haven't -- I feel like nothing's filled up that half."
By 1999, Pérez had a daughter, Cassie, with girlfriend Venessa Villanueva.
He also lent his fame to a new group called the Chris Pérez Band.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he confessed he only reluctantly let the band
be named after himself after the group's other members insisted on it.
The Latin rock band achieved success with their Grammy-winning debut album, Resurrection,
but the popularity didn't endure.
He married Villanueva in 2001 and had a son named Noah, but divorced by 2008.
It was an experience that clearly stung, as Pérez told San Antonio Current in 2013,
"Divorce is a pain in the a--."
He's made records with Emilio Estefan Jr. and released new music with his band in 2020.
He also wrote a book about Quintanilla — To Selena, With Love — in 2012.
Pérez told Billboard,
"It was something that I had to do in order to move forward.
I was dealing with boxes and boxes of baggage that I had suppressed."
Pérez regularly participates in memorial events for Quintanilla — and he also has
his own hot sauce.
Abraham Quintanilla Jr. has spent life since his daughter's death celebrating her by supporting
projects like the 1997 film Selena, and greeting fans at The Selena Museum, run by Q Productions,
the family's company.
Abraham told People in 2020,
"When Selena passed away, I told my family that I was going to try to keep her memory
alive through her music.
25 years later I think we, as a family, accomplished that."
Sometimes honoring Selena's memory means going to battle, even against her widower Chris
Pérez.
Abraham filed a lawsuit in 2016 to prevent Pérez from developing a TV series based on
his book, To Selena, With Love.
Pérez told Billboard that his former father-in-law supported the book.
The lawsuit was reportedly dismissed in 2019.
In September of 2019, Abraham spoke against a Telemundo documentary by Maria Celeste Arrarás
called El Secreto de Selena.
In a post on Q Productions' Facebook page, Abraham said the documentary is full of "falsehoods."
Translated from Spanish, Abraham wrote,
"She invents a romance that never existed and gives importance to the killer, instead
of seeking details with family and close friends."
Abraham also said his grief over losing his daughter will never fade, writing,
"There is no day when my wife Marcella and I don't shed a tear, because the pain of losing
Selena is a constant pain..."
That's why he still fights these battles to this day.
Selena Quintanilla's brother Abraham "A.B." Quintanilla III played bass in Los Dinos,
produced her albums, and co-wrote her biggest hits like "Como La Flor," "Amor Prohibido,"
and "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom."
He wrote the song "Missing My Baby" on Dreaming Of You, Selena's English album that was released
posthumously in 1995.
After Selena's death, A.B. formed a couple of bands, including Los Kumbia Kings, which
brother-in-law Chris Pérez joined for a bit, and Kumbia All Starz.
He has enjoyed success with both groups, and become a well-known music producer within
the Latin genre.
His personal life is a different story.
AllMusic reported issues with many band members, often related to money.
More troubling than his band squabbles is that in 2017 he was considered one of the
most wanted fugitives in Corpus Christi because he owed $87,000 in child support for at least
eight of his children, according to a report by the San Antonio Express-News.
He paid his debt and served time in jail for the offense.
In April 2020, A.B. announced on Nothing Beats Experience that he was working on producing
the last album of his career before the Coronavirus pandemic forced an unwelcome pause in the
music industry.
Suzette Quintanilla is Selena's older sister and was a drummer in Los Dinos.
She's now president and CEO of the Quintanilla family production company — Q Productions.
She's honored Selena's memory by collaborating with iconic brands like MAC, Forever 21, and
Hot Topic on Selena-related products.
There was even a Selena-inspired Slurpee flavor.
Selena had owned and operated Selena Etc.
Boutique and Salon locations in San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas.
Both were closed by 2015, but the partnerships Suzette maintains help keep Selena's love
of fashion and makeup alive.
While promoting MAC's second Selena-inspired line, Suzette told Refinery29,
"When Selena passed away, one of the three things she was working on was her clothing
line, a makeup line, and a perfume line.
I promised myself that by the time I leave this world, I will accomplish what she started;
what she held dear to her heart."
Suzette stretched Selena's legacy farther when she teamed up with Google in 2017 to
create a Google Doodle inspired by her sister's life.
Suzette said during a Google interview,
"This is one of the things that brings me great joy ... I do this because I love her
because I know if the shoe was on the other foot and I wasn't here, I know for a fact
that she would be here doing this for me."
Selena Quintanilla's mother, Marcella Quintanilla, was always in the spotlight less than the
other members of her family, acting instead as their support system behind-the-scenes.
The same is true today.
She did make a rare public appearance in 2017 at the dedication ceremony for Selena's star
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Marcella told ET at the event,
"I'm very proud of her.
I just want to thank the fans for loving her so much."
In 1997, while promoting the biographical film released in her daughter's honor, Marcella
confessed to Oprah Winfrey that the movie was hard to watch.
She felt similarly about hearing Selena's music and seeing her music videos.
She said,
"Sometimes, I can hear it and see videos of her, and it makes me feel better.
But there's times that I can't ... I can't see her."
When she does talk to the press, Marcella shares stories of her daughter's generous
spirit.
Speaking to People in 2020 for an interview commemorating the 25 years since Selena's
death, Marcella related a fond memory of Selena, saying,
"This girl admired the boots that she was wearing, and she took them off and gave them
to her.
That's how kindhearted she was.
If you said something negative about somebody, she would say something positive.
She didn't like negativity ... She had a big heart."
Because of the unique timing of her first and only English album, Selena was only introduced
to many fans in the US through either Dreaming Of You or the 1997 biopic Selena.
But, she's influenced many artists, whether they are part of the Latinx community or not.
Beyoncé remembered meeting Selena before she herself was famous in an interview with
MTV.
She said that listening to Selena's music helped her with pronunciation techniques when
she started recording music of her own, even though she didn't speak Spanish.
Selena has influenced plenty of other entertainers like Eva Longoria, Selena Gomez, Kat Deluna,
and Daddy Yankee.
Beyond her music, Selena's legacy lives on because of her family's dedication to telling
her story.
As reported, Abraham Quintanilla legally prohibited Chris Pérez from developing a TV series about
he and Selena's love story.
Instead, the Quintanillas collaborated with Netflix on December 2020's Selena: The Series,
with Mexican-American actress Christian Serratos taking on the role of Selena.
Speaking about the new biographical project, Suzette Quintanilla said in a statement to
Variety,
"With this series, viewers will finally get the full history of Selena, our family, and
the impact she has had on all of our lives.
We are excited to partner with Campanario and Netflix to give fans a never-before-seen
glimpse at our story and highlight why Selena will remain a legend for generations to come."
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