Selena Quintanilla (1971-1995) was the Queen of Tejano music. A magnetic performer, she began her professional career at just 11 years old, breaking gender and cultural barriers to become a Latinx icon.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today, we’re talking about The Queen of Tejano. La Reina de Tex-Mex. The woman who brought us Bidi Bidi Bom Bom and Como la Flor. A magnetic performer, she began her professional career at just 11 years old, breaking gender and cultural barriers to become a Latinx icon.
Let’s talk about Selena.
Selena Quintanilla was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas. Her father, Abraham, was a former musician. By the time Selena was six, her inherent musical abilities were clear. Her father later said, “Her timing, her pitch were perfect, I could see it from day one.”
In 1981, when Selena was 10, her father opened Papa Gayo’s, a Tex-Mex restaurant. Selena often performed there, backed by her siblings -- Abraham III, known as A.B., on bass guitar and Suzette on drums. But after just a year of business, a recession hit Texas and Papa Gayo’s was forced to close.
The family went bankrupt and lost their home, eventually re-settling in Corpus Christi, Texas. To support themselves and their parents, Selena and her siblings became “Selena y los Dinos,” a Tejano band.
Tejano music is a genre that blends Mexican-Spanish vocal traditions and German and Czech rhythms and melodies. When Selena began performing it in the 1980s, tejano was a regional, male-dominated landscape. Selena y Los Dinos played everywhere they could - on street corners, and at fairs, weddings and quinceaneras.
As Selena’s career began to take off, her teachers became increasingly concerned about the effect of late night performances on her academics. Angry at what he considered to be an overstepping of bounds, Selena’s father pulled her out of school in eighth grade.
In 1984, after years of touring in a refurbished bus named “Big Bertha,” Selena Y Los Dinos recorded their first album for Freddie Records. Selena, at just 13 years old, had grown up speaking English. She learned Spanish phonetically, through the lyrics of her songs.
By 1988, Selena had recorded five more LPs -- Alpha, Munequito de Trapo, And the Winner Is..., Preciosa, and Dulce Amor.
She was often turned away by venues because of both her age, and her gender. Her father, Abraham, was often told that a female-led Tejano band would never be commercially successful.
But in 1987, Selena won Female Vocalist of the Year at the Tejano Music Awards. She would go on to win it for nine more consecutive years.
Following a performance at the Tejano awards two years later, Selena was offered two contracts: one from Sony Music Latin, and one from the newly formed EMI Latin Records. She went with EMI Latin Records, with the hopes of recording a crossover album. First, she was told, she would need to build a bigger fan base.
Over the next three years, Selena recorded two studio albums. She fell in love and eloped with her guitarist, Chris Perez. And she became professionally involved with Yolanda Saldivar, a registered nurse who founded the Selena Fan Club after attending a concert.
In 1992, Selena released what became known as her breakout album (though, technically, it was her ninth record): Entre A Mi Mundo, which sat at number one on the Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart for eight months. Selena became the biggest Tejano act in Mexico. Despite her Mexican-American status, and her limited Spanish, Selena was hailed as an artist of the people by the Mexican media. Across the border, her flashy costumes and her dance moves earned her the nickname, “Mexican Madonna.” But everywhere, everyone could agree: Selena was the Queen of Tejano.
In 1993, Selena became the first female Tejano artist to bring home a Grammy for best Mexican-American Album. In 1994, Entre A Mi Mundo became the second best-selling regional Mexican album of all time.
That same year, in 1994, Selena ventured into fashion. The family turned once again to Yolanda Saldivar, the Selena Fan Club president. Yolanda began managing two of Selena’s Texas-based boutiques, becoming a trusted friend.
By 1995, Selena was at the height of her career. Her fourth studio album, Amor Prohibido, hit #1 on Billboard’s top Latin albums. That February, she performed a sold-out concert at the Houston Astrodome. Selena had also finally begun working on her crossover album, after being deemed by some outlets as, “bigger than Tejano itself.”
But after complaints from both employees and fans, it became clear that Yolanda had been embezzling money from both the boutiques and the fan club. When asked to hand over a number of business documents, Yolanda delayed, saying she’d been assaulted in Mexico.
Selena went to confront Yolanda at a local motel. Yolanda pulled a gun from her bag, shooting Selena in the back as she tried to leave the room. Selena managed to stumble down the hallway to the lobby before collapsing. The bullet had severed a major artery. She died at just 23 years old.
By the time Yolanda was apprehended after a nine hour standoff with police, hundreds of fans had gathered to watch her arrest, with many crying as she was led into the police cruiser. Her funeral drew 60,000 mourners. Her birthday, April 16th, was officially named “Selena Day” in Texas.
Her final album, Dreaming of You, was released posthumously. It hit #1 on the Billboard Top 200, becoming the first Spanish-language album to do so. A few years later, Jennifer Lopez played Selena in a movie about her life, becoming the first Latina actress to make a million dollars for a film. When M.A.C. Cosmetics released a Selena-inspired makeup line in 2016, it became the best-selling celebrity cosmetics collection in history.
Like so many other figures who died too young -- Marilyn Monroe, or Tupac, or Kurt Cobain -- Selena’s death solidified her position in the pop culture pantheon.
All month we’re talking about Musicians. For more on why we’re doing what we’re doing, check out our newsletter, Womannica Weekly. Follow us on Instagram and facebook @encyclopediawomannica. Follow me directly on twitter @jennymkaplan.
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Talk to you on Monday!