I still remember exactly where I was when I found out that Selena Quintanilla-Pérez had been murdered.
I was 9, a fourth-grader in south Texas, sitting at the back of the bus with my friends after school had let out that day. As we waited for the driver to take off, a chorus of whispers in the front quickly became a cacophony of denial, despair and laughter by the time word got to us — that Selena had been shot and killed at a Days Inn motel room in Corpus Christi, Texas. The attacker was Yolanda Saldívar, president of her fan club and manager of her fashion boutiques.
Many of the girls openly wept while several of the older boys cracked jokes — "What did Selena say when she got shot? 'Ay, Ay, Ay, como me duele," an admittedly clever (and cruel) allusion to "Como la Flor," one of the Tejano singer's biggest hits. The moment will forever be lodged in my brain.
I also remember the shock and disbelief my whole family felt. Selena's music was a staple in our household and at the carne asadas, quinceañeras and weddings we attended. Her music — a bicultural hybrid of Tejano, música Mexicana, pop and dance — soundtracked our moments of joy and leisure. We had seen her perform live. Her untimely death left us feeling as if we had lost a beloved cousin.
Monday, March 31, will mark 30 years since the day of Selena's murder, and in that time her legend has only grown. She has all but been canonized by millions of Latinos, many of whom weren't even born when she died, and she's become the patron saint of biculturalism.
"She's sort of like the O.G. 'no sabo' kid who learned enough Spanish to sing and gain the approval of immigrant grandparents and parents alike, which rings biographically true for a lot more people today," said Charlie Vela, a musician and filmmaker from the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas.
Vela and I are in a group chat with Jonathan Leal, an assistant professor of Englishat USC and a talented musician in his own right. I rang the two up to discuss why Selena, who died three decades ago, still has such tight hold on Latino culture.
For his part, Leal said that he always makes it a point to teach Selena's music to his undergraduate students, who mostly belong to Gen Z. To his surprise, many of them are already well-versed in her oeuvre.
"I think it says something about the endurance of her legacy for newer generations in [spite of] our amnesia culture. A lot of young people resonate with her art and performance, because like her, they also feel that they live in excess of the labels we've inherited. I think Selena still supplies models for ways of being in the world for these new generations of listeners," Leal said, adding that it isn't just his Latino students who are Selena fans.
He also notes that Selena's death coincided with the birth of "the internet as a pop culture medium," arguing that this overlap — along with the release of the 1997 Gregory Nava-directed biopic "Selena" — fueled interest in her story and body of work.
"She's as much an internet phenomenon as she is a memory for the older generations who were personally connected to her music when she was alive," Leal said. His argument rang true to me. If you've spent any time on the Latinternet, you've no doubt come across all kinds of Selena-related content. I, too, have been guilty of "When in doubt, Selena" — one of the first editions of this newsletter was all about Tejano queen.
"She's part of the Latinidad starter pack," Leal said, "and while there's certainly things to critique about that, I have compassion for young people trying to find their sense of self in a world that's continually screaming at them that they are not enough. It's nice to know that they have this repertoire that they can turn to and dig into if they want to learn more."
In having these conversations with friends, I've realized what a powerful tool the image and story of Selena has become to teach younger Latinos to take pride in who they are. For many Latino Gen Xers and millennials growing up in the United States, watching Selena was akin to gazing at a mirror, in which we saw pieces of ourselves and our experiences in her proudly brown, bilingual and working-class existence. It's no wonder, then, that some of my friends are actively introducing their kids to her story and music.
"Whenever I'm in the car with my kid, I like putting on music. I think she should know because I want her to have exposure to it. I put Selena on so she can develop a sense of self," Vela said.
This was also a sentiment shared by Roberto Jose Andrade Franco, a feature writer at ESPN and another person I frequently call up to shoot the breeze with.
"About a month ago I watched 'Selena' with my 7-year-old daughter," he told me. "She's now old enough to understand things like who we are and where we come from. So even though it's a movie, I thought it was important for her to watch Selena so she could see what's possible."
A few weeks ago, I became a dad to a beautiful baby girl — and you better believe I'm going to do the same. Living during an administration that has clamped down on diversity initiatives and fomented suppression in a number of institutions, from the Smithsonian to the Kennedy Center, teaching my kid about Selena's legacy as a symbol of Mexican American and Latina power feels increasingly critical, perhaps even subversive.
And as I said, when in doubt: Look to Selena.
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