Selena Quintanilla Character Traits

The talented singer was born on October 21, 1925, in the Santo Suarez neighborhood of Havana. Her singing talent was obvious even when she was young, but instead of pursuing

Selena practiced sing in Spanish and when she perfected it, she performed it. Selena started to become big, performing with her family all over. Her father Abraham being the manager they ended up meeting Chris Pérez, who was a very good guitarist. They considered Chris Pérez joining the

The main character in the film “Selena” is a woman named Selena. Everyone else in the movie is a sub character that plays off of the role of Selena. The movie is about Selena’s life and the movie begins with her as a little girl and ends with her as a Mexican-American pop star loved by both the Mexican and American communities. Selena goes from being a young girl who’s band is compromised of her brothers and sisters to a mega star known by fans all over the world. As Selena became more successful she faced many obstacles in her career. First, Selena had to learn Spanish in order to sing in Spanish to connect with the Mexican community as her father felt she had the best chance to make it big if she tried to appeal to the Mexican community. Once she became a huge star with her Spanish singing music, she then did a crossover album in English, which helped to make her a pop star worldwide. Since Selena was Mexican-American, not Mexican, it was an obstacle for her to be seen as authentic by the Mexican community. Selena’s second big obstacle was that she was a woman. Mexico is traditionally a male dominant society and before Selena there had never been a Spanish singing female to evolve into a superstar. In the movie, Selena overcomes both of these obstacles and she does become one of the greatest

To help me understand and analyze a different culture, I watched the film Selena. The film tells the life story of the famous singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. Not only does it just tell personal stories from her life, it also gives insight to the Mexican-American culture. Her whole life she lived in the United States, specifically in Texas, but was Hispanic and because of that both her and her family faced more struggles than white singers on the climb to her success. Even though the film is a story about a specific person, it brought understanding into the culture in which she lived. Keeping in mind that these ideas that I drew about the Mexican-American culture is very broad and do not apply to every single person in the culture, there

could you Imagine what it would be like to grow up as a performer in a world that didn’t even except female Tejano singers? Can you imagine how much courage and work it would take to make it to the top? That’s was Selena Quintanilla Perez had to go through. Selena was born in Lake Jackson, Texas on April 6th, 1971 to Abraham and Marcella Quintanilla. Abraham was a shipping clerk for a chemical company and Marcella was a housewife. Abraham being a well respected Mexican musician, who only sang English songs, and had his career ruined because of that. American people didn’t respect him because he was Mexican, and the Mexican people did not respect them because they sang English songs. By the time Selena reached age 10, it became very

Selena Quintanilla Pérez was a tejano music singer. Selena had the voice of an angel. Her life was filled with singing, bus trips, and gas station food. Unfortunately, Selena tragically got shot dead by her fan club president, Yolanda. Her short lifetime from beginning to end is filled with up’s and downs.

First, I will talk about her childhood and how she became famous. Selena Quintanilla was a Mexican singer. According to biography.com she was born on “April 16,1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas.” She was known as the “Queen of Tejano” which is a style of Mexican music such as country. Selena’s first language was English, but her father taught her to sing in Spanish, so she picked up on the language, and became a fluent Spanish speaker. At the age of 10 Selena was the lead singer in her family’s band known as “Selena Y Los Dinos.” They played in weddings and clubs in Texas but it was hard for them because a lot of people think that women can’t get the attention of men singing Tejano music, but she proved them wrong.

On April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas, a little girl named Selena Quintanilla – Perez was born. She was born to Abraham Quintanilla Jr. and Marcella Quintanilla. Selena Quintanilla- Perez has 2 siblings named Abraham Quintanilla 3rd and Suzette Quintanilla. Mrs. Quintanilla- Perez was an American singer, songwriter, spokesperson, actress, and a fashion designer. She was also known as the Queen of Tejano music and to the media outlets they called her “Tejano Madonna” for her clothing choices. Selena Quintanilla- Perez was raised as a Jehovah’s witness. When Selena Quintanilla was 6 years old her father discovered her talent at sing. Her father told the People Magazine that her timing, her pitch was perfect, I could see it from day one. Mr. Quintanilla Jr. opened up a restaurant where the kids performed a lot. Her family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas and that’s when Quintanilla Jr. became the manager to Selena y Los Dinos and began to

Selena Quintanilla was surrounded by loving people who helped jumpstart her career until the day she died. On April 16th, 1971 Selena Quintanilla was born to Abraham Quintanilla and Marcella Quintanilla in her hometown of Lake Jackson, Texas. Selena

Selena Quintanilla was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson and then moved to Corpus Christi, Texas. Selena was also considered as the "Queen of Tejano," a type of Hispanic culture; she was also fashion designer and actress. Selena was also sometimes referred as the Mexican Madonna for her sexy outfits (like bustier) and dance moves. Selena began performing as a child at her parent’s family restaurant. Around the age of 10, Selena became the lead singer in her family's band, Selena Y Los Dinos. The musical group started out playing weddings and clubs in their hometown. The band featured her brother Abraham playing bass guitar and her Sister Suzette playing on the drums. Her father, Abraham, a former musician, managed and produced the group.

Chris Perez wanted to be a rock-star in a Rock n Roll band not a guitar player for a Tejano band. He lived in San Antonio, Texas and was in a band with Shelly Laras, a singer, and she introduced him to Selena y los Dinos. In Huston, Texas Shelly's band was playing at a festival and A.B. Quintanilla, Selena's brother saw Chris playing guitar and liked Chris's guitar skills. During that time Selena y los Dinos was looking for a new guitarist and A.B. gave Chris his number just so Chris can call him if he was interested. Chris called A.B and set up a date to play together in the studio, since that day happened Chris joined los Dinos.

Selena was born and raised in Texas. She grew up speaking English. Her father taught her to sing in Spanish which she learns to speak fluently in. Selena started singing Tejano music being a Mexican descendant you think she would have the support of México. WRONG! Tejano musicians were not welcome in Mexico because it was different from regular Mexican music. Not caring about the risk, it would have on her career Selena did publicly in Mexico, and she won fans over in interviews and performances. Selena connected more with Latino community by donating to charities, performing benefits concerts, hosting fundraisers and donating as much time she could to efforts. Even with her giving back to Latino community her success inspired many Latinos. Many bicultural Latino women and men felt a connection to her cause she manages to do what many Latinos try to do in the US. And, that navigate through two cultures which she successfully did. As you know Selena was Murder by her fan club president Yolanda Saldivar. This shock the whole world and of course the Latino community. Her fans around the mourned her death. “Gone way too soon” is what her younger fans are saying (Rodriguez). She continues to live in the hearts of Latino young or old everywhere. “There haven’t been enough people like in the Latino community, so people continue to turn to her and commemorate her” (Paredez). Even in death, she continues to inspire many Latino musicians and actresses today. For example, Jennifer Lopez who started as Selena herself in the biographical film “Selena” base on Selena life till death. Gave Jennifer a break out acting role and Jennifer even said, "This amazing, beautiful spirit, full of joy and music and so much feeling, just was cut off in the middle of being,” (Lopez). Even though she was taken away from this earth Selena continues to live on and be an inspiration to the

Selena’s talent was distributed to a larger audience and was no longer confined to the walls of the family business when Primo Ledesma, a disc jockey, who hosted a weekly Spanish-language radio show, drifted into Papa Gayo’s for a listen. Lesdema recorded Selena singing, telling her father, Abraham, that “she was going places” (Patoski 42). There were numerous responses and intrigues about the new voice that was played when Ledesma broadcasted the tape on his show the following day. The incident with Ledesma was the beginning of the fame Selena would come to know. After Papa Gayo’s was shut down due to foreclosure, the Quintanilla family went bankrupt as well. This hapless circumstance came to be the initiation of Selena’s musical career: Selena recounts, “Basically, my musical career started when my family went bankrupt, and had to resort to music for money” (Patoski 43-45). The Quintanilla children hit the road, performing throughout southern Texas as Selena y Los Dinos with their father Abraham as their manager. Their venues consisted of weddings, cantinas and honky-tonks, and even when the audience was less than ten people, the group never passed up an opportunity to perform; the family’s means of survival lied in those performances (“Selena”).

It is clear that her fan base is loyal Fans of Selena Quintanilla even after 20 years of her death, still listen to her music, watch her movie and keep her memory alive. It would seem that the majority of her fan base would be Latin women ranging from ages of the early twenties and older but by reading comments on YouTube of various popular songs, it is clear that she had a wide range of fans. Hundreds of comments expressing their love for Selena and her music. Most comments are of people wishing she was still alive and creating music that would hit the top of the charts. Since she had her English album out shortly after her death, it expanded her fan base to an even larger audience. Even her music in Spanish created a large commotion. People on one of her numerous fan pages on Facebook talk about her music being an outlet, an escape from the bad and an extra push to overcome any challenge either with a relationship or simply just with the struggles of life. One fan expressed her mother’s heartbreak on the YouTube video of Dreaming of You, saying that she remembers the day of Selena’s passing and seeing her mother crying in the living room. A fan even going to the extent of saying that her death impacted more people than the death of John F. Kennedy. There are also hundreds of comments of fans wishing she was still alive to make new music and that it would be clear that Selena would be a

Lake Jackson, Texas was blessed to see the birth of what would be the Queen of Tejano Music on April 16, 1971. Born to Abraham Quintanilla and Marcella Samora and having two siblings by the names of Suzette Quintanilla, and Abraham Quintanilla III also known as A.B Quintanilla. When selena was the age of eight