An Essay About Selena Quintanilla

On April 16, 1971 the famous singer Selena Quintanilla was born and her music became popular and is to this day. When she was growing up she had a talent of singing and dancing and by the age of around 10 she became the lead singer in her family’s band called the Selena Y Los Dinos. From there on out she became a popular singer in the Tejano music. She was known as the “Queen of Tejano”. This affected many people, her music was so great that people liked to dance along with her music. There was people who grew up listening to Selena, an example is me, I grew up listening to her music and loved it. I would listen to her music when I got the chance and just close my eyes and be mesmerized by her music. There are people out there today that when they listen to her music they are affected by her singing and just let go and dance to the rhythm.

Selena Quintanilla was born on April 16, 1971, the youngest sibling of 3, the others being Suzette and AB Quintanilla. Her parents are Abraham Quintanilla and Marcella Samora. Her father used to be a singer for a trio named the “Dinos”, but they faced discrimination and racism because they were mexican. Selena first started singing at 6 years old, when her father discovered that she had perfect pitch and was very talented. Abraham then started teaching his children to become a band, with Suzette playing the drums, AB playing the guitar, and Selena singing.

successful at this kind of music. She also fell in love with Chris Pérez, a member

Selena Quintanilla-Perez was an artist in the Tejano music industry that contributed to revolutionizing the style of music in the United States today. The Tejano music genre is originated from Texas but it may be called Tex-Mex because of its Mexican background. Throughout her career, Selena was not only inspired by Tejano music but created a fusion of musical genres that incorporated other Latin sounds and inevitably won over Latinos across the country. Selena brought the Latino community together with her music. Despite that Selena was an American born Mexicana, she began her career in the Spanish-speaking music industry in a specific genre, Tex-Mex.

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

pop music because other artists had already broken the barrier of this new trend of genre combinations. Selena was making a crossover to dance music similar to Paula Abdul or Madonna.

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

Unfortunatly after the Texas Oil Bust of 1981, the restaurant went bankrupt and had to be shut down. So Abraham bought a bus and “Selena Y Los Dinos” began to tour the Texas countryside. At age 13 Selena had to leave 8th grade and start taking high school correspondence courses by mail. Selena sang almost exclusively Spanish. She sang a Tex-Mex pop called Tejano. They made there first recording in 1984, slowly people started to notice and love Selena, but by her being a female Tejano performer, no one thought she would actually last, because the Tejano industry of music was ruled over by men, and although many women had tried, they rarely made it to stardom. Little did they know that “Selena Y Los Dinos” would climb the charts and end up being the top Tejano band in the country. It was in 1987, that they really started to make it to the top. All the recording and touring throughout the 80’s finally paid off, because in 1987 “Selena y Los Dinos” came to national attention, when Selena won a Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist and Performer of the Year. It was a great accomplishment for a 15 year old girl. Until then the two categories didn’t even exist. Her fame was definitely being brought to the Latino communities, but Selena wanted more. In 1989, Selena and her band were signed to EMI, also known as Capitol Records, releasing there album a year later. Over the next few years

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

The Lady of Guadalupe is a huge part of the Mexican tradition, and how many people look up to her in a very godly way. She is important, because she reminds people of their appreciation for their own cultures, along with the other cultures that are all over the world. The Lady of Guadalupe is someone that is the exact replica of the Virgin Mary. But, the only difference is, is that the Virgin Mary is a saint that is represented in the European culture, and the Lady of Guadalupe in the Aztec and Native culture of Mexico. The lady of Guadalupe is a positive influence on different religions, especially Christianity.

Growing up to a low income family trying to help support your family only at the age of six years old. Growing up seeing my youngest brother working at a young age , to help my parents that worked day and night to have food on are table was hard. We were living in Tucson AZ at the time with my mother , father , sister , luis , and myself. Luis was always has always been responsible and caring to all of us . Hes gotten my family up throw a very hard time after my father's death, he took it really bad but he always found a way to try to being all of us back on are feet . Luis started singing at a church at a very young age only at six years old. He would enjoy it because many people would tell him that he had an amazing voice. Luis’s career started when he got signed by Del Record and also when he was found on 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”).

The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez by John Rechy delves into the life of Amalia Gomez; a Mexican-American woman living in a poor rural area of Hollywood. The structure of her family is falling apart due to conflict between the characters and Amalia’s lack of involvement in their lives. Her youngest son Juan is a male prostitute known as a “maricÓn”, her daughter Gloria is falling dangerously close to following in Amalia’s footsteps, and her oldest son Manny although well intentioned starts to clone his father’s criminal tendencies even though he has no recollections of his father. Amalia’s selective perspective also leads to conflict within herself since she is content not knowing the truth as long as the false reality fits her ideal

Selena Quintanilla was such an amazing person inside and out more known as the queen of tejano music. She won the hearts of many people young and old in the little time she was here on earth. Blessing many people with her contagious smile, and positive upbeat attitude. Selena has always had where to pull from when it came to being musically talented. Her father Abraham Quintanilla played in a band called Los Dinos which means the boys in Spanish. He had to give his life up as an artist because he got married and had his first kid. Therefore he had to find a better support system for his family. So when he saw that Selena had talent he focused all his goals and dreams on her. Therefore selena had to make a lot of sacrifices and not live a normal childhood.