The Life Of Selena Y Los Dinos

Still a major star in her own right, Celia became an inspiration for numerous younger performers (such as Gloria Estefan) in the 1990s; her audience hardly aged along with her. "We've never had to attract these kids," she told Time. "They come by themselves. Rock is a strong influence on them, but they still want to know about their roots." For most Latin Americans, indeed, Celia Cruz has been and remains a much-loved figure, an icon of Latin culture.

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

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

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

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

In a scene from the film, Selena, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, a Mexican-American singer, is ignored by a white sales woman. The sales woman judges Selena on the color of her skin, determining her social status as one unimportant to her business, not realizing that Selena was actually a celebrity. Just as the sales woman predetermined a role for Selena rooted by race and ethnicity, Waretown High maintained class, gender, and race stereotypes in determining girl’s futures and outcomes. Julie Bettie’s Women Without Class discusses these stereotypes through expectations set for las chicas and the preps by the school, families, and themselves, the exclusion of hard-living students, those whose families were low income, and the ability for some girls to become upwardly mobile as an exception to the rules.

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

Hispanic-American population in the United states is dramatically increasing as a result of immigration patterns and increase birthrate of the ones already residing in the the United States. The movie Selena is an example of Latino family residing in the country who wants to fulfill the “American Dream”. Isolation and discrimination of Hispanic-Americans particularly Mexican family has also been illustrated in the movie. Despite social class stratification, Selena’s family try to breakthrough to the English-speaking audience mainstream to be accepted. In this film, the father is characterized as the head of the family - dominant, strong, aggressive, invulnerable, and superior. Portrayal of tight-knit family values and interdependence is seen in this movie, as well.

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”).

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.