Long Live Queen Selena
In class on Tuesday we started to talk a little bit about Selena. I’ll admit that I don’t really know a lot about Selena, but I do remember that she left a big enough legacy for a movie to be made about her. This movie was the one that Jennifer Lopez was featured in that helped her rise to stardom after her performance granted her fame and success. I also remembered that Selena died tragically after the President after her fan club shot her. What I didn’t know was how much of an impact her death actually had on the Latino community.
Selena was the “Queen of Tejano” music in the latino community. Though she may have been born and raised in Corpus Christi as an American citizen, her identity was one that was not primarily American. She was known as a “Latina celebrity” (Paredez, 63). She was young, beautiful, provocative, and helped to redefine the “Texas-Mexico border culture” with her music and social image (Paradez, 63). Her death had such an impact that she was compared to Elvis Presley, the king of an entire genre of music: rock and roll.
Selena’s music and character were used as ways to help give Latinos a presence and a drive in America. Selena epitomized the American dream to her community and even in her death her memory lived on and had an effect on the public. Her impact was so big that even radio talk-show host Howard Stern had something to say about her death. His comments about her were racist and appalling, but they generated a significant response from people all over. His words relay the tension that was building as a result of the growing presence of Mexican-Americans in the U.S. and how people in America felt inferior about it.
People’s responses to her death were extremely vivid and the industry of commemoration was one that definitely capitalized on this tragedy. The difference with Selena was that ‘all young people, not just Hispanics, can identify with her. It’s the story of an American family’ (Paradez, 74). One thing that I thought was interesting was that after her death musical theatre was one venue that tried to remember her through production. Though Hispanics may not have had the money or the proper knowledge on etiquette to attend the theatre, they still made the effort to go see Selena and remember her.
Selena’s history of struggle and resistance that led her popularity and ultimate success in America and beyond helped give the Latino community a greater presence. It gave them hope, it gave them happiness, it gave them the idea that they too can have the American dream. Her legacy will continue to live on.