Selena Essays

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

In conclusion, I told you a little bit about Selena. Maybe you knew some of it,

When Selena’s career started it was a life commitment. Selena recorded her first LP record in 1984. The record was Tejano

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

As well as being a singer, Selena Quintanilla also made her own fashion line and became a designer in 1993. Coca-Cola saw something in her and reached out asking for her to become a spokesperson for them in 1994. She even managed to snag a role in the movie Don Juan Demarco in 1995. Since Selena Quintanilla had to drop-out of school, she found it extremely important to stay in school. She went to tons of schools to inform them how important it is to stay in school. So to influence kids in a positive way she made educational videos titled My Music, and Selena Agrees. Selena Quintanilla also showed her support for CHC, homeless people, people in abusive relationships, and victims of Hurricane Andrew. She even helped raise funds for D.A.R.E, DEP corporation, and Teach the Children, by performing fund raising concerts. Overall, she was known as an amazing singer and an even better person.

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’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”).

There are fans that comment on her YouTube videos, expressing their love for her and her music. Some of her fans had the opportunity to actually meet her and describe her as being close to her roots who worked hard and achieved her goals. She was nice to everyone she met regardless of their station in life. And, of course, she also made great music. For these reasons, she has become a role model to millions of people around the world. She was viewed as a positive, humble person and it was clear that it was not just the music but the person who made an impact. EMI President Jose Behar reflected on Selena shortly after her passing “When I think of Selena nowadays, what comes to mind is not her musical career, even though it was enormously successful and remains so more than two months after her death. Rather, I think about how much I miss this special person, who was so caring, so warm. I am convinced if she had lived Selena would have been a major, major star in the Anglo record world”. Selena was always passionate about her community and making the world better so before her death, she helped numerous organizations. After her death, her family created The Selena Foundation and it was established in May 1995 to receive the donations that people were sending out to her family after her death. Her family decided to use the generous amount of money being sent to them to help students receive a better education because it was something that 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.