Feliz cumpleaños to la REINA of Tejano Music and fashion ICON who left this world too soon. You know who we’re talking about… SELENA, one of the most influential Latinx artists of all time. We stan Selena for her music, her entrepreneurship, and her flawless style. She has been called the Tejano Madonna for some of her outfit choices, but she is her own woman through and through.
Tejano music was largely male-dominated, and early on Selena was often refused gigs as a woman fronting her band. This did not stop her though. She blazed a trail for many female recording artists. She also didn’t back down when people criticized her fashion choices as hypersexual, breaking down the public perceptions of beauty and womanhood in the Tejano market.
Selena catapulted a music genre into the mainstream. Haven’t put on Entre a Mi Mundo in awhile? Time to bust it out and shake your hips with your lover or with yourself in the mirror in your favorite bustier. “Como La Flor” is arguably her most signature song and it moves both your body and your heart with her sweet soprano.
In 1994 Selena began designing and manufacturing her own line of clothing and opened two boutiques in Texas called Selena, Inc. She was building a fashion empire while recording and releasing music that was topping the charts and earning her Grammy nominations and breaking ground as a Mexican American artist.
It’s hard to think of Selena without thinking of her most tragic end. On March 31, 1995, sixteen days before her 24th birthday, she was shot and killed by her manager in a Days Inn in Corpus Christie, TX, after demanding the release of financial documents. This murder caused a widespread shockwave, a true testimony to her impact on her fans. Reactions were compared to those from the deaths of Elvis and John Lennon. She ran on the front page of the NY Times for two days. It hit the Latinx community particularly hard, and people traveled thousands of miles to be there for her funeral.
We wish we could have seen what this powerhouse of a woman would have done with more time, but what she did accomplish stays in our corazones forever. She would have been 50 today.
Today (and all days) is Selena Appreciation day! Nostros te amanos, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez!
