I just finished reading “To Selena with Love” written by her
husband Chris Perez.
Such an emotional
read. I am a Selena fan since I was about 8 years old. Eventhough she passed
away 17 years ago, every year I remember her death and every time I think about
the great artist she was becoming.
The book gave me an insight to who Selena was outside of the
stage, as a daughter and of course as a wife. Chris did a really good job
describing how their love developed in spite of her father's disapproval and their lives together once married.
It seems as if Selena suffered a lot due to her father’s
pressures of focusing solely on her music versus venturing into the fashion
world like Selena wanted. Selena was also very smart and knew how to get what
she wanted from Chris, for she managed to convince him to get anything she
pleased. For example, she was an animal lover and in total they had five dogs
and a boa.
It wasn’t until the last couple of chapters that Chris talks
about Yolanda Saldivar. He describes her as a cancer in the Quintanilla family.
From reading Chris’ side of the story and seeing all the interviews that
Yolanda has provided for the Latin America media, it’s obvious Yolanda had a
serious obsession with Selena and seeked to control her every movement. Once
the Quintanilla family perceived this and they found out that Yolanda was
stealing from Selena, Yolanda became a different person. Chris also says how investigators
found out that Yolanda had bought a revolver in the beginning of March and
taken shooting classes, which means she intended on using this arm against
Selena way before she actually killed her on March 31.
A lot has been said about how Selena had an affair with her
doctor and that she was planning on escaping with him to Mexico or Brazil. All
of these rumors of course stemmed from Yolanda’s interviews from her prison in
Texas and most recently from the doctor himself. Whatever the truth is, in my
world Selena was a great person and I will always and forever be her fan. I hate
that these people are trying to ruin the image of who Selena was to her fans.
I can’t explain what Selena represents to me, the Mexican
American dream or the successful career of a woman who rose to fame in a genre
usually controlled by men. All I can say is that no matter how old I am and how
stupid it seems I will always try to maintain Selena’s memory alive,
through her music and her message of “the impossible is always possible”.
Long Live the Queen of Tex Mex, Selena
