Selena Quintanilla

Tejano music is a music genre that mixes Mexican, European and American music together. It is popular along the border between Mexico and the US State of Texas. The genre gets its name from the Spanish word for Texan and refers to Hispanic people who live in Texas. The most famous Tejano singer was a young woman named Selena Quintanilla though she was mostly just called Selena.

From a young age, Selena's dad knew that there was a bright future for his daughter so when Selena was 9, the Quintanillas started performing at family restaurants, quiceaneras (big parties for those turning 15) and fairs. It wasn't long before she was awarded the Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year in 1986. By that point she had faced sexism for making music in a usually male dominated genre but she wasn't going to give up easily. In fact, thanks to Selena, Tejano music is known around the world. Even little girls that were born during Selena's short life were named after her like Selena Gomez.

Like John Lennon, Selena Quintanilla was also murdered by a reckless fan named Yolanda Saldivar. Yolanda murdered Selena because Selena was going to fire her from entities relating to the Selena franchise for embezzling money (Yolanda was stealing money from Selena). In a similar way to John Lennon’s death, Yolanda shot Selena in her right lower should, which damaged an artery. After losing a lot of blood at the
Days Inn Motel, Selena died at Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital at 1:05PM CST on 31° March 1995. Today, Yolanda is in prison (like Mark David Chapman) for the rest of her days.

Selena’s death devastated the Hispanic community as well as angered them as there were some white/ Caucasian people who didn’t care about Selena and even a white DJ played Selena’s music with gunshots in the background on his radio show.

Even 26* years after her death, Selena is still loved and remembered.

*Fact card was originally made in 2021.