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Selena quintanilla biography essay
Essay on the legacy of selena
Essay on the legacy of selena
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Selena is a very well known name in the Latin-American community. She started her music career while she was still a child with her dad’s group Los Dinos. Selena married her lead guitarist and ended up being killed by her “biggest fan.” After her death Selena became even more popular.
Selena Quintanilla Perez was born on April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas. Selena grew up understanding Spanish, but English was her first language. At the age of five Selena saw her brother learning to play the guitar and became jealous of the attention he was getting. She picked up a songbook and began to sing. Her family quickly turned their attention to her strong and beautiful voice. In the first grade Selena excelled at a game called Jump the Brook, in which two ropes are placed side by side and each kid takes a turn jumping across.1 In middle school Selena was in honors classes and made A’s and B’s. Selena used her allowance to put clothes on layaway. As a teenager, Selena hung all of her awards on the wall next to the staircase in her family’s house. As an adult, Selena was very involved with kids. She was a spokeswoman for the D.A.R.E. Program.
Selena began performing at an early age. Selena’s father, Abraham, became her manager and Los Dinos became her backing band. In 1983 she made her recording debut after appearing on the popular radio show of L. A. deejay Johnnie Canales. Her first records were recorded in Spanish and she sang the words phonetically.2 After her music began to catch on, she began learning Spanish formally and by the time of her death, she was fluent in the language.
Selena started her career in 1984 by recording two records for a small independent label. One of the albums was released and later re-released in 1995. The other album was sold to her father and never released. Selena was the Hot Latin Tracks artist of the year in 1995. Selena has had seven number one singles on the Billboard’s Hot Latin chart. Only three other Latin artists have had more. The “Dreaming of You” album was the second fastest selling album by a female artist in history next to Janet Jackson. Although Selena improvised and created her own dance moves on stage, she used to watch “Soul Train” to get ideas for her dance steps.3 Once a man brought his sister who was dying of cancer and ...
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...; Daughters, 1996.
Endnotes
1Maritza Romero, Selena Perez: Queen of Tejano Music (New York: Power Kids Press, 1997) page 9 paragraph 2.
2Jill C. Wheeler, Selena, The Queen of Tejano (Minneapolis, MN: Abdo & Daughters, 1996) page 9 paragraph 3.
3Wheeler page 14 paragraph.
4Clint Richmond, The Phenomenal Life and Tragic Death of the Tejano Superstar. (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1998) page 13 paragraph 2.
5Richmond page 15 paragraph 4.
6Richmond page 15 paragraph 5.
7Nancy de los Santos, “Working with the Fans Behind the Scenes,” Hispanic March 1997: page 34 paragraph 1.
8Diana A. Terry, “Tejano Music Queen,” Hispanic March 2000: page 28 paragraph 1.
9Belayck Benibo, “Anglo- and Mexican American Attitudes Toward Selena’s Memorialization,” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences February 1999: page 78 paragraph 5.
My first knowledge of her came from the movie that was produced about her life. This movie included her childhood, her rise to fame, her relationships with her family and her husband, and her untimely death. She was a stunning flower that bloomed very young and kept growing with no sight on stopping. She had a gorgeous appearance. She had big brown eyes, ever changing hair styles, and a petite figure. Her husband was just as cute. A smaller guy but not too small. Selena and Chris fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. I developed a deep admiration for these two people and the things they experienced in their youth. I was always looking to learn more about their lives and what happened in Selena's tragic end that shook the world. After finding out that her widow wrote a book about her life, I was excited to get it and begin reading. I wondered if the movie had been completely valid. What did the movie leave out? How did Chris felt about her death? How does he feel now about all that transpired after Selena's death since this was not a perspective that the audience got to clearly see the movie? So, I went immediately, to buy the
Novas, Himilce. "Dolores Huerta." The Hispanic 100: A Ranking of the Latino Men and Women
Selena Quintanilla-Perez was an artist in the Tejano music industry that contributed to revolutionizing the style of music in the United States today. The Tejano music genre is originated from Texas but it may be called Tex-Mex because of its Mexican background. Selena absolutely loved her fans so she went to great lengths in order to keep her fans happy. (Angelfire 2) Her rise to stardom was also very successful thanks to the support and persistence from her father. She won a lot of awards and achieved amazing records in her musical career. The band that her family formed not only helped her find fame but it also helped her find love in a musician named Chris Perez.(Hispanic 2) Once she rose to stardom Selena was not corrupted by money. It appeared that her fame made her cherish her family a lot more and become less selfish by supporting charities. (Biography 1) The brink of her successful career was short lived due to a traumatic murder caused by the betrayal of Yolanda Saldivar. Selena was a Tejano artist that changed the style of music by uniting a clash of several cultures and therefore leaving a mark in history even after her death. (Texas 2)
Known as the “Queen of Tejano” and the “Mexican Madonna”, Selena Quintanilla-Perez was the adored Latin singer who sadly did not get to live to see all of the success of her career. One of her most famous quotes is, “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever but to create something that will (PhilosIblog, 2014).” That is just what Selena did and she made sure that her legacy would live on for years. Selena surely left a her mark in this world with the help of her family, in her short lived 23 years. Selena was an amazing singer, she even made it very far in a genre of music that was dominated by men. Selena Quintanilla-Perez is an influential person because of her loving personality, her music career, her determination to succeed in a genre that was only men, and her success with her music that will never stop playing even if she is not here.
Esperanza, the most liberated of the sisters, devoted her life to make other people’s lives better. She became a reporter and later on died while covering the Gulf Crisis. She returned home, to her family as a spirit. At first, she spoke through La Llorona, a messenger who informed La Loca that her sister has died. All her family members saw her. She appeared to her mother as a little girl who had a nightmare and went near to her mother for comfort. Caridad had conversations with her about politics and La Loca talked to her by the river behind their home.
Figueredo, Maria L. "The Legend of La Llorona: Excavating and (Re) Interpreting the Archetype of the Creative/Fertile Feminine Force", Latin American Narratives and Cultural Identity, 2004 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York. pp232-243.
For me it all started out with Selena. I remember a boy in my middle school class dedicating me "Como La Flor" at one of our school dances in seventh grade. After that Tejano just sort of stuck in my head and all I ever thought of the song was that I had rejected that boy. Selena was quite a Tejana star at the time, and I was shocked with her murder two years later. She was a five star role model for Mexican-Americans to relate to and appreciate. Her songs live on in the Tejano world, as does her sprit and love for the music.
Print. The. Fernandez, Lilia. "Introduction to U.S. Latino/Latina History. " History - 324 pages.
Najarro.Adela. "Angles in the Kitchen:Latino Poets and the Search for Identity." Adela Najarro's Website. 24 Oct. 2002. 16. Sept. 2003
Jennifer Lopez was born in the Bronx, New York on July 24, 1970. She was born in the United States to Puerto Rican Parents, Jennifer considers herself to be a Puerto Rican and she is very proud of her Hispanic heritage and culture. Her father is David Lopez, a computer specialist, and her mother Guadalupe Lopez, a Kindergarten teacher. Her parents recognized Jennifer’s talent and enthusiasm for performing and at the age of five the enrolled her in dance classes. Her mother said “Jennifer always loved to sing, but she was also a great actress and knew that she would have a bright future ahead of her.” With the support of her parents Jennifer grew up to be a very sensible girl, who is still very close to her family. When Jennifer earned her million-dollar paycheck for playing the role in the movie Selena, she bought her mom a Cadillac. Even though they saw Jennifer’s talent at the age of five, their relationship was not always understandable. Jennifer made a major decision and that was not to go to College. That decision was very disappointing to her parents who wanted her to go to law school. Her parents supported her pursuit of a career in show business, they did not wanted to be in the expense of her education. When Jennifer told her parents that she was not going to College and law school, they thought it was really stupid to go off and try to be a movie star.
Selena’s death sent “shockwaves” across the Latin community as well as the English-language. Tens of thousands went to her funeral to pay their respect to her and her family. After her death, Selena’s first English album, “Dreaming of You”, was released and became a huge hit. They made a movie of her biography in 1997, starring Jennifer Lopez as Selena and James Edward Olmos as her father. Thousands of people visit her grave, Mirador de la Flor, in Corpus Christi, near the Selena Museum dedicated to her life, fame, and career.
Celia Cruz was born in a humble neighborhood of Santo Suarez in Havana, Cuba on October 21, 1924. She was one of 14 children. One of her chores was to sing to her youngest sibling to sleep. Her first appearance as a child earned her a pair of shoes from a tourist that was watching. As a teenager she performed in many talent shows at school and community gatherings. Also her aunt took her cousin and her to nightclubs and cabarets. Yet, while her family supported her talent, her father was insisting for Celia to continuing her school so she could become a teacher.
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 were very obvious differences in their culture and the one that I belong. Mexican-American culture identifies with their family rather than individualized or spiritual identities and the culture has gone through significant changes because of discrimination and the changing demographics of the United States.
Ragland, Cathy. Música Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation between Nations. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2009. Print.
de la Cruz, Juana Ines. "Hombres Necios." A Sor Juana Anthology. Ed.Alan S. Trueblood. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1988.