Selena is the biographical musical drama that tells the story of a young Mexican American girl named Selena, and how beside her family struggles and being a victim of stereotype she became “La Reina del Tex- Mex.” It is directed by Gregory Nava, who is well known for his previous film Mi Familia (1995), he had created a reputation of being able to portray the life of a Mexican American in its true form.
The film opens with Selena played by then sort of unknown Jennifer Lopez performing to a sold-out crowd of 65,000 at the Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Then it flashes back to 1961 when her father was a part of a musical group “Los Dinos” and are rejected for an audition by a restaurant owner due to a whites-only policy. Then they get
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a gig playing at a night club where the great majority of the people were Mexican, as they were singing rock and roll these people began to get mad demanding songs to dance to. They discriminated against them for singing “white people’s” music, they began to get violent and everything got canceled. Both these events eventually force her father, Abraham Quintanilla, to give up his dreams in ever making it in the music industry. Fast forward 20 years you have him married with three kids and he is surprised to hear his youngest daughter, Selena, singing and the idea sparks up that he can recreate his old band with his kids with Selena being the “front girl.” The film goes on to show his various failed attempts at business and band practice. Her family goes into bankruptcy and are forced to move to Corpus Christi, Texas and live with her father’s brother and his family. Selena and The Dinos began playing at county fairs and quinceñeras and starts creating their fan base. Years go by, then you have Selena as a young woman who is slowly growing into stardom and creating her own personal style in Tejano music which is a largely male-dominated music genre and the sexy, yet wholesome, an image she created for herself on stage. On March 9, Selena, Abraham, and Suzette have a meeting with Yolanda Saldívar who was Selena’s fan-club president and who also managed her first “Selena Etc.” Boutique, they confronted about her stealing money from her fan club and a lot of business records have gone missing. Saldívar denied knowing anything about the missing records and says that if given time, she can explain everything. Then on March 31, 1995 Selena’s life was cut short when Yolanda shot her in the back at a Corpus Christi motel after a discussion over the missing financial papers. Her family and fans are shocked by her death and there were vigils in her honor around the world. As I mentioned before, this is a Gregory Nava film and he was personally selected by Selena’s father, who wanted to tell her story with the full collaboration of the Quintanilla family.
Nava’s movies usually are very different in tone and structure and according to Joseph Milicia from the Film Reference “his commitment to stories that emphasize family values and the struggle of Latino/as to find a place for themselves in American culture” is what made him the perfect fit to make the film. Here you have an American girl who comes from a Mexican American household that sings songs in Spanish despite not knowing the language, this didn’t stop her from gaining popularity “Texas Hispanics” and then eventually in Mexico. Before her death, she was finishing her crossover album, which would have eventually had launched her already successful career with the ultimate goal, the American …show more content…
audience. Aside from the emphasis on Selena’s life and career there is also an emphasis on being a Mexican American and there is a scene in specific in which Abraham Quintanilla (Edward James Olmos) is talking to Selena and A.B.
telling them what is takes to be a true Mexican American and why it is so important. “Being Mexican-American is tough. Anglos jump all over you if you don’t speak English perfectly. Mexicans jump all over you if you don’t speak Spanish perfectly. We got to be twice as perfect as anybody else.” According to him we need to know about John Wayne and Pedro Infante. We got to know about Frank Sinatra and Agustín Lara. We got to know about Oprah and Cristina. Then he goes on to saying his now famous line “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time! It's exhausting!” After saying this Selena and her brother find that
funny. I guess it does sound funny, especially now because we don’t need to prove our origin so much because that barrier has fallen a bit over the years. The film portrays Selena as the artist that was able to break those barriers and making a successful career without forgetting her roots. What I also noticed is that like any other girl who grew up in a combined household, she also had that influence of American singers like Donna Summer, Madonna, Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul. The film starts with her singing songs in English, a tribute to Donna Summer which only shows her desire to jumpstart her cross over. Yes, her career started out in the Spanish speaking audience her ultimate goal was being able to be successful in her own country with the Anglo audience, to play at Disneyland (that was what her father promises her as a child in the film, that one day they will be so famous and would play in Disneyland). When I first saw the movie I was a 7 year old fan that cried watching the movie because she was one of my favorite singers and her death still hurt even after two years. I have seen this film many times after that and every time I see it, I get a different message, because my perspective has changed over the years. I could relate to her and her dreams and I remember being 23 years old the same age she was when she was assassinated, and I remember thinking just how incredibly sad it was to have my life cut at that moment. Selena had so many moments in her life that were never going to happen, but she was able to become an inspiration to a lot of little girls at that time that are now adults working hard to become someone in this world. According to John Paul Brammer from REMEZCLA, “She reminds us to not let anything hold us back, and if we should encounter obstacles due to our culture or our “otherness,” well, there are ways to overcome them and even to use them to our advantage.” I think this is what the film really wanted to portray that no matter what comes at you, good or bad, you need to use that to fuel your strength against whatever wants to put you down. Use your imagination to combine both worlds to create a uniqueness that no one can ever destroy and create a legacy.
Afterwards, in the 1990s films portraying Latinos would take a somehow new direction, one of the most famous filmmakers would be Gregory Navas, he directed the movie My Family/Mi Familia, a film that portrays the lives of a Mexican-American family and the difficulty that the couple faced in order to establish in the U.S. “by passing as immigrants and all the struggle to integrate their family in another country” (Peña Acuña, 2010). The film let the audience see a potential reality that most immigrants went through when they first moved to the United States and how the system worked differently and the way immigrants had to adapt not only to the system, but also to the language and culture.
In 1990, Selena released a collection named Mis Primeros Exitos. This collection some of Selenas best songs in the 80’s. Selena also released another album after that one named Ven Conmigo or Come With Me in English. One of the big accomplishments in her career was her album Ven Conmigo, because it was the first Tejano album to reach the gold status. In 1991 Selena did a duet with Alvaro Torres, the song they did was the song “Buenos Amigos” which mean Good Friends in
By showing the historical struggle of Mexican immigrants to be equal members of American society, portraying the humble and unique characteristics of Fernando Valenzuela, and by emphasizing his incredible rise to fame, the film Fernando Nation introduces a new type of American dream. Fernando Valenzuela became the embodiment of the Mexican-American dream to many people. By understanding his story we can understand the hopes and dreams of many Mexican immigrants in America today.
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
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. Even today, she’s still considered “La Reina de Tejano” and her legacy still lives on.
Alvarez demonstrates generational boundary when discussing,“The quince tradition has always been important, but there’s this retroculturation going on right now” (56). Alvarez illustrates that retroculturation is a pattern within the Hispanic community where loss of culture is present for a generation. Alvarez explains how the first generation wants to assimilate in America with their culture, while the second generation has adapted to American norms so they have lost their culture and no longer speak spanish; however, the third generation is born and bred in America and now wants to learn about their hispanic culture by learning Spanish. Teens shop at popular American malls but listen to Spanish radios to embrace diversity (56). Similarly, Munoz is confronted with the issue of generational boundaries when he admits, “I was born in 1972, a generation that learned both English and Spanish” (308). The generation before Munoz grew up speaking only Spanish which causes a barrier between one families generation to the next. Munoz speaks Spanish at home and English in public along with his other cousins who serve as translators for their household. While the second generation before Munoz have no way of following Spanish because they have already adapted to American norms and in some ways lost an important cultural aspect (308). Alvarez and Savan are interconnected because each
9Belayck Benibo, “Anglo- and Mexican American Attitudes Toward Selena’s Memorialization,” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences February 1999: page 78 paragraph 5.
In Esperanza Rising, one sees accurate elements of the Mexican culture through speech, setting, and traditions. Although Esperanza and her family are Mexican, they gravitate their English side. “Cuidate los dedos”, said Papa. “Watch your fingers”. (Ryan page 4). Speaking Spanish and English isn’t just a skill, it’s a gift. The fact that her family
Many of their fans have crossed the border illegally, or have relatives that have done so. The song goes into saying, “Mis hijos son grandes y no les entiendo-- no hablan español,” translating into “My children are grown but I do not understand them-- they do not speak Spanish,” (1:14). A study done by the Pew Research Center reveals that the number of Latinos in the United States that speak Spanish is slowly decreasing (Krogstad and Lopez), which shows that this is an all too real issue facing those among the Latino community. This particular occurrence is becoming too common for many families because as they push to fit into the American way of living, their roots may sometimes get lost in translation. It is one thing to not be able to properly communicate with your children, but it is another to not be able to talk to them because of a language
Fame never comes without a price and Selena paid that price by living a short, difficult childhood. While eight year old girls were outside having fun Selena was out singing at bars, weddings, fairs, and restaurants. She lived in an unstable household that eventually relied on the family band, “Selena y Los Dinos”, to eat and have a roof over their heads.
Ragland, Cathy. Música Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation between Nations. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2009. Print.
... all as a society can benefit from today. Such as, studying his literature, reading his autobiography, and looking up to him as a role model. Rodriguez is an educated man with a very good grasp on what life and the American society expect from all of us. Speak our language if you're going to live in our country. If one chooses not to make any sacrifice needed to accomplish the basic skills needed to learn English then your chances of belonging and succeeding will not happen easy. While our heritage and culture may remain forever tied to and expressed in our native or "home" language, only through the dominant language of our country (English in most cases) can we achieve a place in society that gives us a feeling that we belong amongst everyone else. The only way we can truly become a part of our community and fit in is to dominate the current spoken language.
The “George Lopez Show” has been very successful up until now in starting to remove the typical Mexican stereotypes in America, but it still has a long way to go.
reminded that he should marry his own kind. His own kind being one of Mexican
...an-American culture has differences from American. Mexican-Americans are very family-orientated so much that they identify themselves as familial instead of individualized or spiritual as other cultures do. The culture has changed over time and is receiving less opposition from Americans as they have in the past. Immigration demographics can be used to see how America is becoming more homogenous accepting Mexican-Americans and eliminating discrimination because of ethnicity. Selena gave great insight into her culture and created some understanding on the differences between Mexican-American and my culture. Knowing these differences will create a more successful interaction any potential person from a Mexican-American culture and myself.