Críticas Magazine

Bruce Jensen

Missing Selena
April 16, 2008

It wouldn't be right to let Selena's birthday go past without a note.  The most celebrated South Texas songstress was born this day in 1971 and it wasn't but a dozen years later that she was lighting up dance halls around Corpus Christi.  The year she turned 16 Selena had a Tejano Music Award.  There was no disputing who was the queen of the genre.

She was adored by fans on both sides of the border.  Drew 60,000 people to a livestock show in Houston, and played to nearly 100,000 over in Monterrey.  (The show in Mexico was with Emilio Navaira, a Tejano icon who nearly died last month when he crashed his tour bus.  His condition was today upgraded from "critical" to "fair.")

Truly a crossover sensation, she and her band delighted listeners with songs in a bunch of different styles.  Shortly before her death at age 23 Selena recorded some terrific music in English, her mother tongue. 

Does she still matter?  The long list of birthday wishes posted today on her MySpace is one clue.

There are many books about Selena, in Spanish and in English.  A devoted fan's site has a nearly comprehensive bibliography.  The top spot on that list is occupied by Como La Flor, a highly regarded product of the diligent work of Texas writer Joe Nick Patoski (but available only in English).  His analysis of Selena's place--or places, really--in the multiethnic landscape of modern America was recently reprinted by Texas Monthly magazine.  It's well worth a read:  

Yet to "those people"—the five million Texans of Mexican descent—March 31 [1995, when Selena was shot] was a darker day than November 22, 1963. To "those people," Selena was more than a celebrity. She was an icon. Her status as an entertainer who was a millionaire at age nineteen; her positive personality; her devotion to God, family, and home; and her willingness to talk to kids about staying in school and avoiding drugs made her a hero to brown-skinned people—especially Hispanic girls—who had precious few role models.

Her music validated the cultural duality of the majority of her fans, proving you could embrace the traditions of the land you came from while still being hip and modern. Like most Mexican Americans who have assimilated into the mainstream, Selena's first language was English—and yet she opted to sing in the native language of her parents, proving that who you are and where your family came from are sources of pride, not sources of shame.

There's more about Selena in one of Gale's Hispanic Heritage biographies on the free Web.  Or there's simply this, left on her MySpace today: Feliz Cumpleaños SELENA, we all love you and miss you!

Posted by Bruce Jensen on April 16, 2008 | Comments (0)