To Discover the Language of My Soul.....: Selena Quintanilla-Perez

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Selena Quintanilla-Perez

Selena Quintanilla-Perez

Latin-American Singer

April 16, 1971- March 31, 1995

One of the most influental women of the 1980s and early 1990s, was a Mexican-American singer known to the world as Selena. Critics hailed her as the next Gwen Stefani, The Queen of Tejano and the Mexican Madonna.

Selena was the youngest child of Abraham Quintanilla and Marcella Samora. She began singing at age six, when her father overheard her singing along with her brother during his guitar lessons. Not long after, he created Selena y Los Dinos- Selena, her brother and sister; the children began singing at their father's restaurant, Papa Gayos.

The Music Video to Dreaming of You by Selena

The family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, not long after Papa Gayos went bankrupt. After recording a couple albums that didn't sell well, Selena was finally discovered by Rick Trevi and Johnny Canales- one the founder of the Tejano Music Awards, the other the host of a Spanish television show.

Selena released three more albums between '87 and '88, and from '86 to '96, she would win the award for Best Female Vocalist at the Tejano Music Awards. In '89, she was signed onto EMI Latin records, released her first album that only listed Selena, dropping the 'y Los Dinos,' though they would still perform as her band. She also starred in a Coca-Cola commercial that same year- she was eighteen.

Selena's Coca Cola Commercial, 1988

In 1990, she released an album of '80s remakes, and her second album released in '90 was the first to actually go gold. Despite several songs reaching number one, and two more albums going gold, she wanted a life outside her career. And on April 2, 1992, she married the lead guitarist of the band, Chris Perez.

She won a Grammy for Best Mexican-American artist in 1993, and then not long after, opened two boutiques, the start of her Selena Etc. clothing line- in Corpus Christi and San Antonio. She was nominated once again for a Grammy in 1994, and not long after, she was approached by Yolanda Saldivar, a fan who wanted to start a fan club. Selena- who was far too trusting of people- agreed, making Saldivar the president. Her last concert was on February 26, 1995 at the Houston Astrodome.

The ending scene of Selena

On March 31, 1995, Selena met Salvidar at the Corpus Christi Days Inn to discuss why she was embezzling money from the fan club and the boutiques. They had fired her days earlier. Selena hoped to get back papers that could be used for taxes, but when Salvidar told her she was raped, they went to the hospital; no evidence of rape was found. The two returned to the Inn, and an arguement began.

Salvidar drew a gun and shot Selena in the back at 11:48 a.m. The singer fled to the office, and collapsed; she identified Salvidar as her shooter. Not long after being rushed to the hospital, Salvidar locked herself in her truck and threatened suicide, even as police talked her down. Selena was pronounced dead at 1:05 p.m.- two days shy of her third wedding anniversary, and seventeen days shy of her twenty-fourth birthday. Salvidar was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in October of '95. She would not be eligible for parole for thirty years.

The trailer for the Selena film

The Latin community was devestated by Selena's death, and the world shocked. Over sixty-thousand people attended her funeral; in the summer of '95, her alubm Dreaming of You was released posthumously, and was the first album to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard 200- by a Latin artist. A movie was released on March 27, 1997, titled Selena, starring Jennifer Lopez in the title role. It's still popular today, and has created a whole new fanbase made up of the younger generations. She continues to be a role model for kids, even sixteen years after her tragic death.

The Poster for the film

She, like Audrey Hepburn, Eva Peron, and Isadora Duncan, has become a legend unlike any ever seen. Selena has passed into the myth and mystery of one taken from the world too soon- and one who's star shines brighter because of what she accomplished in her time on Earth.

"I belong to the people and I don't want to build a fence between myself and my fans." - Selena Quintanilla-Perez

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_famous_quotes_from_Selena_Quintanilla#ixzz1Zt49VrMq

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The Photograph in the Music Box

April 15, 1912

“They recovered two children that had been in first class. One was identified as Loraine Allison. The other was never identified.”

The RMS Titanic sinks after striking an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic on April 15, 1912, taking thousands with her. Though the majority of the survivors are first and second class, and the majority of the victims third and crew, there were a few casualties among the upper classes that have long since been forgotten with the passage of time.

Among the casualties is a young girl; never claimed, she is later referred to as Victim 281 and buried in Halifax. All that is left of this innocent girl is a fading photograph in a music box buried in the wall of an apartment building in Manhattan- discovered nearly a century later by Shaynee Wilcox, the daughter of the new tenants. Armed with only the faded photograph of the young girl, Shaynee’s determined to discover
her true identity, and finally lay to rest the spirit of one of the Titanic’s youngest victims. As she uncovers clue after clue, Shaynee soon discovers that, not only does the girl have a link to the Titanic sinking, but she also has a link to Shaynee herself.

The Romantic Egotists

“I grew up among the great artists of Paris- Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Hadley; Ezra Pound and William Faulkner, Picasso, Gertrude Stein and her lover, Alice Toklas, and
of course my parents Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.”

It is with these very words, that Frances “Scottie” Fitzgerald takes us back to those long ago nights in Paris; when the
world was still recovering from the destruction of the Great War, when Russia was trying to reassemble the shattered pieces of itself after the bloody fall of the Romanov dynasty and Germany was allowing a man called Hitler to start taking control.

In Paris, the wave of painters, writers, dancers and playwrights’ crashes upon its shores like the Allies upon the European coast. Sex, drugs and alcohol run the streets of grand ol’ Paris, corrupting the mind and setting in motion the wheels of rebellion. It is here, in Paris, at 27 Rue de Fleurus, that a group of expatriate Americans meet and begin turning out some of the greatest literature, art and dance of the twentieth century. The child of the couple forever known as the “Romantic Egotists”- the real beautiful and damned- Scottie tries
hard to come into her own during those muggy Paris nights, despite the constant push and pull of her mother’s erratic behavior and her father’s egotistic criticisms. Here, among the sting of smoke and smell of alcohol, surrounded by lust, love and sex, young Scottie sips her first taste of jealousy, and
discovers the cost of being famous. Into this world, Frances Fitzgerald is thrust, a silent witness to the trials, tribulations, darkness and light of a generation defined as forever “Lost.”

The Sound of Sickness

"Sickness has returned.
Cover your ears and hold your breath.
Breathing in could result in death."

Alexi Michaels has been surrounded by Tuberculosis his entire life. With his mother, he places docent at the Waverly Hills Sanitarium to tourists in Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops, telling them the history of this sad and disturbing chapter in Kentucky's history.

That same evening, while taking a private night tour of the decaying building, Alexi meets Marit, a fourteen-year-old girl who resides at the Sanitarium while she slowly dies from TB. She's watched and waited for Alexi to arrive, spending decades within Waverly's rotting walls, a spiritual shell of the girl she once was.

Over time, Alexi begins to win Marit's trust, and using a series of family photographs, Marit tells him of her unfortunate story. She knows all the secrets and stories of the hospital, including those of her unlucky family members- both hospital resident and worker.

But Marit has a secret. A secret that sent her to an early grave. A secret she's willing to share with Alexi if he gives her something in return.

Something that, to Marit- like every other patient at Waverly Hills- is worth more than its weight in gold.