Most Entainment Guide: Selena Quintanilla

So fifteen years ago today on March 31, 1995 I got the most tragic news ever: Selena Quintanilla, La Reyna del Tex-Mex had been murdered. I may not remember how old I was but I remember that it was parent teacher conference but did not go because I could not stop crying enough to accompany my mom and sister. It was not until three years after her death that I became a true fan of Selena. I was on my way to school and remember the radio station was playing a Selena song, which I found odd because it had been three years since I had heard a Selena song but then the radio DJ announces that in memoriam of the three years anniversary of Selena the station would be spinning her songs. I could not believe it had been three years since Selena had died, it had also been the same year my little brother was born but it was just total “Wow three years really?” Since that day on every 31st of March I would be flipping back and forth between radio stations that decided to do a special broadcast of Selena songs, flipping back and forth through TV channels trying to catch every coverage there would be of Selena. There were times I would not go to school just to be able to watch TV and listen to radio stations that would be playing her songs. Little by little this interest or obsession whatever you want to call (I’d rather call it interest because I just don’t like how obsession sounds).

A few years back I started buying original Selena CD’s, I say original because my first and only Selena CD was a bootleg and yes even though it is a bootleg I still have that CD no way would I throw it away, for the sole reason that bootleg or not it’s still Selena. I started buying magazines with Selena in it, even if it’s a small one paragraph coverage I buy the whole magazine. I have books about Selena whether the information in them is accurate or not I still read them and bought them. My IPod if you look at it has more Selena songs in it than any other artist, I don’t know why but my mom always understood why around this date or this date I have the itch to go buy a Selena CD even though she might say, (si son todas las mismas canciones que ya tienes) I buy them in hopes that I will discover a song I have never heard before. or watch every Selena special even if I have already seen them or why dislike JLO, yes I dislike her because I feel like Selena if she would have lived, would be the JLO of today only much less skankier and there would not be a JLO.

I guess I am writing this because first my sister suggested it and secondly because this year was different, I did not wake up early watch Selena coverage in the morning shows, I did not switched through radio stations to hear Selena songs (mostly because I do not have a radio). I did not miss school and revolve my day around Selena, I did not go buy the special CD box set that came out a few weeks back for this occasion, even though it was tempting to do so and I even asked my mom advice on whether or not I should buy it and of course she said: si son todas las mismas canciones que ya tienes. It would have bought it if it were not so expensive and yes I may buy later in the future because again I have an itch, that even though I know it is the same songs that I have already heard and have repeated in more than one CD, its Selena so I just have to have it I don’t need it I just want it. Though I may not have done what I regularly might do on this date (I admit though I did walk to class listening to my Selena playlist, I went online to see if radio stations were playing her songs, yes I spent an hour online watching coverage of Selena’s 15th year anniversary that apparently started Monday but I SHOCKINGLY missed, okay and yes I may have watched a Selena special on Don Francisco Presenta and yes there may be a Selena song playing in the background as I write this and I may go watch Selena after this).

What I found really cool today was that as I walked into one of my classes I heard a Selena song playing and because I was listening to Selena on my IPod thought I had not turned my IPod off, so I checked and to my surprise the music was coming from this girls computer who was watching Selena videos. I found this cool because I realized that I was not the only geek out there listening to Selena songs of all days today. I guess why I am writing this is because fifteen years ago Selena became one and only favorite female artist and still continues to be. Yeah Shakira is out there but honestly I do not like her anymore, I feel like she has become too mainstream and too American for me I liked her way back during her hippie days of Bruta Ciega Sordomuada. I guess a female artist I sort of like and have nothing against is Lady Gaga, I admit I did not like her at first but I realized that she is the only artist that keeps it real that is not out there trying to be something she’s not, she is who she is and does not care what others say or think. Which why till this day I still like Selena, she kept it real, from what I can remember she was not on magazine covers for negative things on the contrary she always tried to be a good role model and spread the message to kids to believe in their dreams and that the impossible is possible.