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 The late
Selena Quintanilla Pérez
was an unforgettable, charismatic, exemplary soul whose personal warmth,
love for and of her fans, unflinching, unbounded optimism and love of life,
and role model were, and remain, so compelling and moving as to eclipse her
very substantial art and recorded legacy, inspiring a fervent devotion that
lives and still draws hearts a decade and a half after her most untimely
passing.
Steered by her bilingual father towards indigenous Latin-American rhythms,
dances, and standards,
Selena
had to acquire Spanish as a second language to participate in the
male-dominated Tejano
(Texan-Mexican music) arena, in time becoming not only its first successful
female artist, but rising to dominate the whole field by the time she was
20, and to "put [Tejano music] on the [American popular] map", as he said.
Few outside the Latino community and the Southwest had ever heard the word
before
Selena
took over the radio in the early '90's.
Rising to fame through Tejano music, especially the cumbia, the
Colombian dance whose rhythms now recall
Selena
to so many hearts,
Selena
also flourished with mariachi,
ranchero,
and other Latino folk idioms. In spite of this concentration, she strove to
integrate pop, rock, and R&B repertoire (Donna Summer was her first idol),
and perform new "fusions" of them, forging new directions in Latino music.
The vast majority of the songs
Selena
chose to sing evoked good times, dancing,
comradeship -- a fiercely deliberate,
"don't worry, be happy" attitude, the very lyrics of "No quiero
saber de más problemas ya" (I
don't want to know about any more problems), an almost bubble-gum pop
attitude that belies her constant involvement (as an adult) in anti-AIDS,
anti-drugs, and other social campaigns and charities. Not unacquainted with
the real problems of this world, she chose through fervor and determination
to spread the effusive, pure, ubiquitous joy that perfused her soul through
her music, adorable dancing, and stagecraft. Recalling Schiller's famous
paean immortalized by Beethoven,
Selena was a living Ode to Joy.
Possessed of a haunting, classic, painterly, exotic yet girl-next-door
physical beauty that admits no equals,
Selena strove and succeeded at
reconciling and uniting ravishing sensuality with total down-home
wholesomeness and utterly childlike "cuteness". Deeply involved in her every
venture with her family and young husband Chris Pérez, her band's lead
guitarist, she at every turn showcased "family values", so as to ascend to
be the beloved role-model for Mexican-Americans male, female, young, and
old, especially girls, to this day, by the millions. Turning her time
and effort to the hopes of her fans, she established a line of boutiques
(the last of which closed in Spring 2009)
to offer those who admired the self-designed clothes she wore the chance to
obtain them.
At the time of her death,
Selena had fulfilled her wildest dreams, being a
beloved regional superstar ready to take on the world, who, repeatedly
topping charts, had won local awards left and right and a Grammy, as well as
being the successful clothing designer she had always dreamt of being.
Adored across the region, she
soared to the status of the preeminent living cultural icon of the
Mexican-American community.
Selena
maintained and cultivated a joy, an innocence, a professionalism that grew
from the time she first appeared as girl singing in her father's restaurant
to the time (1995) she filled the Houston Astrodome with 61,000 plus fans,
who were privileged to witness her perfect mastery of her own image, her
polished art, her awesome looks, her adoring fanship, and her
seemingly-stellar future. Witty, intelligent, joyful, sincere, humble,
loyal, and perfectionist as an artist
(not to mention beautiful beyond words), by the voluminous accounts of all
who knew her,
Selena
was an apparently flawless human being, a living testimony to her motto,
"nothing is impossible/you can be anything you want".
A revered icon who just happened to enjoy singing and dancing, her charisma,
charm and manner offstage were as or even more beloved than her
performances: she leapt from "performer" into the hearts of a community to
become everyone's dream daughter, granddaughter, sister, girlfriend, or for
many, dream fulfillment of self.
Selena was a person who "did everything right" in her short life -- who
studied and worked and matured and perfected her awesome natural gifts, and
paid her dues through hard work, enduring countless failing trial-runs on a
long road living in a bus. She gave and gave and gave, would not compromise
her respect and love for her family and community, and so earned the adoring
love of millions.
Millions more, like myself, were made aware of
Selena's
story
through the heart-rending movie by Gregory Nava that her father had urged be
produced (in 1997), which was the vehicle by which Jennifer Lopez achieved
her first fame.
Selena had no enemies, no controversy surrounding her or
her work, no dark side, no detractors: untarnished good does not come in
purer vessels.
A deranged person seemingly threatened by such panoramic excellence ended
the cornucopia of joy, creativity, and love which was
Selena
Quintanilla Pérez.
As much as anything I have ever seen, heard, or read about (wars not
excepted) this senseless nightmare testifies against the presence of a benevolent
guiding hand in this universe. The tragedy of her violent death seems to
me a festering boil on the history of humankind, whose diagnosis, I fear, is
that we as a planet were not (yet) worthy of such an angel: her tragedy is
thus all our tragedy, not just a personal and family tragedy, but an inexpungeable existential fable of celestial good destroyed by infernal
evil, a passing which should trouble us all forever.
With the premature loss of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin --- each
of whom I admire deeply --- the loss to the world of great music, poetry,
and creation is inestimable. But the innovations of these artists persist
and flower today as their records fly off the shelves and countless
musicians and would-be musicians study, copy, and learn from their legacy
and those who have taken up their directions. On the other hand, no one
then or now particularly wanted their children to grow up to be like them,
and no one (then) cared how they got to be how they are or who their family
was; few, if any, admired the way they lived their lives and cherished (or
squandered) their superlative gifts.
Selena, however, was not at all like this.
Although her wonderful music was leading-edge in its arena in its day, and
was appropriately recognized and celebrated, it was
Selena,
the woman and the girl who became that woman, not her life-affirming,
wonderful music nor hopelessly adorable dancing, who captured the hearts and
earned the undying love of millions. She was and remains an
inspiration and icon of human greatness, warmth, and accomplishment, and an
object of every kind of familial love.
Selena is irreplaceable, a mahatma (great soul), as the
great Indian writer
Tagore dubbed Gandhi; her loss at the hands of a petty criminal unable to deal
with such angelic human greatness in someone else is not just a tragedy for
music, her family, her friends, colleagues, and fans, but a tragedy for the
ages.
- May 2009
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