Selena Quintanilla Perez

Selena Preforming (www.nndb.com)

A hero is a person that you idolize, look up to, and want to be like. My hero who I look up to is Selena Quintanilla Perez. She was a gorgeous singer, performer and fashion designer. She was courageous and brave to able to sing in front of millions of people. She was always positive and was always ecstatic. She is my hero because she lived my dream of being a famous singer and fashion designer.

It all started on Easter Sunday, April 16th 1971 at Freeport Community Hospital. Selena was born. Selena was quite the young tomboy at her age. She liked football, riding bikes, and playing hide and go seek with the children in her neighborhood. Selena had one sister Suzette and one brother Abraham the third, which they called A.B. Selena’s father, Abraham Jr. one day came home with used instruments and started giving A.B bass guitar lessons and Suzette drum lessons. Suzette always complained how drums are for boys, but she became great at it. Selena was a little jealous and wanted to be in the action. She started singing near her father seeing if he would notice her amazing voice. He noticed her and he started giving Selena singing lessons.

Selena is an inspiration. (www.myhero.com)

Abraham Jr. was in “The Dino’s” at a young point in his life. He and two other Mexican-Americans were “The Dino’s”. They sang nice calm music. But Mexicans liked music that had a beat. Nobody grew to like their music so they eventually split up the group. Selena began to sing “The Dino’s” music such as songs like “Blue Moon” and “Feelings”. When Selena was young, she only spoke English. At about nine years old, Selena started learning how to sing in Spanish. Her father taught her. After a long time of singing Spanish she began to speak Spanish. Selena did not want to sing “The Dino’s” songs, she wanted to sing songs like Donna Summer’s music, but her father discouraged her to have interest in that sort of music.

people love Selena (holamun2.com)

As a toddler, Selena and her family moved around, renting homes South and North of Lake Jackson. “When Selena was three years old, Abraham and Marcella, Selena’s mother, bought a house at 146 Trumpet Vine in Lake Jackson. “Selena was a very happy child, says her father”. All the practicing of Selena, Suzette, and A.B’s hard work finally paid off. Abraham bought his own Mexican restaurant named, “Papa Gyro’s”. Selena and her siblings played there as entertainment. People complimented Selena on her beautiful singing. Abraham began booking the group, now called The Southern Pearl at wedding receptions and parties. The band won two hundred dollars in a talent contest at the Wharton County Fair. In 1978, they cut a demo record. Selena brought home great grades. She was the only Latina in her third grade class. “Selena moved to El Campo but that didn’t make her grades suffer”, says Veda Boyd Jones in his book, “Selena”. She made friends and placed second in her fifth grade spelling bee. She entered Star Mania, a local talent search and won seven weeks in a row.

Selena should be everyone's hero. (www.nndb.com, blogs.mysanantonio.com, www.waymarking.com, www.selena.friko.pl, www.umich.edu, )

Selena and her family moved again to Corpus Christi, Texas. Selena saw it as a new start. Abraham thought teaching more Spanish songs to Selena would be more successful since half of Texas was Latino. Abraham thought that if the band which is now called Los Dino’s, played Tejano music they would be more successful. The band was later changed to Selena y las Dinos. When the groups single “Oh Mama” received more radio air time, its popularity earned the band a slot on the television variety program the “Johnny Canales Show” Johnny Canales teased Selena about her poor Spanish. She laughed and took it in stride. Selena’s seventh grade teacher said, “This child could have got a four year scholarship with any major university in the county”. Abraham believed Selena’s future was in music. At age thirteen, Selena was preparing herself for a lifetime in music.

Much of the band’s money went to equipment, costumes, travel expenses, and paying non-family members. Selena’s mother, Marcella was the family’s emotional support. She traveled with the band and was always there to give love, advice and support. Selena wanted to be like her mother because “she is everything good” she once said. A.B started writing the band's songs and eventually had his own studio. Suzette played the drums and was responsible for marketing merchandise related to the band. Selena sang and worked on fashion designs for the band. Selena’s favorite food was pizza and her favorite television show was, “Moon Lighting” starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd and her favorite song was “Curiosity”. Selena was always positive about life, and had a down to earth attitude. In 1988 Selena won the Female Vocalist of the Year Award of the Tejano Music Awards. Abraham raised the band's fee between three hundred and six hundred for each performance.

Selena and her band were always working their way up to success. They got a band bus and nicknamed it, “Big Bertha”. They lived and toured on the bus. Selena became more and more famous and won more and more awards. Selena had her ups and downs in her singing career but overall she was a fantastic singer and had a very successful career. The band needed a new guitarist since A.B was going to write all the songs. Abraham hired a rock and roll guitarist to the band named Chris from San Antonio. He added a little rock and roll to the band. Selena and Chris grew a relationship and Abraham did not like it at all. He did not let them see each other but after a long time and Abraham seeing that they really love each other he caved in and let them get married. Yolanda Saldivar entered Selena’s life as an enthusiastic fan who gained the singer's confidence. Saldivar organized Selena’s fan clubs and soon became Selena’s personal manager. On March 30th 1995, Chris and Selena drove to meet Saldivar at the Days Inn in Corpus Christi, where Selena intended to retrieve the financial records. Saldivar said to come to the hotel and get the papers Selena was missing. Saldivar said she had been attacked. They went to the hospital and there was no evidence she had been attacked. They went back to the hotel and Selena demanded the papers. Saldivar pulled a gun out of her purse and pointed at herself then Selena. Selena ran to the front door and Yolanda managed to shoot Selena in the back hitting a main artery in her shoulder and she lost too much blood. The gorgeous amazing life changing Mexican-American singer was reported dead at 1:05 P.M. Saldivar locked herself in her pick-up truck and put the gun to her head. She later caved in and said she killed Selena and said it was an “accident”.

On Sunday April 2nd nearly 60,000 people filled past Selena’s coffin at the Bay front Convection center to pay their final respects Selena was gone, but her music will live on. Fans were very upset about the loss of Selena. They had a memorial for Selena, Selena was a perfect example for a perfect hero.

Selena is my hero for many reasons. She is an amazing singer which I hope to be in my future and she was an all happy and always positive women. I love all her music and she never gave up on her dream. I think that she can be anyone’s hero because she was a natural born singer who affected everyone’s life in a positive way, Selena is my hero.