Selena: A Tejano’s World

Joseph, how are you feeling about today's subject? MESSI MOI excited the same girl, because today we are talking all about.

The Queen of the Hannah Sili.

Selena quintaniap it is, despite being taken from us long before her time, Selena the icon has lived on for generation after generation.

First there's the people who got to witness her first hand.

Then there's those of us who were born a few years too late but grew up surrounded by her music and learned her story through the magic of film.

And lastly, the youngins of today who have gloonbed onto her fashion, her makeup.

And hopefully her music as well.

Totally, they should make you name your favorite Selena song before letting you buy a Selena lipstick.

Wait.

That is genius.

Like when that Matt collaboration came out and it's sold in seconds, and I saw the line wrapped around the mall in Corpus, I was like, these people are not old enough to know her music. But that's the magic of Selena is that you've gotten to know her through so many different things.

One and I fell in love with her. I refell in love with her again when mac relaunched that Wait.

By the way, okay, let's do that now, all right, If you had to name your favorite Selena song to pick up your como La flord.

Lipstick, what would it be?

Three?

Two, one, go see yous.

I love that one.

It's angry, it's angsty.

It's so good, and it is such a deviation from your more traditional like up tempo, upbeat ones.

It's just it's so good. She's such a bad bitch in it.

So you're in your tehano Elani's Moore set face erro right now.

You read me so clearly. I love you for that.

Now we should mention that as a couple of Texan Latinos now our ties to the cult of Selena run very very deep.

Okay, wait, so, since you are such a huge Selena fan, what was your first like formative memory of her?

Oh?

Wow, honestly, it's probably a Nochebuena night in my house or my Thea's house with all my crazy Theias and primos dancing to baby Baby bombumb like we move the first we pushed the furniture out of the middle.

Of the room.

No, stop it, No, it's true.

It's probably one of those like, yeah, it's probably like nochebuena or like, it's usually those nights that feel to me the most kind of I don't know, nostalgic when it comes to her music. We love music in my family, but I don't feel like my family danced as much as I would have thought growing up, considering how much we love music. But something about when my mom would get together with her sisters. Again, my mom is one of nine, so she's got six sisters and two brothers.

It was just really really cute.

And I think that's probably my first memory of her music in that way, and then also remembering how sad it was, which we're not going to go to right now because she's got a lot of life to live before we get there. But what about you, what is your formative Selena memory?

You know, it is just watching her music video.

So I used to my parents, who really were really Christian, and so I used to have to sneak away to watch TV like late at night and I would watch like VH one or MTV and.

Watching her music video of I could fall in love.

And I was always so like kind of confused because I was like, why wouldn't they have like made the video of her now, because it was like all the past and I just didn't like really.

Understand I love that.

I love that now. Did you ever see her in concert?

No?

But like she was a Western playland?

What is that she was at this venue where it's like a big amusement park and you could have concerts there. So like, I know that people would go to see her there no Western playland, but you didn't go.

I didn't.

I don't want my Dejano card revoked. But I am now becoming a bigger fan of Selena. But growing up, I wasn't the biggest fan of hers, although a lot of my friends were obsessed with her.

That's okay, that's okay.

My biggest regret in life is actually not having seen her at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. I had the opportunity to go, I did not go, and I will forever hate.

Myself for not making that. That's okay, that's okay.

We could probably make a whole podcast of just Selena memory.

Yes, easily, but we're here to talk about her story, not ours.

We are not the main characters, well not on this episode.

I'm your host Lilianavosquez.

And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon.

A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on how today's most famous LATINV stars have shaped pop culture.

And given the world some extra level.

Sit back and get comfortable.

Because we are going in the only way we know how with Buenas Vias.

I'm Buenasriesas.

And a lot of opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey.

To find out what makes them so iconic.

Selina Kitania was born in Lake Jackson, Way, on the opposite end of Texas from where Joseph is from. Tragically, on April sixteenth, nineteen seventy one.

Joseph, you have the floor.

Thank you, Senator ahem as an Airy's son, Selena's a woman of action. She charges ahead and doesn't care for being led or organized by others. But as a Capricorn Moon, she's practically defined by strong, maybe even rigid parenting.

Oh well, if there's one thing we all know about Selena.

It's that she's determined, steadfast, and reliable. Yes, also Capricorn Moon qualities. She was raised to understand that she's an important person.

And there's no question that she would become one.

Selena was born to Abraham Quintania Junior and Marcella or Phelia Zamora in nineteen seventy one.

Abraham was a musician born in Corpus Christi, Texas. From the late fifties through the late sixties, he had played American pop and hicna rock with his band The Dinos.

Marcella was born in the border city of Akunyakawila, Mexico, where by the way, my family still.

Lives hey family.

Before Selena came around, Abraham and Marcella had two children, Susette and Aby.

With a boy and a girl in tow Abraham put the Dinos to rest and moved the family to Lake Jackson, in.

A small town with a population just over ten thousand.

Only a sliver of cuomwor Latino.

On the Abraham saw an opportunity to support the family by opening a Mexican restaurant. Every Latino opens a Mexican by the way, we had a Mexican restaurant, like hello.

No you didn't yuh my mom did La Casita.

I loved that.

In Colleyville, Texas, they loved her. Tamalis Us, I love dom malis.

Hey, she needs to make me son for Christmas.

She will, Okay, back to the restaurant, So Abraham named it Baba Gayos, not a great name, by the way, and soon after he and Marcella would welcome their third child.

From their Sonograms.

They had been expecting a boy, so when they found themselves welcoming a daughter into the world, they had zero ideas for the names.

It was actually another mom in the labor ward who suggested the name Selina.

And god she did. I hope that woman became an agent after realizing what she'd done for Selena.

For real, I would definitely ask for some kind of royalties, but she's not going to get it. If you followed the King Danias and Chris Cherney and everything that's happened in the drama, which we will get to. She's not getting any but anyway, Selena and her older siblings grew up in a house steeped in American pop culture and music.

One day, Selena found an old songbook of her father's. In an interview years later, she would describe it, picking it up and eventually making up her own maladies to the music.

Her father heard her and started coaching her on hot to sing the songs of his youth. Selena, in her own words, caught on pretty fast.

After that, Selena's dad went a step further and took the family on a visit to his and the Dino's old stomping grounds, Corpus Christy.

There, they visited a record store owned by Abraham's former mentor, Johnny Herrera, so that he could hear Selena sing.

Harrari set up a portable cassette recorder for her. She'd gotten for Anything Mike, and ran through several oldies.

Herrera noted that she stayed perfectly in tune and never missed a beat.

Impressed, he cackled.

And said she's going to be a star.

Selena ended her little recording session with the song in Spanish, one of the Dino's regional hits Guenestekopa, which Herrera himself had written.

Though she went to an English speaking school and spoke English at home, her father had taught her to pronounce sound Spanish.

In this little record shop in Corpus Christi, Texas, Selena wowed her first small audience in both English and Spanish.

It was a clear preview of things to come.

Okay, diehard, Selena fan.

Well, I know we were researching this, so I'm sure that you rekindled your love for the lost songs of Selena. Are you playing any of your favorite Selena songs for Santa Hello?

Are we friends? Have we met?

I started playing Selena songs for him when he was in my belly, literally like in my belly.

And then I remember the.

First week I brought him home, so I had to see section and it was like hard to even move, like literally it was so hard. And the first day that I felt good enough to really like get up and take a shower and like brush my hair and put on something other than like hospital underwear. We dance to Badbad Bomb in his nursery. We did I like open the windows, I like open the curtains, and I was like holding this tiny little nugget and we dance.

I have a video of it.

It's like one of my favorite memories of him because it was the first day that I really felt like close to good. And yeah, like I play her songs for him all the time. But you know what's funny is he's in a phase right now where he doesn't want me to sing or dance. So every time I sing, he's like, mommy, stops singing. So I don't know if I'm ruining Selena for him because he keeps saying, Mommy, stop singing.

Now listen. I know little kids get like that. He just didn't want you to do it. So here's another question for you. Yeah, why do you think Selena is so relatable like us in the US? Like why did you identify to Selena?

Like, because I think she is very much living that what I call like one life one g. Being first generation. You know, if your first generation, you're very much born here and you obviously want to be a part of

Wherever you're from.

And there's a line in the movie that Abraham says, and he says to her, you know, we have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time. It's exhausting, and that I think really summarizes the feeling and the struggle that so many of us first generation kids have. And I think it's also why we relate to her and her story so much, especially if you grew up in Texas or Mexico or Arizona or California, right like we're border kids.

And also because she also looked like us.

But she didn't sound like us, right, like I grew up speaking Spanish. I think for me, like hearing her talk, I was like, God, she sounds so American, but she looks like us. So I think we were just kind of fascinated with the idea that you could be both

Kids, right like honor the ancestors carry them with you always. But that's not quite where Selena's daddy was coming from.

Two drew Joseph, with his mentor's words ringing in his ears, that girl's gonna be a star. Selena's father had stars in his eyes. He dusted off the old instruments and taught Selena's siblings to play.

At the age of.

Nine, Selena took the mic with her big brother ab behind her on bass guitar and big sister Susette on the drums.

The Dinos became a family band, and the family band became the in house entertainment for Baba Gayo's Abraham's restaurant.

Selena ILO's.

Dino's also played street corners, Consignea's weddings, and other family gatherings, which imagine if Selena played at your Keen'say.

She did play at Mikeen says.

Okay, I mean like played live in your keen.

Say okay, let me live.

Just let me remember my keyings is the way I want to remember, Mike Keane says, anyway, moving one. Selena and the band played so often, in fact, that young Selena began to miss school frequently.

Selena was an exceptionally bright student and well liked by her classmates. Her seventh grade reading teacher, Marilyn Greer called her a valedictorian quality student. They didn't say that about me.

She went on to say, Selena conducted herself like a lady. This child could have gotten a four year scholarship with any major university in the country. But Selena was missing two days of class.

A week, and when Selena was in class, she was often tired and distracted.

Selena' teach year brought this to her father's attention on multiple occasions. Each time, he insisted that Selena was a child prodigy destined for a.

Career on the stage, which wasn't untrue, but it's more than enough to make you question Abraham's priorities.

After all, the family band was formed to support Papagayo's the family and Abraham's business.

After the recession of nineteen eighty one, Papa Guyo saw fewer and fewer customers and eventually closed down, so the band became the family business instead.

The following year, Abraham pulled the kids out of school and moved the whole family to Corpus Christi, where Selena Ilosino's would be the sole breadwinners for the family.

Seleno's brother ab took an old bus and restored it so the band could use it as a tour bus. The bus, which the family affectionately named Big Bertha, would often serve as the entire family's home.

The kids essentially saying for food and barely earned enough money to cover gas. Times were tough, and it was all on their shoulders. There's like a tiny, tiny piece of this that feels relatable.

Yeah, because many of the Latino kids do be on that grind from a young age to how about the family.

But on the other hand, Abraham.

Right, I mean, there's ways to pay the bills that don't involve turning your family into the Jackson five right and jumping ahead a bit. According to Selena's eventual husband, Chris Petes, Selena's father put his ambitions of making it in the music industry before everything else. As we talk about Abraham having her missed school, were like shocked, We're like.

Oh my god, she was missing school.

But if you think about it now, there's so many kid let's call them kid creatives, kid influencers, kiddy influencers out there, Like I see them.

Making millions and millions of dollars.

I mean, these kids are moving out to la at like ten, eleven, twelve as influencers. It's happening, ye stars, It's happening now more so than it used to them. But it's pretty commonplace now. I always read there's this like one funny meme that like, maybe it's not a meme, it's an article. It talks about when you ask little kids what they want to be when they grow up. Now, the number one profession is influencer or content creator.

Stop it.

Yeah, I mean I think Abraham was a businessman first and a father second. I will say it where we go, and I think that with child stars and stage parents, it's a really really rocky relationship. And you really saw that play out in her story, right, Like she felt like she was being held down by them, right, Like she wanted to be free to wear what she wanted,

But that's a whole nother podcast.

That's another one, bitch. I was ready to go into that one too, damn.

But Selena was also trying to make it in a musical world that wasn't entirely her own.

It was a Tahano's world and Selena was just living in it.

Do you remember how we introduced Selena.

Everyone knows the Queen of Tejano.

Right, Okay, So let's talk about the Hannah music for a second.

Because Shano has its roots in a culture of ranching, agriculture, farm stuff.

Right.

So the Hanno culture is rural. Little history lesson.

During Spanish rule, the southern region of what we now call the has was developed as farmlands. The music and the dress we associate with the Hanno evolved from a long history of rancheros Bucqueto's people working the land.

Okay, but here's a question, did those people have accordions? Because a lot of Tano music sounds like poka.

It does, and there's a really good reason for that.

While that the Hanno population is largely Spanish Mesthiesel and indigenous, in the eighteen hundreds Texas on influx of German and Czech immigrants, uhh.

So that explains the unpach lumbach and.

The Spanish part of it explains the string instruments, the guitar, the bajo sex do and dolo or bass guitar. This became the normal setup for a the Hano band, and the Hanno bands grew to be popular community fixtures.

Sure, and what about the singers.

Great question, Joseph. So the melodies and vocal sensibilities of the Hanno drew from generations of farmhands who enjoyed the songs of traveling musicians.

Oh okay, I see. All I needed was to know where I fit in the story.

You're the wandering musician in my past life.

Uh yeah, I'm what broidy or more more on board the guy?

Yeah, damn, Joseph.

By the way, when I was little, I could not say mooran like. I could not say it, And I love that song so much, and I'd be like move moorun like, Oh I loved it.

Okay.

So anyway, do you think that we played together in that way? Like maybe I was your accompanist, you.

Were one hundred percent and you followed me around with an accordion.

Yes, yeah, So basically you and I invented the Hanno music.

You're welcome, You are welcome people. Okay.

Now, come the twentieth century, this music had become a stage of larger Tojano culture and bringing it back back back to Selena. It's not to say there were never any female Kijano singers.

One of the first Tjanah superstars was Houston born Lydia Mendoza, aka the mother of Tojna music.

Like Selena, she started singing from a very.

Young age, and, like Selena, eventually would Lydia Mendoza found listeners in Mexican migrant communities before eventually finding success on both sides of the border.

But Downo music was still heavily male dominated, from the big stars to the local artists.

Remember, the Hanno music was raised on farmlands.

Rural workers were largely male, So Selena's father was hoping to win over an audience of rugged, older men.

Who expected to Hano musicians to look like them, not a man of fresh faced teens led by a girl.

Exactly so, when Selena and the family were knocking on the doors of bars and music venues, door after door was shut in their faces.

Well, Abraham, let's not forget who's pushing this whole thing.

Yeah, he'd be pushy, right, and let's give credit where it's due. Abraham did not let all that rejection reach Selena promoter Mike Chavez would say of Abraham, he was the.

Ultimate stage father. He wouldn't take no for an answer.

How many times has he told Selena had no talent, that they were just another band.

He handled her career, He kept her clean.

For her part, Selena would say, we all wanted to make it, so we did everything we could. There were a lot of disappointing times, but even when we got ten or twenty people to show up, we always believe that, hey, these people paid to get in.

We should do a good show.

Despite the rejection, Selena and the band would continue to find work playing weddings, kinsz blenquiz. Abraham added a keyboardist and a guitarist to the band before placing them in nineteen eighty three.

As Selena's biographer Joe Nick Potowski would say, the money was in live performances, but Selena Losino's remained shut out of key venues.

Records were hard to sell and the payoff wasn't promising. But when Selena Elosdino's finally did enter the studio, things began to turn around, ever so slowly.

Selena Elosinos would record a number of songs for Freddie Records, a small label in Corpus Christie.

With her father's.

Coaching, Selena sang in less than perfect Spanish, and her brother ab received his first composing credit for the song call Me.

After a few more singles and some modest airplan on local radio, the group slowly began finding their way into music venues. Then came the group's first full album, Mitti spimetas Grabacionz.

The album was never distributed to stores, but Abraham bought a stack of copies to pitch any and every label executive he could meet at the band's shows.

The hustle paid off.

Soon Selena Elosdino signed with Carl Records in San Antonio, and.

Here is where things finally get going.

In nineteen eighty six, Selena Losino's record their second album, Alpha, the record that won Selena her first musical award.

Selena was named Female Vocalist of the Year at the nineteen eighty seven West Texas Hispanic Music Awards and the KFLZ Awards, run by a local radio station.

We talk about local the West Texas Hispanic Music. O word, what is the trophy? What is the prize?

I have ache?

It was a boot is there a red carpet. Should I cover it?

Yeah, we'll find it.

But the biggest award of all came from the te Hanno Music Awards, where Selena won Performer of the Year.

That is more like it. That is where I want to see my girl right.

Hold on pause.

So, after years of rejections, promoter after promoter telling them that no one wanted to hear a teen girls seeing Tejano music, Selena turns around and wins Tehano Performer of the Year. Imagine being one of those promoters who said, no, big mistake, huge, it's comeback story we all want for our selves real.

Thanks to the Tejano Music Awards, Selena was introduced to Rick Dravigno, the founder of the award show, and Johnny Canales, an influential radio personality in the Tejano scene.

Selena appeared on can Nada's radio show, where over time she'd become a regular.

The following year, in nineteen eighty eight, the band dropped two more albums, Fresciosa and Bulsemore, netting them their biggest record sales yet.

This brought them once again to the Teuano Music Awards. In nineteen eighty nine.

Selena again won Best Female Vocalist and her brother ab got his first nomination as a songwriter.

But most importantly, this is where Selena Elosdinos would meet Jose Bahar, vice president of the newly formed Latin division of EMI.

EMI Latin was less than a year old, and coincidentally, Selena and the band were free agents after ending their engagement with Kara Records.

Watching Selena own the stage at the Tejano Music Award, so Bear was convinced he had found the next Gloria Estefan.

Selena became the new record label's first signed artist, and it was only up from there.

But that's next week.

That's right, You'll have to wait.

On the next.

Becoming an Icon, Selena finds success, love, and maybe even a little independence. Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael Duda podcast network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple

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