Speaker 1: Joseph, how are you feeling about today's subject? MESSI MOI
Speaker 1: excited the same girl, because today we are talking all about.
Speaker 2: The Queen of the Hannah Sili.
Speaker 1: Selena quintaniap it is, despite being taken from us long
Speaker 1: before her time, Selena the icon has lived on for
Speaker 1: generation after generation.
Speaker 3: First there's the people who got to witness her first hand.
Speaker 1: Then there's those of us who were born a few
Speaker 1: years too late but grew up surrounded by her music
Speaker 1: and learned her story through the magic of film.
Speaker 3: And lastly, the youngins of today who have gloonbed onto
Speaker 3: her fashion, her makeup.
Speaker 2: And hopefully her music as well.
Speaker 3: Totally, they should make you name your favorite Selena song
Speaker 3: before letting you buy a Selena lipstick.
Speaker 4: Wait.
Speaker 2: That is genius.
Speaker 1: Like when that Matt collaboration came out and it's sold
Speaker 1: in seconds, and I saw the line wrapped around the
Speaker 1: mall in Corpus, I was like, these people are not
Speaker 1: old enough to know her music. But that's the magic
Speaker 1: of Selena is that you've gotten to know her through
Speaker 1: so many different things.
Speaker 3: One and I fell in love with her. I refell
Speaker 3: in love with her again when mac relaunched that Wait.
Speaker 1: By the way, okay, let's do that now, all right,
Speaker 1: If you had to name your favorite Selena song to
Speaker 1: pick up your como La flord.
Speaker 2: Lipstick, what would it be?
Speaker 1: Three?
Speaker 2: Two, one, go see yous.
Speaker 4: I love that one.
Speaker 2: It's angry, it's angsty.
Speaker 1: It's so good, and it is such a deviation from
Speaker 1: your more traditional like up tempo, upbeat ones.
Speaker 2: It's just it's so good. She's such a bad bitch
Speaker 2: in it.
Speaker 3: So you're in your tehano Elani's Moore set face erro
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: You read me so clearly. I love you for that.
Speaker 1: Now we should mention that as a couple of Texan
Speaker 1: Latinos now our ties to the cult of Selena run
Speaker 1: very very deep.
Speaker 3: Okay, wait, so, since you are such a huge Selena fan,
Speaker 3: what was your first like formative memory of her?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: Wow, honestly, it's probably a Nochebuena night in my house
Speaker 1: or my Thea's house with all my crazy Theias and
Speaker 1: primos dancing to baby Baby bombumb like we move the
Speaker 1: first we pushed the furniture out of the middle.
Speaker 2: Of the room.
Speaker 4: No, stop it, No, it's true.
Speaker 1: It's probably one of those like, yeah, it's probably like
Speaker 1: nochebuena or like, it's usually those nights that feel to
Speaker 1: me the most kind of I don't know, nostalgic when
Speaker 1: it comes to her music. We love music in my family,
Speaker 1: but I don't feel like my family danced as much
Speaker 1: as I would have thought growing up, considering how much
Speaker 1: we love music. But something about when my mom would
Speaker 1: get together with her sisters. Again, my mom is one
Speaker 1: of nine, so she's got six sisters and two brothers.
Speaker 1: Something about those like big family nights by the time,
Speaker 1: like you know, the kids are like sleeping on the
Speaker 1: girl or on the chairs, they would like, you know,
Speaker 1: push the furniture to the side, turn on like some
Speaker 1: old ass stereo and like blast bitty bitty bumbum, and
Speaker 1: it would be so funny to see my mom dancing
Speaker 1: with her sisters and dancing with like my feels.
Speaker 2: It was just really really cute.
Speaker 1: And I think that's probably my first memory of her
Speaker 1: music in that way, and then also remembering how sad
Speaker 1: it was, which we're not going to go to right
Speaker 1: now because she's got a lot of life to live
Speaker 1: before we get there. But what about you, what is
Speaker 1: your formative Selena memory?
Speaker 4: You know, it is just watching her music video.
Speaker 3: So I used to my parents, who really were really Christian,
Speaker 3: and so I used to have to sneak away to
Speaker 3: watch TV like late at night and I would watch
Speaker 3: like VH one or MTV and.
Speaker 4: Watching her music video of I could fall in love.
Speaker 3: And I was always so like kind of confused because
Speaker 3: I was like, why wouldn't they have like made the
Speaker 3: video of her now, because it was like all the
Speaker 3: past and I just didn't like really.
Speaker 4: Understand I love that.
Speaker 2: I love that now. Did you ever see her in concert?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: But like she was a Western playland?
Speaker 3: What is that she was at this venue where it's
Speaker 3: like a big amusement park and you could have concerts there.
Speaker 3: So like, I know that people would go to see
Speaker 3: her there no Western playland, but you didn't go.
Speaker 4: I didn't.
Speaker 3: I don't want my Dejano card revoked. But I am
Speaker 3: now becoming a bigger fan of Selena. But growing up,
Speaker 3: I wasn't the biggest fan of hers, although a lot
Speaker 3: of my friends were obsessed with her.
Speaker 2: That's okay, that's okay.
Speaker 1: My biggest regret in life is actually not having seen
Speaker 1: her at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. I had
Speaker 1: the opportunity to go, I did not go, and I
Speaker 1: will forever hate.
Speaker 2: Myself for not making that. That's okay, that's okay.
Speaker 3: We could probably make a whole podcast of just Selena memory.
Speaker 2: Yes, easily, but we're here to talk about her story,
Speaker 2: not ours.
Speaker 1: We are not the main characters, well not on this episode.
Speaker 2: I'm your host Lilianavosquez.
Speaker 4: And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon.
Speaker 1: A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on
Speaker 1: how today's most famous LATINV stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 4: And given the world some extra level.
Speaker 2: Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 3: Because we are going in the only way we know
Speaker 3: how with Buenas Vias.
Speaker 2: I'm Buenasriesas.
Speaker 1: And a lot of opinions as we relive their greatest
Speaker 1: achievements on our journey.
Speaker 2: To find out what makes them so iconic.
Speaker 1: Selina Kitania was born in Lake Jackson, Way, on the
Speaker 1: opposite end of Texas from where Joseph is from. Tragically,
Speaker 1: on April sixteenth, nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 2: Joseph, you have the floor.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Senator ahem as an Airy's son, Selena's a
Speaker 3: woman of action. She charges ahead and doesn't care for
Speaker 3: being led or organized by others. But as a Capricorn Moon,
Speaker 3: she's practically defined by strong, maybe even rigid parenting.
Speaker 2: Oh well, if there's one thing we all know about Selena.
Speaker 3: It's that she's determined, steadfast, and reliable. Yes, also Capricorn
Speaker 3: Moon qualities. She was raised to understand that she's an
Speaker 3: important person.
Speaker 2: And there's no question that she would become one.
Speaker 1: Selena was born to Abraham Quintania Junior and Marcella or
Speaker 1: Phelia Zamora in nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 3: Abraham was a musician born in Corpus Christi, Texas. From
Speaker 3: the late fifties through the late sixties, he had played
Speaker 3: American pop and hicna rock with his band The Dinos.
Speaker 1: Marcella was born in the border city of Akunyakawila, Mexico,
Speaker 1: where by the way, my family still.
Speaker 4: Lives hey family.
Speaker 1: Before Selena came around, Abraham and Marcella had two children,
Speaker 1: Susette and Aby.
Speaker 3: With a boy and a girl in tow Abraham put
Speaker 3: the Dinos to rest and moved the family to Lake Jackson, in.
Speaker 2: A small town with a population just over ten thousand.
Speaker 4: Only a sliver of cuomwor Latino.
Speaker 1: On the Abraham saw an opportunity to support the family
Speaker 1: by opening a Mexican restaurant. Every Latino opens a Mexican
Speaker 1: by the way, we had a Mexican restaurant, like hello.
Speaker 2: No you didn't yuh my mom did La Casita.
Speaker 4: I loved that.
Speaker 1: In Colleyville, Texas, they loved her. Tamalis Us, I love
Speaker 1: dom malis.
Speaker 4: Hey, she needs to make me son for Christmas.
Speaker 1: She will, Okay, back to the restaurant, So Abraham named
Speaker 1: it Baba Gayos, not a great name, by the way,
Speaker 1: and soon after he and Marcella would welcome their third child.
Speaker 4: From their Sonograms.
Speaker 3: They had been expecting a boy, so when they found
Speaker 3: themselves welcoming a daughter into the world, they had zero
Speaker 3: ideas for the names.
Speaker 1: It was actually another mom in the labor ward who
Speaker 1: suggested the name Selina.
Speaker 4: And god she did. I hope that woman became an
Speaker 4: agent after realizing what she'd done for Selena.
Speaker 1: For real, I would definitely ask for some kind of royalties,
Speaker 1: but she's not going to get it. If you followed
Speaker 1: the King Danias and Chris Cherney and everything that's happened
Speaker 1: in the drama, which we will get to. She's not
Speaker 1: getting any but anyway, Selena and her older siblings grew
Speaker 1: up in a house steeped in American pop culture and music.
Speaker 3: One day, Selena found an old songbook of her father's.
Speaker 3: In an interview years later, she would describe it, picking
Speaker 3: it up and eventually making up her own maladies to
Speaker 3: the music.
Speaker 1: Her father heard her and started coaching her on hot
Speaker 1: to sing the songs of his youth. Selena, in her
Speaker 1: own words, caught on pretty fast.
Speaker 3: After that, Selena's dad went a step further and took
Speaker 3: the family on a visit to his and the Dino's
Speaker 3: old stomping grounds, Corpus Christy.
Speaker 1: There, they visited a record store owned by Abraham's former mentor,
Speaker 1: Johnny Herrera, so that he could hear Selena sing.
Speaker 3: Harrari set up a portable cassette recorder for her. She'd
Speaker 3: gotten for Anything Mike, and ran through several oldies.
Speaker 1: Herrera noted that she stayed perfectly in tune and never
Speaker 1: missed a beat.
Speaker 2: Impressed, he cackled.
Speaker 4: And said she's going to be a star.
Speaker 1: Selena ended her little recording session with the song in Spanish,
Speaker 1: one of the Dino's regional hits Guenestekopa, which Herrera himself
Speaker 1: had written.
Speaker 3: Though she went to an English speaking school and spoke
Speaker 3: English at home, her father had taught her to pronounce
Speaker 3: sound Spanish.
Speaker 1: In this little record shop in Corpus Christi, Texas, Selena
Speaker 1: wowed her first small audience in both English and Spanish.
Speaker 2: It was a clear preview of things to come.
Speaker 4: Okay, diehard, Selena fan.
Speaker 3: Well, I know we were researching this, so I'm sure
Speaker 3: that you rekindled your love for the lost songs of Selena.
Speaker 3: Are you playing any of your favorite Selena songs for
Speaker 3: Santa Hello?
Speaker 2: Are we friends? Have we met?
Speaker 1: I started playing Selena songs for him when he was
Speaker 1: in my belly, literally like in my belly.
Speaker 2: And then I remember the.
Speaker 1: First week I brought him home, so I had to
Speaker 1: see section and it was like hard to even move,
Speaker 1: like literally it was so hard. And the first day
Speaker 1: that I felt good enough to really like get up
Speaker 1: and take a shower and like brush my hair and
Speaker 1: put on something other than like hospital underwear. We dance
Speaker 1: to Badbad Bomb in his nursery. We did I like
Speaker 1: open the windows, I like open the curtains, and I
Speaker 1: was like holding this tiny little nugget and we dance.
Speaker 2: I have a video of it.
Speaker 1: It's like one of my favorite memories of him because
Speaker 1: it was the first day that I really felt like
Speaker 1: close to good. And yeah, like I play her songs
Speaker 1: for him all the time. But you know what's funny
Speaker 1: is he's in a phase right now where he doesn't
Speaker 1: want me to sing or dance. So every time I sing,
Speaker 1: he's like, mommy, stops singing. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: I'm ruining Selena for him because he keeps saying, Mommy,
Speaker 1: stop singing.
Speaker 3: Now listen. I know little kids get like that. He
Speaker 3: just didn't want you to do it. So here's another
Speaker 3: question for you. Yeah, why do you think Selena is
Speaker 3: so relatable like us in the US? Like why did
Speaker 3: you identify to Selena?
Speaker 1: Like, because I think she is very much living that
Speaker 1: what I call like one life one g. Being first generation.
Speaker 1: You know, if your first generation, you're very much born
Speaker 1: here and you obviously want to be a part of
Speaker 1: what it is to be American. But your parents were not,
Speaker 1: and your cousins some morn either, like most of your
Speaker 1: family probably wasn't, And so I think you're always kind
Speaker 1: of straddling this world of living in America, being American
Speaker 1: but also being Mexican, and maybe like wanting to feel
Speaker 1: really connected to culture, but also being a little bit
Speaker 1: ashamed of it. At least in my experience, I wanted
Speaker 1: to fit in so desperately that I kind of like
Speaker 1: pushed down everything that was beautiful and culturally rich about
Speaker 1: being Mexicana or Puerto Rican to like fit in and assimilate.
Speaker 1: And I think that first generation struggle is real for
Speaker 1: so many of us, whether you come from Latin America
Speaker 1: or Europe or.
Speaker 2: Wherever you're from.
Speaker 1: And there's a line in the movie that Abraham says,
Speaker 1: and he says to her, you know, we have to
Speaker 1: be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than
Speaker 1: the Americans, both at the same time. It's exhausting, and
Speaker 1: that I think really summarizes the feeling and the struggle
Speaker 1: that so many of us first generation kids have. And
Speaker 1: I think it's also why we relate to her and
Speaker 1: her story so much, especially if you grew up in
Speaker 1: Texas or Mexico or Arizona or California, right like we're
Speaker 1: border kids.
Speaker 4: And also because she also looked like us.
Speaker 1: But she didn't sound like us, right, like I grew
Speaker 1: up speaking Spanish. I think for me, like hearing her talk,
Speaker 1: I was like, God, she sounds so American, but she
Speaker 1: looks like us. So I think we were just kind
Speaker 1: of fascinated with the idea that you could be both
Speaker 1: right and be both so beautifully. Yeah, I can tell
Speaker 1: you this as a Latina who's half Mexican and half
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican, it's really important for me that Santhi, despite
Speaker 1: him being born here in la and being half Irish,
Speaker 1: like he needs to know everything about our gulura, like
Speaker 1: where we came from, our music, our food, all of that, right,
Speaker 1: Like you want that for your.
Speaker 3: Kids, right like honor the ancestors carry them with you always.
Speaker 3: But that's not quite where Selena's daddy was coming from.
Speaker 1: Two drew Joseph, with his mentor's words ringing in his ears,
Speaker 1: that girl's gonna be a star. Selena's father had stars
Speaker 1: in his eyes. He dusted off the old instruments and
Speaker 1: taught Selena's siblings to play.
Speaker 4: At the age of.
Speaker 3: Nine, Selena took the mic with her big brother ab
Speaker 3: behind her on bass guitar and big sister Susette on
Speaker 3: the drums.
Speaker 1: The Dinos became a family band, and the family band
Speaker 1: became the in house entertainment for Baba Gayo's Abraham's restaurant.
Speaker 4: Selena ILO's.
Speaker 3: Dino's also played street corners, Consignea's weddings, and other family gatherings,
Speaker 3: which imagine if Selena played at your Keen'say.
Speaker 2: She did play at Mikeen says.
Speaker 4: Okay, I mean like played live in your keen.
Speaker 2: Say okay, let me live.
Speaker 1: Just let me remember my keyings is the way I
Speaker 1: want to remember, Mike Keane says, anyway, moving one. Selena
Speaker 1: and the band played so often, in fact, that young
Speaker 1: Selena began to miss school frequently.
Speaker 3: Selena was an exceptionally bright student and well liked by
Speaker 3: her classmates. Her seventh grade reading teacher, Marilyn Greer called
Speaker 3: her a valedictorian quality student. They didn't say that about me.
Speaker 1: She went on to say, Selena conducted herself like a lady.
Speaker 1: This child could have gotten a four year scholarship with
Speaker 1: any major university in the country. But Selena was missing
Speaker 1: two days of class.
Speaker 3: A week, and when Selena was in class, she was
Speaker 3: often tired and distracted.
Speaker 1: Selena' teach year brought this to her father's attention on
Speaker 1: multiple occasions. Each time, he insisted that Selena was a
Speaker 1: child prodigy destined for a.
Speaker 3: Career on the stage, which wasn't untrue, but it's more
Speaker 3: than enough to make you question Abraham's priorities.
Speaker 1: After all, the family band was formed to support Papagayo's
Speaker 1: the family and Abraham's business.
Speaker 3: After the recession of nineteen eighty one, Papa Guyo saw
Speaker 3: fewer and fewer customers and eventually closed down, so the
Speaker 3: band became the family business instead.
Speaker 1: The following year, Abraham pulled the kids out of school
Speaker 1: and moved the whole family to Corpus Christi, where Selena
Speaker 1: Ilosino's would be the sole breadwinners for the family.
Speaker 3: Seleno's brother ab took an old bus and restored it
Speaker 3: so the band could use it as a tour bus.
Speaker 3: The bus, which the family affectionately named Big Bertha, would
Speaker 3: often serve as the entire family's home.
Speaker 1: The kids essentially saying for food and barely earned enough
Speaker 1: money to cover gas. Times were tough, and it was
Speaker 1: all on their shoulders. There's like a tiny, tiny piece
Speaker 1: of this that feels relatable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because many of the Latino kids do be on
Speaker 3: that grind from a young age to how about the family.
Speaker 4: But on the other hand, Abraham.
Speaker 1: Right, I mean, there's ways to pay the bills that
Speaker 1: don't involve turning your family into the Jackson five right
Speaker 1: and jumping ahead a bit. According to Selena's eventual husband,
Speaker 1: Chris Petes, Selena's father put his ambitions of making it
Speaker 1: in the music industry before everything else. As we talk
Speaker 1: about Abraham having her missed school, were like shocked, We're like.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, she was missing school.
Speaker 1: But if you think about it now, there's so many
Speaker 1: kid let's call them kid creatives, kid influencers, kiddy influencers
Speaker 1: out there, Like I see them.
Speaker 2: Making millions and millions of dollars.
Speaker 1: I mean, these kids are moving out to la at
Speaker 1: like ten, eleven, twelve as influencers. It's happening, ye stars,
Speaker 1: It's happening now more so than it used to them.
Speaker 1: But it's pretty commonplace now. I always read there's this
Speaker 1: like one funny meme that like, maybe it's not a meme,
Speaker 1: it's an article. It talks about when you ask little
Speaker 1: kids what they want to be when they grow up. Now,
Speaker 1: the number one profession is influencer or content creator.
Speaker 4: Stop it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think Abraham was a businessman first
Speaker 1: and a father second. I will say it where we go,
Speaker 1: and I think that with child stars and stage parents,
Speaker 1: it's a really really rocky relationship. And you really saw
Speaker 1: that play out in her story, right, Like she felt
Speaker 1: like she was being held down by them, right, Like
Speaker 1: she wanted to be free to wear what she wanted,
Speaker 1: to love who she wanted. And if you guys have
Speaker 1: watched Quiet on Set, the Nickelodeon documentary, you really start
Speaker 1: to understand that there is a very predatory culture to
Speaker 1: child stars and what their parents allow to happen. It's
Speaker 1: actually like terrifying. And this is like one of the
Speaker 1: main reasons I would never allow my child to work
Speaker 1: in the entertainment industry until he's like, much much older.
Speaker 1: And it's also one of the reasons that I try
Speaker 1: to keep him off of social media in terms of
Speaker 1: like how much I post him because it just makes
Speaker 1: me very afraid.
Speaker 2: But that's a whole nother podcast.
Speaker 4: That's another one, bitch. I was ready to go into
Speaker 4: that one too, damn.
Speaker 1: But Selena was also trying to make it in a
Speaker 1: musical world that wasn't entirely her own.
Speaker 4: It was a Tahano's world and Selena was just living
Speaker 4: in it.
Speaker 2: Do you remember how we introduced Selena.
Speaker 4: Everyone knows the Queen of Tejano.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, So let's talk about the Hannah music for
Speaker 2: a second.
Speaker 1: Because Shano has its roots in a culture of ranching, agriculture,
Speaker 1: farm stuff.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: So the Hanno culture is rural. Little history lesson.
Speaker 1: During Spanish rule, the southern region of what we now
Speaker 1: call the has was developed as farmlands. The music and
Speaker 1: the dress we associate with the Hanno evolved from a
Speaker 1: long history of rancheros Bucqueto's people working the land.
Speaker 3: Okay, but here's a question, did those people have accordions?
Speaker 3: Because a lot of Tano music sounds like poka.
Speaker 2: It does, and there's a really good reason for that.
Speaker 1: While that the Hanno population is largely Spanish Mesthiesel and indigenous,
Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds Texas on influx of German and
Speaker 1: Czech immigrants, uhh.
Speaker 4: So that explains the unpach lumbach and.
Speaker 1: The Spanish part of it explains the string instruments, the guitar,
Speaker 1: the bajo sex do and dolo or bass guitar. This
Speaker 1: became the normal setup for a the Hano band, and
Speaker 1: the Hanno bands grew to be popular community fixtures.
Speaker 4: Sure, and what about the singers.
Speaker 1: Great question, Joseph. So the melodies and vocal sensibilities of
Speaker 1: the Hanno drew from generations of farmhands who enjoyed the
Speaker 1: songs of traveling musicians.
Speaker 4: Oh okay, I see. All I needed was to know
Speaker 4: where I fit in the story.
Speaker 2: You're the wandering musician in my past life.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, I'm what broidy or more more on board
Speaker 4: the guy?
Speaker 2: Yeah, damn, Joseph.
Speaker 1: By the way, when I was little, I could not
Speaker 1: say mooran like. I could not say it, And I
Speaker 1: love that song so much, and I'd be like move
Speaker 1: moorun like, Oh I loved it.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: So anyway, do you think that we played together in
Speaker 1: that way? Like maybe I was your accompanist, you.
Speaker 4: Were one hundred percent and you followed me around with
Speaker 4: an accordion.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, So basically you and I invented the Hanno music.
Speaker 4: You're welcome, You are welcome people. Okay.
Speaker 1: Now, come the twentieth century, this music had become a
Speaker 1: stage of larger Tojano culture and bringing it back back
Speaker 1: back to Selena. It's not to say there were never
Speaker 1: any female Kijano singers.
Speaker 3: One of the first Tjanah superstars was Houston born Lydia Mendoza,
Speaker 3: aka the mother of Tojna music.
Speaker 4: Like Selena, she started singing from a very.
Speaker 1: Young age, and, like Selena, eventually would Lydia Mendoza found
Speaker 1: listeners in Mexican migrant communities before eventually finding success on
Speaker 1: both sides of the border.
Speaker 3: But Downo music was still heavily male dominated, from the
Speaker 3: big stars to the local artists.
Speaker 2: Remember, the Hanno music was raised on farmlands.
Speaker 1: Rural workers were largely male, So Selena's father was hoping
Speaker 1: to win over an audience of rugged, older men.
Speaker 3: Who expected to Hano musicians to look like them, not
Speaker 3: a man of fresh faced teens led by a girl.
Speaker 1: Exactly so, when Selena and the family were knocking on
Speaker 1: the doors of bars and music venues, door after door
Speaker 1: was shut in their faces.
Speaker 4: Well, Abraham, let's not forget who's pushing this whole thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he'd be pushy, right, and let's give credit where
Speaker 1: it's due. Abraham did not let all that rejection reach
Speaker 1: Selena promoter Mike Chavez would say of Abraham, he was the.
Speaker 4: Ultimate stage father. He wouldn't take no for an answer.
Speaker 3: How many times has he told Selena had no talent,
Speaker 3: that they were just another band.
Speaker 4: He handled her career, He kept her clean.
Speaker 1: For her part, Selena would say, we all wanted to
Speaker 1: make it, so we did everything we could. There were
Speaker 1: a lot of disappointing times, but even when we got
Speaker 1: ten or twenty people to show up, we always believe that, hey,
Speaker 1: these people paid to get in.
Speaker 2: We should do a good show.
Speaker 3: Despite the rejection, Selena and the band would continue to
Speaker 3: find work playing weddings, kinsz blenquiz. Abraham added a keyboardist
Speaker 3: and a guitarist to the band before placing them in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 1: As Selena's biographer Joe Nick Potowski would say, the money
Speaker 1: was in live performances, but Selena Losino's remained shut out
Speaker 1: of key venues.
Speaker 3: Records were hard to sell and the payoff wasn't promising.
Speaker 3: But when Selena Elosdino's finally did enter the studio, things
Speaker 3: began to turn around, ever so slowly.
Speaker 1: Selena Elosinos would record a number of songs for Freddie Records,
Speaker 1: a small label in Corpus Christie.
Speaker 2: With her father's.
Speaker 1: Coaching, Selena sang in less than perfect Spanish, and her
Speaker 1: brother ab received his first composing credit for the song
Speaker 1: call Me.
Speaker 3: After a few more singles and some modest airplan on
Speaker 3: local radio, the group slowly began finding their way into
Speaker 3: music venues. Then came the group's first full album, Mitti
Speaker 3: spimetas Grabacionz.
Speaker 1: The album was never distributed to stores, but Abraham bought
Speaker 1: a stack of copies to pitch any and every label
Speaker 1: executive he could meet at the band's shows.
Speaker 4: The hustle paid off.
Speaker 3: Soon Selena Elosdino signed with Carl Records in San Antonio, and.
Speaker 2: Here is where things finally get going.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty six, Selena Losino's record their second album, Alpha,
Speaker 1: the record that won Selena her first musical award.
Speaker 3: Selena was named Female Vocalist of the Year at the
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty seven West Texas Hispanic Music Awards and the
Speaker 3: KFLZ Awards, run by a local radio station.
Speaker 2: We talk about local the West Texas Hispanic Music. O word,
Speaker 2: what is the trophy? What is the prize?
Speaker 4: I have ache?
Speaker 2: It was a boot is there a red carpet. Should
Speaker 2: I cover it?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll find it.
Speaker 1: But the biggest award of all came from the te
Speaker 1: Hanno Music Awards, where Selena won Performer of the Year.
Speaker 2: That is more like it. That is where I want
Speaker 2: to see my girl right.
Speaker 4: Hold on pause.
Speaker 3: So, after years of rejections, promoter after promoter telling them
Speaker 3: that no one wanted to hear a teen girls seeing
Speaker 3: Tejano music, Selena turns around and wins Tehano Performer of
Speaker 3: the Year. Imagine being one of those promoters who said, no,
Speaker 3: big mistake, huge, it's comeback story we all want for
Speaker 3: our selves real.
Speaker 1: Thanks to the Tejano Music Awards, Selena was introduced to
Speaker 1: Rick Dravigno, the founder of the award show, and Johnny Canales,
Speaker 1: an influential radio personality in the Tejano scene.
Speaker 3: Selena appeared on can Nada's radio show, where over time
Speaker 3: she'd become a regular.
Speaker 1: The following year, in nineteen eighty eight, the band dropped
Speaker 1: two more albums, Fresciosa and Bulsemore, netting them their biggest
Speaker 1: record sales yet.
Speaker 3: This brought them once again to the Teuano Music Awards.
Speaker 3: In nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 1: Selena again won Best Female Vocalist and her brother ab
Speaker 1: got his first nomination as a songwriter.
Speaker 3: But most importantly, this is where Selena Elosdinos would meet
Speaker 3: Jose Bahar, vice president of the newly formed Latin division
Speaker 3: of EMI.
Speaker 1: EMI Latin was less than a year old, and coincidentally,
Speaker 1: Selena and the band were free agents after ending their
Speaker 1: engagement with Kara Records.
Speaker 3: Watching Selena own the stage at the Tejano Music Award,
Speaker 3: so Bear was convinced he had found the next Gloria Estefan.
Speaker 1: Selena became the new record label's first signed artist, and
Speaker 1: it was only up from there.
Speaker 4: But that's next week.
Speaker 2: That's right, You'll have to wait.
Speaker 4: On the next.
Speaker 1: Becoming an Icon, Selena finds success, love, and maybe even
Speaker 1: a little independence. Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo
Speaker 1: and Iheart's Michael Duda podcast network. Listen to Becoming an
Speaker 1: Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple
Speaker 2: Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast