Speaker 1: Joseph, I know you very well and I think I
Speaker 1: know the answer. But what was your dream job growing
Speaker 1: up in El Paso, Texas?
Speaker 2: Well, my dream job growing up was that I wanted
Speaker 2: to help people and make people feel better, like pretty
Speaker 2: like pretty, Yeah, pretty much. I just I wanted people
Speaker 2: to come to me for me to make them feel pretty.
Speaker 2: That was my dream job.
Speaker 1: And fast forward and you are living the dream job
Speaker 1: now as a celebrity makeup artist. But Joseph, what if
Speaker 1: I told you that In nineteen ninety four, Selena Kitania
Speaker 1: opened a hybrid beauty salon and fashion boutique.
Speaker 2: Okay, a new dream job unlocked? Tell me more.
Speaker 1: I mean we could have worked there together. I could
Speaker 1: have styled the girls. You could have done their makeup.
Speaker 1: We would have been the dream team for Selena's boutique. Okay.
Speaker 1: So a year after Selena won her first Grammy, she
Speaker 1: founded Selena et Cetera in Corpus and they had two
Speaker 1: locations right, one in Corpus, one in San Antonio, and
Speaker 1: each location was a one stop shop for everything like
Speaker 1: head to toe. By the way, why does this not
Speaker 1: exist now? So if you walked into her store, you
Speaker 1: could get your hair done, your nails done, you could
Speaker 1: shop for like your birthday look, and among those looks
Speaker 1: were all racks and racks of pieces designed by Selena
Speaker 1: herself alongside designer Martin Gomez. So we are talking one
Speaker 1: stop shop for style.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I would definitely be overqualified because I was
Speaker 2: just in l I have sixteen Vogue stories, five Vogue covers.
Speaker 2: I mean, what do you see?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm pretty sure you would have been like
Speaker 1: a dream higher for the Keith Nias. Not gonna lie
Speaker 1: like they would kill to have your talent. But sadly
Speaker 1: we all know that Selena et Cetera is not around anymore.
Speaker 2: Oooh okay, how dare you give me a new dream
Speaker 2: job only to crush my dreams right in front of me.
Speaker 1: I know it wasn't very nice to me, but I
Speaker 1: was just trying to set the scene for our audience listening.
Speaker 2: It's fine, It's fine, all in the line of Judy
Speaker 2: as a podcast co host. Anyway, continue, okay.
Speaker 1: So Selena Etcetera was Selena's first business excursion outside of music,
Speaker 1: and after the breakout success of nineteen ninety two's and
Speaker 1: Tremimundo and nineteen ninety three's Selena Live. Selena's power as
Speaker 1: a brand was clear.
Speaker 2: And her iconic, if slightly beatle does she look for?
Speaker 2: The cover of Entremimundo was her own design, as were
Speaker 2: many of her on stage looks.
Speaker 1: No, she was a fashion designer, maybe not like classically trained,
Speaker 1: but she definitely had a point of view, and so
Speaker 1: this boutique for her made a ton of sense creatively
Speaker 1: and business wise, and as a nice bonus. It was
Speaker 1: a venture that Abraham would have zero control over.
Speaker 2: Oh the mohawk energy continues.
Speaker 1: And for this exact reason, her dad was really resistant
Speaker 1: to this business. But Selena et Cetera opened its doors
Speaker 1: to immediate success, and Selena would soon enter negotiations to
Speaker 1: open other locations in Monterrey and in Puerto Rico, and
Speaker 1: over the course of just a year, Selena et Cetera
Speaker 1: would met the singer more than five million dollars. Hold
Speaker 1: on a second, can we just talk about the fact
Speaker 1: that Selena was an influencer before all of these influencer
Speaker 1: bitches like here we are now with all these influencer collections,
Speaker 1: this girl was the og influencer.
Speaker 2: I mean five million dollars from two locations. She was
Speaker 2: five million dollars.
Speaker 1: Imagine that now, like a nineteen ninety four five million
Speaker 1: dollars was bank.
Speaker 2: That's fifty billion. She was literally over. I'm telling you,
Speaker 2: she's building an empire overnight.
Speaker 1: And it was an empire made up of legions of
Speaker 1: her devoted fans. Honestly, if she were around today, oh
Speaker 1: my god. I know that the number one most followed
Speaker 1: person on Instagram is Selena Gomez, but I have a
Speaker 1: feeling Quintania would dethrone Gomez as like the queen of social.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's capital f fandom. Your behind your swifties.
Speaker 2: They do not compare to the follow up.
Speaker 1: No, but back before fans could tap into a network
Speaker 1: of millions with the tap of a phone. These diehard
Speaker 1: fans had fan clubs, regional fan clubs.
Speaker 2: Fans had to put in the work. Back in the day,
Speaker 2: you would pay a fee through the mail to get
Speaker 2: access to exclusive fan goodies. Again through the mail, the
Speaker 2: snail mail, like the mailbox.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and back in the day, if you wanted more Selena,
Speaker 1: this is how you got it. By nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: Selena's biggest San Antonio area fan club had reached more
Speaker 1: than five thousand members.
Speaker 2: Together with your fashion boutiques. This was the start of
Speaker 2: something big the empire.
Speaker 1: But sadly, the very same person in charge of those
Speaker 1: new pillars of Selena's empire would be the one to
Speaker 1: bring about its premature end. I know Joseph today on
Speaker 1: Becoming an Icon, Selena's meteoric rise and untimely fall. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Liliana Osquez.
Speaker 2: 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 Latin v stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 2: And given the world some extra level.
Speaker 1: Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 2: Because we are going in the only way we know.
Speaker 1: How with whenas, I'm unassas and a lot of opinions
Speaker 1: as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey to
Speaker 1: find out what makes them still iconic. After the success
Speaker 1: of enfre Mi Mundo, there came no rest for the weary.
Speaker 2: Selena Ilosdino's found themselves on a tight deadline for the
Speaker 2: follow up, so much so that they skipped their usual
Speaker 2: January vacation to work on the album.
Speaker 1: Production on Amor Privido lasted six months while recording took
Speaker 1: around two weeks, as did post production. Recording was snuck
Speaker 1: in in between touring commitments and opening of Selena's aforementioned
Speaker 1: fashion boutiques.
Speaker 2: This makes it sound like such a rush job, and
Speaker 2: yet it's arguably their best album.
Speaker 1: I mean, some people thrive with a deadline. I am
Speaker 1: part of that club. Agreed, and fortunately at this point
Speaker 1: in the band's career they were firing on all cylinders.
Speaker 2: Singles like Comola Floor had broken Selena through the audiences
Speaker 2: from all across the Latino world. So with amor Pramdo,
Speaker 2: the band pushed the limits of Cumbia like they never
Speaker 2: had before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's the mix of Mariacci and Cumbia on Cunaves
Speaker 1: that song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's a cumbia fied cover of a Pretender
Speaker 2: song Photosqueros.
Speaker 1: What photosuerdos is not an original Selena song? Why do
Speaker 1: you know everything?
Speaker 2: It was born that way?
Speaker 1: Okay, So this is why I love doing this podcast
Speaker 1: because that is one of my favorite Selena songs. And
Speaker 1: I did not know that photos Iriquerdos is a Cumbia
Speaker 1: fied version of a Pretender song. I straight up thought
Speaker 1: Aby wrote that and was like jamming it out. Wow,
Speaker 1: the more you know the more you know. Okay, back
Speaker 1: to the podcast, and by the way, there's of course
Speaker 1: the reggae cumbia of b O.
Speaker 2: Love, and it's all tied together with that voice. Selena
Speaker 2: is innocent and buvely on the title track and on
Speaker 2: Chico de la Partamento close. Then on souna vest she's
Speaker 2: snarling vengeful as she disavows her former love.
Speaker 1: Same with the closing track. Ya know, she goes full roquet.
Speaker 2: Yeah. According to Chris, Selena had sort of fallen in
Speaker 2: love with acting. By that point. She had appeared in
Speaker 2: a number of Mexican tele novelas in the past couple
Speaker 2: of years and was in negotiations to star in one.
Speaker 2: She probably brought that cher performances in the booth.
Speaker 1: One thousand percent. You could really see her starting to
Speaker 1: scratch that acting itch. When she started putting out the
Speaker 1: videos for songs like Amorribido and Noma Kadamas like girl
Speaker 1: was serving you face.
Speaker 2: She was definitely in every single shot front and back.
Speaker 2: She was. She is a star. I know.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's talk about amor Pribido because every time
Speaker 1: I see this video, it is such a bizarre video
Speaker 1: for that song, Like when you hear the song Amobido,
Speaker 1: I just don't think like Joshua Tree, Selena like dancing doors. Yeah,
Speaker 1: despite the weird sets in the middle of the desert.
Speaker 1: One thing that he for me in this video is
Speaker 1: Selena's wardrobe. Yes, guys, it is so quintessential classic Selena.
Speaker 1: So she is in like her Levi She's got her
Speaker 1: white button down, very tight painted Levi's and then she's
Speaker 1: got Chris's shirt that she like tied up like crop
Speaker 1: top style.
Speaker 2: The way she wore those oversized shirts so well, but
Speaker 2: also such tight clothes, like she really just would bring it.
Speaker 2: She would bring it. So speaking of bringing it, hold
Speaker 2: on back to Nomakadamas. The dress. I can't like the
Speaker 2: way she showed up like a star. She's such a
Speaker 2: pageant girl.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's the beauty queen.
Speaker 2: Like the curl and the front her hair, that dress.
Speaker 2: Didn't she wear that dress before?
Speaker 1: Yes, you have such a good eye. So the dress
Speaker 1: that Selena is wearing in the video for Noma Ka
Speaker 1: Damas is actually her Grammy's dress that she wore to
Speaker 1: accept her grammy. But I think what so cool about
Speaker 1: this dress is that do you know that she bought
Speaker 1: it at the mall.
Speaker 2: Of course she was at the mall eating pizza. Duh.
Speaker 1: She obviously bought it at the mall. She was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna wear this dress and win a Grammy and
Speaker 1: then I'm going to get my cost per wear out
Speaker 1: of it and wear it in the v Vale.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 1: She bought it at the Houston Galeria. And the dress
Speaker 1: was from a brand who I'm blanking on the name
Speaker 1: of the brand, but it was part of the Cachet family.
Speaker 1: Do you remember Cache Stop dude.
Speaker 2: So I would go with my mom and my friends
Speaker 2: take Cashet during Christmas. At the church that I went to,
Speaker 2: they had something called the Haaladazzle and everybody would have
Speaker 2: to look the best, and so no one would go
Speaker 2: to Express or anything like that. Everyone would go to
Speaker 2: Cachet to get like the dresses. I can't believe I
Speaker 2: remember that, and now it probably sells for I don't
Speaker 2: even know well.
Speaker 1: Fun fact, so that dress is actually completely out of production,
Speaker 1: and so when the costume designer for the Jennifer Lopez
Speaker 1: Lina movie went to get the original, they actually remade
Speaker 1: it just for the film for j Loo, which is
Speaker 1: amazing because like they didn't even have it anymore. I know,
Speaker 1: But if you are interested in Selena's fashion, you have
Speaker 1: to visit the Selena Museum in Corpus Christi. That is
Speaker 1: where the dress is. It lives in the house, along
Speaker 1: with like so many of her costumes. So if you're
Speaker 1: ever in Corpus and you're like, what should we do,
Speaker 1: go to the Selena Museum. Back to the album. Despite
Speaker 1: the fact that Selena's brother Ab was, in his words,
Speaker 1: on the verge of a nervous breakdown throughout the entire
Speaker 1: production process, poor.
Speaker 2: Guy always felt the pressure a.
Speaker 1: Motorproib though, stands out as a labor of love from
Speaker 1: a band at its peak. Ab would come to Selena
Speaker 1: unsure of his song ideas, and Selena's reassurance would power
Speaker 1: him through the rest of the process.
Speaker 2: One of Aby's fondest memories comes from the recording of
Speaker 2: Nomaka Damas, which Selena had recorded in only four takes.
Speaker 1: AB now wanted to do a fifth take, but Selena
Speaker 1: basically said, uh no, I'm going to the mall.
Speaker 2: Literally, all I want to do is eat pizza at
Speaker 2: the mall with Selena.
Speaker 1: But Aviy in her grammy dress and the hair from
Speaker 1: the video.
Speaker 2: One hundred Natalie.
Speaker 1: The lead single for Amor Purvido was the title track. However,
Speaker 1: AB had fought to get beaty Bitty bomb Bomb to
Speaker 1: be first in line.
Speaker 2: I love beatty beatty bomb Bomb, but I think the
Speaker 2: label made the right move there for sure.
Speaker 1: But quick tangent about beatty bitty bombomb and why AB
Speaker 1: loved it so much. So the story goes like this.
Speaker 1: When the band was on tour, they would vamp on
Speaker 1: stage during their soundchecks. Selena would make up lyrics and
Speaker 1: sing kind of like nonsense about whatever she saw on
Speaker 1: stage that day. She was singing the phrase itty bitty
Speaker 1: bubbles and you're probably wondering why. Well, apparently there was
Speaker 1: a bubble machine somewhere on that stage, not surprising if
Speaker 1: you've ever seen them play live. And somewhere along the way,
Speaker 1: itty bitty bubbles became beatty beaty bomb bomb.
Speaker 2: Like you can hear that right totally one hundred I
Speaker 2: hear I heard it when you said itty bitty bubbles.
Speaker 1: Point is that song grew completely organically from the fact
Speaker 1: that this band was totally in sync, like they could
Speaker 1: take a improvised phrase like antybody bubbles and put it
Speaker 1: through the Selena and Aby magic and get a hit
Speaker 1: like beaty Bitty Bomb.
Speaker 2: Bumb They were at the absolute height of their live performances.
Speaker 1: Which brings us too.
Speaker 2: The Astrodome.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety five, on the tour for Almordreddo, Selena
Speaker 1: played a legendary show at the Houston Astrodome featuring that
Speaker 1: iconic purple jumpsuit. Wow, this performance happened I think just
Speaker 1: a couple of months, maybe a month before she tragically
Speaker 1: passed away. I mean, this is a massive undertaking. I
Speaker 1: think there were more than sixty thousand people at this concert,
Speaker 1: and of course I think what people remember most is
Speaker 1: the iconic purple jumpsuit, which is also at the Selena
Speaker 1: moussail in Corpus Christie.
Speaker 2: Love that, Okay, See, that's why we need to go,
Speaker 2: because I really want to see that material, like because
Speaker 2: it was like shiny, it had like little crystals or
Speaker 2: diamonds or was it just kind of like an iridescent
Speaker 2: to it? You know. Speaking of this performance inspires me
Speaker 2: to just shake my shoulders because she was just moving
Speaker 2: up and down.
Speaker 1: To me, there's such a beauty to this concert, but
Speaker 1: there's also such a sadness because I think when you
Speaker 1: go back and watch, and it's been released as a
Speaker 1: special you can watch it online or stream it. But
Speaker 1: when you see her performing this, she is at the
Speaker 1: very top of her game. And when you see her
Speaker 1: singing AMoD brobido and like by Leastacumbia in the purple
Speaker 1: jumpsuit in front of sixty thousand screaming devoted fit in
Speaker 1: her home state, like I'm getting goosebumps, like you can
Speaker 1: see them. Yes, I'm getting goosebumps because I really think
Speaker 1: this venue, this location, this night really highlighted the fact
Speaker 1: that she had it all, like the potential, the star power,
Speaker 1: the singing chops, like the world was hers for the
Speaker 1: takeing and tragically we know what happened, just like not
Speaker 1: too long after this show. So it's almost like I said,
Speaker 1: it's such a beautiful concert to watch and if you
Speaker 1: love Selena, please go back and watch it. Like her
Speaker 1: live is better than any like recording of Selena. But
Speaker 1: there is such a sadness to me in this show
Speaker 1: because you see what could have been.
Speaker 2: As I was watching it, you know, I just was
Speaker 2: smiling the whole time, Like my cheeks got tired because
Speaker 2: I was just watching it. I was just kind of
Speaker 2: like wow. Also just to see her give it her all.
Speaker 1: This performance is like peak peak Selena. Right. It broke
Speaker 1: attendance records, and earlier on the tour, Selena had also
Speaker 1: broken the attendance record at Miami's Gaiotro Festival. It was
Speaker 1: Selena's biggest tour yet.
Speaker 2: I'm What for You, Though, spent ninety eight consecutive weeks
Speaker 2: at the number one on Billboard's Top Latin Albums Chart,
Speaker 2: ninety seven consecutive weeks at number one in the regional
Speaker 2: Mexican Album chart, and.
Speaker 1: At the Tajanno Music Awards, Selena swept, winning every category
Speaker 1: she was nominated in. The album won three Billboard Latin
Speaker 1: Music Awards and a slew of other Latin music awards.
Speaker 2: And yet it got snubbed at the Grammys, receiving only
Speaker 2: a nomination.
Speaker 1: Get it together, guys, I feel like the Grammys have
Speaker 1: been out of sync with what is actually happening in
Speaker 1: music for decades on decades on decades since then, and
Speaker 1: they never got it together. You know, here's the thing,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? Right, Grammy or no Grammy?
Speaker 1: With Amore prodido, Selena was the biggest Latin American star
Speaker 1: in the country.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: By the end of nineteen ninety four, it had sold
Speaker 1: half a million copies with that.
Speaker 2: Label was finally satisfied. As Selena and the band continued touring,
Speaker 2: EMI began setting the stage for Selena's English language crossover album.
Speaker 1: But as we all know, the long awaited crossover would
Speaker 1: never come. We should say that we're not going to
Speaker 1: linger too long on this part of the story.
Speaker 2: Given the choice between remembering how Selena was taken from
Speaker 2: us and remembering all that she gave us, We're going
Speaker 2: to take a bit more from Columbi.
Speaker 1: After all, the show is becoming an icon, not losing
Speaker 1: an icon. But of course we all know that tragically
Speaker 1: we did lose one at the hands of one Yolanda Saldivar.
Speaker 2: Yolanda Saldivar worked as a nurse before taking her niece
Speaker 2: to say Selena in concert back in ninety one during
Speaker 2: the Entre Mimundo tour.
Speaker 1: After seeing Selena in concert, Salivad went from Selena skeptic
Speaker 1: to Selena fanatic. She was inspired to start the Selena
Speaker 1: Fan Club in San Antonio.
Speaker 2: So she called it Abraham a number of times. He says.
Speaker 2: She left him fifteen messages she would say that she
Speaker 2: only left.
Speaker 1: Him three, whatever the number was. Knowing Abraham, some part
Speaker 1: of him must have appreciated the persistence, so he granted
Speaker 1: her permission to form the fan club. Selena met Salivad
Speaker 1: in December of nineteen ninety one, and a friendship formed.
Speaker 2: For twenty two dollars, fan club members would receive Selena memorabilia,
Speaker 2: a T shirt, exclusive interviews with the band, fun facts
Speaker 2: about Selena and the Dinos because remember this was pre
Speaker 2: internet and concert announcements.
Speaker 1: By nineteen ninety four, more than eight thousand fans had
Speaker 1: joined the club. By the way, not me doing the
Speaker 1: math on like eight thousand times twenty two dollars, you
Speaker 1: would always a hustler anyway, Salivad quit nursing to run
Speaker 1: the fan club full time. By then, the whole family
Speaker 1: had come to trust her, so much so that Selena
Speaker 1: hired her to manage the new Selena et Cetera boutiques
Speaker 1: in Corpus Christi and San Antonio.
Speaker 2: Selena would then go on to sign Saldivar as her
Speaker 2: registered agent in San Antonio, putting Saldivar in charge of
Speaker 2: all legal affairs relating to Selena's business ventures.
Speaker 1: By the way, never do that. There is no lesson learned,
Speaker 1: lesson learned, never ever. And here's why. Saldivar was authorized
Speaker 1: to write and cash checks in connection with Selena's business
Speaker 1: and was given an American Express card for business expenses.
Speaker 2: And this is where the family started to notice things
Speaker 2: were off.
Speaker 1: The Selena, Etcetera company bank accounts couldn't pay the bills
Speaker 1: due to Saldivar's lavish use of the AMEX card on
Speaker 1: Lincoln Town cars, expensive restaurants, and cell phones.
Speaker 2: Okay, two cell phones is kind of sus even today,
Speaker 2: but in nine, nineteen ninety five, what was that bitch thinking.
Speaker 1: One was a burner? Clearly Meanwhile, Selena ecceid. Her employees
Speaker 1: were calling Saldivar two faced, saying that she was nice
Speaker 1: when Selena was around, but abused them. When no one
Speaker 1: from the family was there to notice.
Speaker 2: Saldovar fired anyone she didn't like, and within a year,
Speaker 2: both boutiques had lost more than half their staff, each
Speaker 2: going from thirty eight employees to just fourteen.
Speaker 1: The remaining employees became fed up and raised their concerns
Speaker 1: to Selena, but Selena trusted Saldivar, so she stayed.
Speaker 2: Selena's cousin was hired to work with Saldivar and helped
Speaker 2: extend the business into Mexico. She quit within a week.
Speaker 1: Saldivar also fought with Selena's fashion designer, Martin Gomez, who
Speaker 1: accused her of mutilating his pieces and establishing a reign
Speaker 1: of terror.
Speaker 2: In retaliation, Saldivar recorded her conversations with Gomez in order
Speaker 2: to convince Selena to sideline him, and Selena did. Reporters
Speaker 2: from the Dallas Morning News reported that Saldivar's devotion to
Speaker 2: Selena quote unquote bordered on obsession.
Speaker 1: When Selena began consulting a business associate in Monterrey in
Speaker 1: the hopes of opening a boutique there, Saldivar's intense jealousy
Speaker 1: led Selena to visit the area incognito, wearing wigs and
Speaker 1: flying under her husband's surname, all to hide it from Saldivar.
Speaker 2: Yeah, who needs a friend like that. Finally, in January
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five, the dam Baroque Abraham became inundated with
Speaker 2: calls and letters from the Selena fan club members who
Speaker 2: hadn't received their memorabilia despite paying the.
Speaker 1: Fee and at both Selena, etcetera. Boutiques. Overdue bills began
Speaker 1: to pile up in the mail.
Speaker 2: So Abraham went investigating and found that Saldivar had embezzled
Speaker 2: over sixty thousand dollars from both the fan club and
Speaker 2: the boutiques.
Speaker 1: Abraham confronted Saldivar with documentation of the missing funds. He
Speaker 1: grilled her for an explanation. According to Abraham, she simply
Speaker 1: stared at him as he questioned her. Eventually, she got up.
Speaker 2: And left, and Abraham pulled an Abraham for once with
Speaker 2: good reason and forbid Saldivar from contacting Selena.
Speaker 1: But Selena was reluctant to cut ties with her. She
Speaker 1: still trusted Saldivar's business acumen, and Saldivar had access to
Speaker 1: bank records and other documents necessary for taxes.
Speaker 2: This is where I start yelling at the TV, like, girl,
Speaker 2: just hire a tax guy and get the fuck out.
Speaker 1: I know this is a lifetime movie playing before our eyes,
Speaker 1: but it's real, you guys, and we all know how
Speaker 1: it ends. It's like so hard to go back to
Speaker 1: this place. And Selena like she was so sweet and trusting, right,
Speaker 1: she kept Saldivar in her orbit. Despite all of these
Speaker 1: red flags, Saldivar then bought a pistol and repeatedly attempted
Speaker 1: to lure Selena into a hotel room alone. On March
Speaker 1: thirty first, nineteen ninety five, Saldivar succeeded.
Speaker 2: That morning, Selena went to Saldivar's motel room to retrieve
Speaker 2: more stolen goods and bank records from her, and, according
Speaker 2: to a boutique employee who had spoken to her to
Speaker 2: fire Saldivar.
Speaker 1: At the motel, guests heard an argument, then a gunshot.
Speaker 1: Selena had been shot in the back as she attempted
Speaker 1: to flee. She managed to run to the lobby and
Speaker 1: named Saldivar as her assailant, but there she collapsed.
Speaker 2: Paramedics attempted to revive her for over an hour, but
Speaker 2: it was no use. Selena was gone.
Speaker 1: The day after Selena's murder, thousands of grieving fans showed
Speaker 1: up for a candlelight vigil. Then the family displayed her
Speaker 1: casket at the Bayfront Auditorium. An hour before the viewing,
Speaker 1: a rumor circulated that the casket was empty, so the
Speaker 1: family decided to go open casket. Between thirty and forty
Speaker 1: thousand fans viewed Selena's remains, while seventy eight thousand signed
Speaker 1: a book of condolences. The following day, she was buried
Speaker 1: at Seaside Memorial Park in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Speaker 2: We feel her loss so deeply as fans, it's almost
Speaker 2: easy to forget how devastating it must have been for
Speaker 2: the family. Apart from losing their artistic center of gravity,
Speaker 2: they lost a sister, a daughter, a wife.
Speaker 1: Years later, in an oral history of Selena's life an
Speaker 1: Untimely Death in Texas Monthly, Suzette Keithania would say, I
Speaker 1: used to get out all my photos and open up
Speaker 1: my sister's traveling makeup case so I could smell her.
Speaker 1: I took over the boutiques because I knew Selena would
Speaker 1: have wanted to keep them going. But it was traumatic
Speaker 1: all day. Every day people came into the store to
Speaker 1: tell me how much they loved my sister, and sometimes
Speaker 1: I had to go into the back and just cry
Speaker 1: and cry. To this day, my mother doesn't talk publicly
Speaker 1: about what happened. Chris kind of shut down. He left
Speaker 1: everything in the house exactly as it was the day
Speaker 1: she died. Dad consumed himself.
Speaker 2: With work, In the same article, Aby would say that
Speaker 2: nothing would ever be the same as sharing the stage
Speaker 2: with his sister. Quote when we performed in Central America,
Speaker 2: there were times when the emotion was so overwhelming that
Speaker 2: I would start to cry. I would turn away from
Speaker 2: the crowd and act like something was wrong with the
Speaker 2: amplifier until I gathered myself. You have to understand, she
Speaker 2: was generating electricity, and I was part of that conductor.
Speaker 2: I was never able to recreate that high again. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: according to one reporter, Abraham went on autopilot in the
Speaker 2: wake of Selena's death, wrangling reporters and handling funeral arrangements.
Speaker 1: But Selena's mother Marcella would tell Susette, your father cries
Speaker 1: in the shower because he doesn't want me to know
Speaker 1: he's crying. He thinks I can't hear him, but I can.
Speaker 2: For all that there is to say about Abraham, and
Speaker 2: we've said plenty, you got to feel for him here.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. It's sometimes hard to distinguish between Abraham the dad
Speaker 1: and Abraham the businessman, But if you think of them
Speaker 1: as one and the same, it's a little easier to
Speaker 1: wrap your head around why he was as fiercely protective
Speaker 1: as he was over the band and over Selena in particular.
Speaker 2: A parent's worst nightmare is losing their kids. A business
Speaker 2: owner's worst nightmare is losing the business. Both of these
Speaker 2: things happened, and like, maybe we feel a little ikey
Speaker 2: about the second part, but I'm not sure that makes
Speaker 2: his grief any less real.
Speaker 1: And it all happened at the hands of someone Abraham
Speaker 1: and Selena were willing to trust, as opposed to someone
Speaker 1: Abraham was skeptical towards right away, like Chris.
Speaker 2: For example, Blame tends to follow death. In the best cases,
Speaker 2: you end up blaming yourself for a loved one's passing.
Speaker 1: But in a lot of cases, blame gets passed around,
Speaker 1: especially in a death as traumatic as this one. Bad
Speaker 1: blood still remains between Abraham and Chris. Meanwhile, some fans
Speaker 1: accuse Abraham of milking his daughter's memory decades after her passing,
Speaker 1: while others her accusations at Chris.
Speaker 2: Grief has this horrible dark power when it's attached to tragedy,
Speaker 2: like the killer went to jail, and yet we still
Speaker 2: need an answer for the injustice.
Speaker 1: And if you ever spent any time going through the
Speaker 1: comments on YouTube for old Selena videos, you see a
Speaker 1: lot of people imagining what could have.
Speaker 2: Been Selena playing at the Super Bowl halftime show, Selena
Speaker 2: on the collab with the new Hot Artist.
Speaker 1: And you'll also see plenty of arguments on how Selena
Speaker 1: is remembered, Selena as a commodity, Selena as an untouchable idol.
Speaker 2: Not to mention arguments over where Selena would stand today
Speaker 2: on certain political issues, We'll say as a Mexican American
Speaker 2: woman with a religious upbringing.
Speaker 1: Which, without getting into it, suffice it to say, we
Speaker 1: can never really know who Selena would have become if
Speaker 1: she were still with us, Like would she be a mom,
Speaker 1: Like would she be mentoring like other female artists. And so,
Speaker 1: instead of lamenting or arguing over what she could have
Speaker 1: given us, the best thing that we can do is
Speaker 1: just remember what she did give us.
Speaker 2: After Selena's death, Amoor Probrido went platinum multiple times over,
Speaker 2: as did her other albums over successive years.
Speaker 1: Then came the release of Dreaming of You the summer
Speaker 1: after We Said Goodbye. In the wake of the Amor
Speaker 1: Probido tour and amid all the turmoil surrounding her boutiques,
Speaker 1: Selena had been recording tracks for her long awaited English crossover.
Speaker 2: The label had tapped Grammy winning songwriters for Selena to
Speaker 2: collaborate with. Dreaming of You includes that small handful of collaborations,
Speaker 2: including the title track and I Could Fall in Love.
Speaker 1: Dreaming of You debuted at the top of the Billboard
Speaker 1: two hundred, netting the second largest release for an album
Speaker 1: that year besides Michael Jackson. It was also the second
Speaker 1: largest first week sales for a female musician, behind Janet Jackson.
Speaker 2: Like literally going toe to toe with the Jacksons, this
Speaker 2: was a crossover she dreamed about, and she never got
Speaker 2: to see it.
Speaker 1: By December, Dreaming of You had gone double platinum at
Speaker 1: two million copies. The album introduced millions to Selena and
Speaker 1: continues to do so while giving both newcomers and devoted
Speaker 1: fans a tantalizing taste of what could have been. Okay,
Speaker 1: We kicked off talking about Selena by listing all the
Speaker 1: different ways people have connected to her music.
Speaker 2: The og fans, the nineties kids who learned her story
Speaker 2: from the movie, and the little zoomers who love to
Speaker 2: cosplay Selena.
Speaker 1: Selena's legacy was cut short. There's like no if ands
Speaker 1: or buts about it. But among the millions of listeners
Speaker 1: who fell in love with her is a treasure trove
Speaker 1: of artists caring her legacy forward.
Speaker 2: So what better way to celebrate Selena than by celebrating
Speaker 2: those artists keeping her alive in their own music Exactly.
Speaker 1: Someone that I think always gets a lot of accolades
Speaker 1: for this but does it in her own very unique
Speaker 1: way is Destiny Neveda. Now, if you guys have not
Speaker 1: heard of her, she is a Latin Grammy nominee. She's
Speaker 1: a two time the Hanno Music Award singer. And I
Speaker 1: think her voice is very like traditional te Hanne like,
Speaker 1: it's very Selena. The sound is spot on, like it's
Speaker 1: exactly what you expect it to be.
Speaker 2: You know, I agree with you. I feel like it is.
Speaker 2: And you know how Selena has a snarling to it,
Speaker 2: she kind of doesn't do that so much. I think
Speaker 2: it's a little bit more commercial hers Destiny. It's definitely
Speaker 2: a sound that is a little bit easier to hear
Speaker 2: because it's not like tumble and rumble. Do you know
Speaker 2: what I mean?
Speaker 1: I do I totally get that. I mean, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, for Destiny, I would say I mean, she's
Speaker 1: got like super strong ties aside from just the sound. Like, yes,
Speaker 1: Tusine's mom was friends with Selena and like they used
Speaker 1: to play music with her. So like she's a baby
Speaker 1: and obviously she's grown up with music in her family,
Speaker 1: but they actually have like actual connections to that family,
Speaker 1: both from Texas Latinas, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: feel like they both really are so similar in the
Speaker 1: way that they use music to connect to their fans.
Speaker 2: You know, there's this new there's a singer out here.
Speaker 2: Her name is Snow the Product. And the reason I
Speaker 2: wanted to look her up and all this stuff is
Speaker 2: because she has Selena tattoos and mentioned Selena eating pizza
Speaker 2: in one of her songs called bet that I Will.
Speaker 2: I don't want to compare her to Cardi B. Because
Speaker 2: I mean, she is Mexican and she kind of has
Speaker 2: a little bit of a Chola voice in a way
Speaker 2: that you know how Cardi B has kind of like
Speaker 2: an East Coast Yes, so her rap is really cool.
Speaker 2: It's you got to You've really got to listen to.
Speaker 2: Her name is Snow the Product.
Speaker 1: I'm adding her to my list. Another one that I
Speaker 1: think people always call out to me is Estevie, who
Speaker 1: was also like a new person for me because she's
Speaker 1: very like gen Z. But if you like Cumbia, like
Speaker 1: she is the Cumbia queen.
Speaker 2: She is. But I feel like she kind of sings
Speaker 2: it in a very kind of softer way, you know,
Speaker 2: very like modern. I feel like it's like a little
Speaker 2: like her voice is a little dreamier instead of being
Speaker 2: so commercial.
Speaker 1: I just think she's having such a moment because I
Speaker 1: think you're obviously with you know, fesl Pluma, You're seeing
Speaker 1: like this massive explosion and almost like renaissance for very
Speaker 1: traditional regional Mexican music. So a lot of these artists
Speaker 1: are kind of pushing these regional styles to the forefront,
Speaker 1: whereas Selena did that. She already did that in the nineties, right,
Speaker 1: but now we're seeing it come back. So it is
Speaker 1: having very much a renaissance. Because I will say that
Speaker 1: for my friends that are not Latino, they don't have
Speaker 1: the same experience of Selena music that I do because
Speaker 1: they weren't listening to the Spanish like they weren't listening
Speaker 1: to Amorrio at their house. They were listening to like
Speaker 1: Dreaming of You and I could fall in love which
Speaker 1: is a beautiful way to step into Selena's voice and
Speaker 1: her sound. But these artists like Stevie and Destiny and
Speaker 1: the one you mentioned snow the product. They are allowing
Speaker 1: this regional Mexican music to touch all ears, not just
Speaker 1: Latino ears, and so that in itself is an incredible
Speaker 1: expansion of our music and our culture, which I am
Speaker 1: so here for. I also think what's amazing is that
Speaker 1: one of the women leading the way here is also
Speaker 1: Carol g I mean like she just won like all
Speaker 1: of the Grammys, not Latin Grammys, people real Grammy, so
Speaker 1: they got their shit together. Thank you Grammys. Finally, but
Speaker 1: she covered Gomonla floor at the Astrodaut. And then you
Speaker 1: have one of my favorite country artists, Casey Musgraves.
Speaker 2: I knew you were going to bring Yes.
Speaker 1: I love Casey Muskrats her new album is you Guys Anyway?
Speaker 1: Casey saying it during like Christmas karaoke. So again, Selena
Speaker 1: has touched so many of these like younger female artists
Speaker 1: in a way that we can't even began to sum
Speaker 1: up in one short episode, right, and we could go
Speaker 1: on and on and on and on and do like
Speaker 1: multiple episodes.
Speaker 2: Two hours right, this.
Speaker 1: Is a five hour Becoming an Icon. But I think
Speaker 1: the best way that you and I can wrap up
Speaker 1: this show, this episode of our the Hannu Icon, is
Speaker 1: to do a little gomlay.
Speaker 2: Is this I kind of don't know the other part
Speaker 2: to that, I'm gonna get.
Speaker 1: Sued anyway, all right, guys, Well, next time on Becoming
Speaker 1: an Icon on the Spirit of the Sixties survives in
Speaker 1: Carlos Santana. Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoro and
Speaker 1: Iheart's Michael Duda podcast Network. Listen to Becoming an Icon
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcast