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Speaker 1: From Futuro Media. It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria Josa Today

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Speaker 1: Selena and Abraham. An intimate portrait of the Tejano star

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Speaker 1: and her father who pushed her to become an artist

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Speaker 1: and an icon Today is part of the Anything for

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Speaker 1: Selena podcast, which is a collaboration between w BR and

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Speaker 1: Futuro Studios. Journalist Maria Garcia is going to tell us

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Speaker 1: her story as she began to report on the lasting

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Speaker 1: legacy of Selena Quintanilla. Maria's reporting begins not with Selena herself,

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Speaker 1: but with Abraham Quintaniya, Selena's father, manager and mentor who's

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Speaker 1: known for guarding his daughter's legacy with an iron fist.

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Speaker 1: I'll hand things over now to Maria as she takes

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Speaker 1: us on this journey.

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Speaker 2: In early March twenty twenty, I was on a plane

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Speaker 2: on my way from Boston to Corpus Christi, Texas, Selena's hometown.

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Speaker 2: It was the early days of twenty twenty, the before

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Speaker 2: the country.

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Speaker 3: Was still flying.

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Speaker 2: People were still out in the street. I'd gone dancing

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Speaker 2: the night before, albeit applying hand sanitizer on every ten minutes,

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Speaker 2: so I was tired on the plane, but I couldn't sleep.

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Speaker 3: I was Nancy.

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Speaker 2: My stomach was a knots and it wasn't just because

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Speaker 2: of the impending pandemic. I was on my way to

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Speaker 2: a month long reporting trip in Texas, interviewing scholars, fans,

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Speaker 2: and all kinds of people for this podcast. Except this podcast,

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Speaker 2: of course, didn't exist yet, and that's because the whole

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Speaker 2: theme hinged on the first leg of this trip. This

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Speaker 2: is when I hoped to meet with Abraham Gintanilla, Selena's father,

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Speaker 2: who's notoriously.

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Speaker 3: Protective of her image and music.

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Speaker 2: I'd hope to land an interview with him, and also

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Speaker 2: ask him to let us license some of Selena's songs

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Speaker 2: for the podcast. My boss is thinking was no music rights,

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Speaker 2: no podcast. Before this plane ride to Texas, our producers

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Speaker 2: had been working on securing those music rights for a

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Speaker 2: few months. We'd had to wrangle all these parties, songwriters,

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Speaker 2: record labels, and small publishers and convince them that the

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Speaker 2: project was worthy of Selena's music. But I knew that

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Speaker 2: the final deciding yes or no would come from Selena's family.

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Speaker 2: I'd managed to reach Selena's father, Abraham on the phone

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Speaker 2: a couple times before, but he wasn't really interested in interviews,

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Speaker 2: said too many reporters had asked him too many foolish questions.

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Speaker 2: I told him, oh, this podcast, it's an oh to Selena.

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Speaker 2: It's rooted in love. I want to show her legacy's

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Speaker 2: true impact. And he was like, everyone wants to do that.

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Speaker 2: When he heard disappointment in my voice, he told me

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Speaker 2: not to feel bad. He rejected journalists every day. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 2: I heard from the record label they said Selena's family

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Speaker 2: would not approve our requests to license her music. I

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Speaker 2: tried reaching Abraham again. I emailed him, left him messages, nothing.

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Speaker 2: So back on the plane, I wondered how things would

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Speaker 2: go down. Abraham knew when I'd be in Corpus Christie,

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Speaker 2: but he'd stop short of setting an official meeting with me.

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Speaker 2: Either way, I felt like I had to at least

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Speaker 2: try to talk to him. But I felt this apprehension,

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Speaker 2: this like skidtish feeling. I've been a journalist for fifteen years.

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Speaker 2: I've met plenty of people who make me nervous, but

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Speaker 2: this felt like there was so much more at stake. Yes,

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Speaker 2: to some degree because of the music rights, to some

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Speaker 2: degree because of his famous temper.

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Speaker 3: But really it was.

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Speaker 2: Because Abraham felt like such a big part of Selena's story,

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Speaker 2: a foundational part. He wasn't just her father, he was

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Speaker 2: her manager, her mentor, and Selena talked about him all

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Speaker 2: of the time.

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Speaker 4: My influence is, I would say, with my father.

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Speaker 5: My father used to have a band way back when,

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Speaker 5: and I guess it's where we got the musical talent from.

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Speaker 2: I don't really remember seeing or hearing about Selena's mom

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Speaker 2: a lot growing up, but I remember knowing about Abraham.

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Speaker 2: I was eleven in nineteen ninety seven when the Selena

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Speaker 2: biopic came out. Edward James almost portrays Abraham opposite of

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Speaker 2: a young Jennifer Lopez as Selena. Abraham is played as

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Speaker 2: a demanding, often controlling, short fused father.

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Speaker 6: Maybe you got to pick it up, man, people are

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Speaker 6: you lost? Everybody because of the rhythm was not fasts.

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Speaker 7: Well, they weren't dancing because you weren't playing Abraham.

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Speaker 8: The kids.

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Speaker 6: Just dropped the pick it up.

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Speaker 2: There's a famous scene when a girln Selena, takes off

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Speaker 2: her jacket on stage to reveal for the first time

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Speaker 2: one of her now iconic boustiers, and he freaks out,

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Speaker 2: what is she.

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Speaker 9: Wearing she's probably gotten nothing off.

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Speaker 3: She's in a pro Abraham.

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Speaker 2: Is not just a rod.

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Speaker 10: It's one of those things, you know, like all of

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Speaker 10: those work.

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Speaker 11: She can't be one of things like that. The men

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Speaker 11: out of here.

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Speaker 2: This narrative about Abraham Cinitania wasn't just about him being

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Speaker 2: an angry man, though. During the murder trial of Selena's killer,

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Speaker 2: Jolanda Saldivar, her defense painted Abraham as a greedy business

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Speaker 2: manager who used his children for financial gain. Even twenty

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Speaker 2: five years later, Selena fans on social media often criticize

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Speaker 2: him for exploiting her image or for being possessive of

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Speaker 2: her likeness even in death. So I thought Abraham was

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Speaker 2: scary and kind of sexist, and I was worried about

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Speaker 2: going to see him.

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Speaker 3: But I knew that if I.

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Speaker 2: Wanted to really understand Selena, I had to start with Abraham.

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Speaker 2: After arriving in Corpus CHRISTI I went to the Selena

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Speaker 2: Museum her family created after her death. The last time

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Speaker 2: I had spoken to Abraham before, it felt like he

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Speaker 2: kind of ghosted me. I told him when i'd be

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Speaker 2: in town, and he said he'd probably be around the museum.

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Speaker 2: But he refused an interview and wouldn't explicitly agree to

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Speaker 2: meet with me. So I was still kind of uneasy

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Speaker 2: about the whole thing. Still, I was super excited to

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Speaker 2: be at the museum. Every year, tens of thousands of

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Speaker 2: people come to see the place where Selena recorded her

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Speaker 2: last songs. Her clothes are enshrined in glass cases, including

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Speaker 2: the iconic plum jumpsuit that j Loo also wore to

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Speaker 2: recreate Selena's last huge concert. Selena's music plays NonStop here.

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Speaker 2: Hundreds of photos of her smile link face around her,

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Speaker 2: dozens of music awards, her childhood dolls, her fashion sketches.

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Speaker 2: All of these objects put a void into sharp focus.

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Speaker 2: It's not just her things, her absence seems on display too,

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Speaker 2: And I saw how this shook people, like twenty four

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Speaker 2: year old and Jana Garcia, a visitor who began to

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Speaker 2: weep mid interview.

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Speaker 12: Okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. What do you

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Speaker 12: think it is about her that makes you feel this way?

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Speaker 2: I don't want to like her.

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Speaker 12: We were grateful we got you.

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Speaker 2: As I was looking around, I spotted Abraham. He uses

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Speaker 2: a kne now, but he still looks spry for eighty one,

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Speaker 2: and he's immediately recognizable, with a slightly stoic gaze peeking

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Speaker 2: through dark tinted glasses.

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Speaker 3: We said hello.

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Speaker 2: He led us to his office, a modest room right

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Speaker 2: off the museum's main display space. We made sure our

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Speaker 2: equipment was off because Abraham still had not agreed to

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Speaker 2: be recorded. He took control of the conversation Immediately. One

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Speaker 2: thing led to another, and before we knew it, we

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Speaker 2: had spent the whole day together. I could tell he

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Speaker 2: was feeling us out. Producer Kristen Torres and I talked

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Speaker 2: about it that night at our hotel. Like, he laughs

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Speaker 2: pretty often, and he laughs genuinely. I mean, he mostly

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Speaker 2: laughs at his own jokes. But he's like a playful person.

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Speaker 2: I wasn't expecting that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, But I mean I also think like he's aware.

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Speaker 2: He's very aware of this perception of him as being

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Speaker 2: like the controlling guy.

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Speaker 3: Like he's very aware of that narrative.

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Speaker 2: We were surprised, surprised that Abraham had spent all day

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Speaker 2: with us and that he'd agreed to see us the

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Speaker 2: next day. That's when he let us record.

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Speaker 6: He's not a recording right now.

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Speaker 13: Right.

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Speaker 2: We went to the High ho a tex mex restaurant

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Speaker 2: he's been coming to since Selena used to join him

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Speaker 2: a quarter century ago.

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Speaker 6: I want you the same I wanted in a boat, And

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Speaker 6: do you have just regular beans?

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Speaker 13: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: There's a big painting and dozens of photos of Selena

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Speaker 2: set up like a shrine on one of the walls

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Speaker 2: of the restaurant. A lot of people came up to

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Speaker 2: Abraham to say, Hi, you.

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Speaker 6: Don't know that they are from here. If you lived

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Speaker 6: on her, that's all you go.

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Speaker 2: I was still slightly on edge around Abraham, scared that

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Speaker 2: I'd mistakenly say something that might offend him, that I'd

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Speaker 2: encounter the Abraham of the Selena movie.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes it was.

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Speaker 2: A little awkward, or more like I was a little awkward.

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Speaker 6: All Right, you're gonna ask questions?

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Speaker 3: I will, all right?

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Speaker 6: Are you just gonna?

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Speaker 3: I have to admit I listen to this tape.

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Speaker 2: Now, and I'm like, God, Maria, you ask questions for

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Speaker 2: a living. You've been a journalist for a long time.

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Speaker 2: Why did you turn into a weird, timid kid asking

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Speaker 2: random things? Mister, does your does your wife cook?

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Speaker 3: Does your wife cook?

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Speaker 14: A lot?

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Speaker 6: We out weed out all the time out of a

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Speaker 6: can nah, My wife's a good cook.

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Speaker 2: After lunch, Abraham took us with him as he gave

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Speaker 2: an off the cuff tour of the museum and recording

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Speaker 2: studio to unsuspecting visitors and made fun of the studio

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Speaker 2: engineer he.

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Speaker 15: Won the Grammy.

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Speaker 6: Please don't applaud him, because he's gonna want some more money,

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Speaker 6: so he said.

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Speaker 2: And then finally he agreed to do a proper interview.

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Speaker 2: I was just honest about how important sitting down with him.

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Speaker 3: Was to me.

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Speaker 2: Oh man, mister, I've been dreaming of this moment for

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Speaker 2: a very long time.

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Speaker 1: Well, coming up on Latino USA, we hear from eighty

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Speaker 1: one year old Abraham Kintania himself about how music brought

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Speaker 1: his family together, first in a strategy for economics survival

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Speaker 1: and later in international success. Stay with us, not yes, hey,

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Speaker 1: we're back, And before the break we were listening to

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Speaker 1: Anything for Selena. It's a collaboration between w B u

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Speaker 1: Are and Futuro Studios, hosted by Maria Garcia. When we

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Speaker 1: left off, Maria was finally sitting down for an interview

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Speaker 1: with Abraham Quintanilla. He's Selena's father and the man who

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Speaker 1: has been portrayed as a controlling parent who managed Selena's

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Speaker 1: musical career. Maria Garcia is going to pick up that conversation.

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Speaker 2: Now tell me you're born and born and raised in Corpus.

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Speaker 6: CHRISTI, February the twentieth, nineteen thirty nine.

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Speaker 2: Selena's origin story as an artist is directly tied to Abraham's,

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Speaker 2: so by hearing his story, I was also really hearing Selena's.

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Speaker 2: Here's a condensed version. Abraham grew up in nineteen fifties

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Speaker 2: segregated South Texas.

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Speaker 6: They had three high schools, one for the Mexican, one

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Speaker 6: for the Anglos, and one for the blacks.

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Speaker 2: His father was a mechanic and worked long day, so

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Speaker 2: Abraham hardly saw him.

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Speaker 3: His mother stayed at home. And so, what kind of

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Speaker 3: a were you?

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Speaker 6: I like gardening. I used to plant. My mother would

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Speaker 6: buy me little packs of seats, and around my house.

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Speaker 6: I would work the ground but softened it up and

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Speaker 6: it would plant the seats and beautiful flowers would grow there.

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Speaker 2: His parents were religious, they'd converted to being Jehovah's witnesses,

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Speaker 2: but Abraham grew up fast. By eleven years old, he

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Speaker 2: smoked cigarettes, and by fifteen he hitchhiked to California for

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Speaker 2: six months after an argument with his father.

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Speaker 6: So I was kind of like the black sheep of

224
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:39,920
Speaker 6: the family, and then I started going to dances when

225
00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:42,600
Speaker 6: I was very young. I've always loved music.

226
00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:46,920
Speaker 2: At sixteen, he joined a band called Los Tinos, singing

227
00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:58,000
Speaker 2: doo wop at sockhops and parties and corpus Christie. Abraham

228
00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:02,360
Speaker 2: quit school and managed the band's bookings and finances. He

229
00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:05,320
Speaker 2: found he was good at the music business. He made money.

230
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Speaker 2: It was an exciting life. The band played in Mexican

231
00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:14,040
Speaker 2: American strongholds across the country, from Chicago to Fresno. Then

232
00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:16,760
Speaker 2: Abraham did a stint in the army, during which he

233
00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:20,240
Speaker 2: met Marcella, the daughter of farm workers in Washington State.

234
00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:23,880
Speaker 2: The two married and went back to Texas. Abe went

235
00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:28,240
Speaker 2: back to playing the band. Los Lino's got bigger. Abraham

236
00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,680
Speaker 2: would be gone on tour a lot. Abe, his oldest son,

237
00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:35,840
Speaker 2: didn't recognize him. Sometimes when he'd come home. He wasn't

238
00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:40,440
Speaker 2: there when Suzette, his first daughter, was born. By twenty nine,

239
00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:44,640
Speaker 2: after about thirteen years making a living off music, Abraham

240
00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:47,680
Speaker 2: had had enough. He quit and moved the family to

241
00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:52,760
Speaker 2: a tiny Texas town called Lake Jackson, where his parents lived.

242
00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:56,640
Speaker 2: He got an office job at Dow Chemical, and by.

243
00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:59,320
Speaker 6: Nine o'clock at night, everybody's going to bed, and I'm

244
00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:01,880
Speaker 6: used to the night life, So I was like a

245
00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:05,439
Speaker 6: cage line, stressed out. Anything to tell me.

246
00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:09,600
Speaker 2: I was irritated, but he eventually settled in. Music was

247
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:15,920
Speaker 2: behind him, and then Selena came in a weird coincidence.

248
00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:20,359
Speaker 2: She was delivered by physician Ron Paul years before he

249
00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:23,840
Speaker 2: ran for president. At least that's according to Abraham. So

250
00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:26,199
Speaker 2: what was baby Selena like?

251
00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:31,399
Speaker 6: Selena was a crier, not like Aby. Ors is that

252
00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:35,160
Speaker 6: when they were babies, she cried a lot and wanted attention.

253
00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:39,240
Speaker 6: I guess maybe she was exercising her lungs because she

254
00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:40,119
Speaker 6: was going to be a singer.

255
00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:47,119
Speaker 2: Abraham discovered five year old Selena's talent after her brother

256
00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:50,840
Speaker 2: Aby received a bass guitar as a gift. She was

257
00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:53,439
Speaker 2: upset he was getting all the attention. She told the

258
00:17:53,480 --> 00:17:55,200
Speaker 2: story in interviews. A few times.

259
00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:57,840
Speaker 5: I started making up my own melodies with songs, you know,

260
00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:00,960
Speaker 5: because I could read already, and my dad did no. No,

261
00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:02,720
Speaker 5: he thought he did try it like this, and he

262
00:18:02,800 --> 00:18:05,119
Speaker 5: started teaching me and I started picking up.

263
00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:07,480
Speaker 10: And when you're young and you have the timing already

264
00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:07,800
Speaker 10: and you.

265
00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:11,600
Speaker 5: Can memorize a melody or repeat a melody right after

266
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:13,760
Speaker 5: you hear it, then you then you know there's a

267
00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:15,440
Speaker 5: little bit of talent. So my dad was like, hey,

268
00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:18,480
Speaker 5: he'sap dollars signed, So he started teaching me.

269
00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:21,960
Speaker 2: By the time she was six, Abraham says, Selena knew

270
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:26,119
Speaker 2: thirty songs by memory. Here she is in her very

271
00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:28,400
Speaker 2: first recording at eight years old.

272
00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:33,840
Speaker 16: Letting.

273
00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:53,800
Speaker 2: Try to fuck. Yet, even this early, at the behest

274
00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:59,159
Speaker 2: of her father, Selena traversed between English and Spanish pop

275
00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:09,560
Speaker 2: and tradition and bound music. Watching these home videos of

276
00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:13,600
Speaker 2: Selena so little but so poised and so on pitch,

277
00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:18,160
Speaker 2: it's hard not to see what lay ahead. Abraham formed

278
00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:21,920
Speaker 2: a family band, Selena's brother ab on the bass, middle

279
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:26,000
Speaker 2: daughter Susette on the drums, and little Selena on vocals.

280
00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:30,000
Speaker 2: By the time Selena was nine, the kids performed at

281
00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:34,960
Speaker 2: a Mexican restaurant Abraham had opened and left his job for.

282
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:47,720
Speaker 2: But that same year the restaurant closed. The family lost everything,

283
00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:52,280
Speaker 2: their house, their savings, everything. Selena once said in an

284
00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:56,080
Speaker 2: interview they were so poor they mostly ate beans and

285
00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:59,880
Speaker 2: sometimes eggs. Abraham tried to get a job at another

286
00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:04,920
Speaker 2: but nothing worked out. There was only one other way

287
00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:08,720
Speaker 2: Abraham knew how to make money. The family band went

288
00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:13,160
Speaker 2: from a hobby to a way of surviving with Selena

289
00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:14,199
Speaker 2: at the forefront, and.

290
00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:16,680
Speaker 10: We started playing at a restaurant that my dad owned,

291
00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:20,520
Speaker 10: and eventually we started playing for you know, weddings and

292
00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:23,200
Speaker 10: family affairs that my dad kind of worsted on them,

293
00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:26,600
Speaker 10: and it all happened from then. We went through our

294
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:29,240
Speaker 10: times and we had to turn to music as a

295
00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 10: means of putting food on the table, and we've been

296
00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:32,119
Speaker 10: doing it ever since.

297
00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:37,880
Speaker 2: I think so much about how their entire life changed

298
00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:42,000
Speaker 2: from one day to the next, how Selena's voice and

299
00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:47,000
Speaker 2: performance at the tender age of nine became the tools

300
00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:51,600
Speaker 2: of her family's livelihood. Even as a kid, she talks

301
00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:54,400
Speaker 2: about music as a means to get ahead in life.

302
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:56,800
Speaker 15: What great are you in Selena?

303
00:20:57,520 --> 00:20:57,680
Speaker 12: Yes?

304
00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:04,679
Speaker 6: Okay? Tell me also how you are and why you

305
00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:05,800
Speaker 6: like to play in the band.

306
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:09,240
Speaker 2: I'm cheing in the vision.

307
00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:12,200
Speaker 16: I like to play in the band. Good money?

308
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:17,040
Speaker 15: Oh really, you make pretty good money in it? Huh, yes,

309
00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:18,720
Speaker 15: very good.

310
00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:23,280
Speaker 2: Abraham knew that the handle market from his days managing Lostino's.

311
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:26,480
Speaker 2: He called all his old contacts. He knew the kids

312
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:28,760
Speaker 2: would only get better if they performed.

313
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:29,399
Speaker 3: Often.

314
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:33,920
Speaker 2: He book shows every weekend and sometimes during the week.

315
00:21:34,359 --> 00:21:36,040
Speaker 6: If you heard him, you wouldn't think it was a

316
00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:40,520
Speaker 6: kid's band playing, to the point where I started booking

317
00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:43,080
Speaker 6: him even in nightclubs.

318
00:21:43,119 --> 00:21:45,440
Speaker 3: Really, yeah, were you ever scared?

319
00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:48,760
Speaker 2: You know that the world was going to be cruel

320
00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:52,040
Speaker 2: to your children, you know if they were out there.

321
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:55,200
Speaker 6: Singing no, because they had me there.

322
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:04,639
Speaker 2: By the time Selena was twelve, she'd been touring throughout

323
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:18,240
Speaker 2: Texas for three years and appearing on regional television shows.

324
00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:23,360
Speaker 2: That's when Abraham and Marcella removed Selena from public school

325
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:26,879
Speaker 2: and enrolled her in a school by mail out of Chicago.

326
00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:31,919
Speaker 2: The family began touring full time. Abraham says Selena was

327
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:35,520
Speaker 2: so sharp she could do her school work by herself

328
00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 2: with no tutor. Her education came up in early interviews.

329
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:43,639
Speaker 9: You still go to school, yes, I asked that, she

330
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,119
Speaker 9: told a squila, because you look to me like what

331
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:53,800
Speaker 9: sixteen seventeen fifteen signus so stat suila full time or.

332
00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:57,600
Speaker 16: Correspondence correspondence And I graduated. I was supposed to graduate

333
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:00,480
Speaker 16: the age of fifteen, but I got real lazy mm hmm,

334
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,040
Speaker 16: and so I graduate next year.

335
00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:06,720
Speaker 2: Over the years, Abraham was sometimes cast a bit as

336
00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:10,960
Speaker 2: a Latino version of Michael Jackson's father Joe Jackson, someone

337
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:15,200
Speaker 2: who'd stripped away his daughter's childhood for money. Reporters always

338
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 2: tried to ask about it or around it, even early on.

339
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:22,639
Speaker 9: What is it like working with family, with your father

340
00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:24,919
Speaker 9: and for your father and with the family.

341
00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:29,800
Speaker 16: I think it's great. A lot of a lot of

342
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:32,560
Speaker 16: kids my age don't have the opportunity to work with

343
00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:34,600
Speaker 16: their father and have the same interest in same goals

344
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:34,960
Speaker 16: and life.

345
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 9: So you see it more.

346
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 16: Yeah, I see an advantage because he'll always be there

347
00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:43,880
Speaker 16: for me, and he's always protecting me. I don't feel,

348
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 16: you know, scared of anything.

349
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:57,520
Speaker 2: Abraham was a protective force around Selena. He was a

350
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:02,440
Speaker 2: strict father and an exacting manager, a guarded person, strategic

351
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:07,600
Speaker 2: and stubborn, often seen as the opposite of Selena's warm buoyancy.

352
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,960
Speaker 2: It's really hard to find a picture of Selena not smiling.

353
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:17,359
Speaker 2: It's harder to find a picture of her father smiling.

354
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 2: Abraham said he had to be a stringent calculating father

355
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:27,720
Speaker 2: to his big hearted daughter, and Selena was so warm.

356
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:32,840
Speaker 6: Yeah, but see, I was always correcting her, don't do that,

357
00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:38,119
Speaker 6: be careful. You don't spend too much time talking to

358
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:43,600
Speaker 6: this guy, you know, things like that. So I don't

359
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:48,600
Speaker 6: think that would be controlling. That's giving my kids guidance

360
00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:56,880
Speaker 6: to be careful, to be cautious. I am the type

361
00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:04,760
Speaker 6: how only just God and my immediate family other people

362
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,919
Speaker 6: that are not that closed. I trust him as far

363
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 6: as I can spit, and I can spit very far.

364
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:15,720
Speaker 6: That's the way I am. That's my personality. I'm eighteen

365
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:17,200
Speaker 6: one years old. I ain't gonna.

366
00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 2: Change that difference between Selena and her father. Her willingness

367
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:28,479
Speaker 2: to look hard for the good and people might have

368
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:32,920
Speaker 2: led Selena to meet her murder Yolanda at that motel

369
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 2: room that fateful Friday afternoon in March of nineteen ninety five.

370
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 2: Since finding out three weeks earlier that Yolanda had stolen money,

371
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,080
Speaker 2: Abraham had warned Selena against meeting Yolanda.

372
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:49,920
Speaker 6: One thing that really bugged me about Selena was it,

373
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:54,480
Speaker 6: no matter how wrong that other person was, she would

374
00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,400
Speaker 6: leave an open door for them to get out of it.

375
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 6: You know, giving the benefit of the out. I am

376
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:05,679
Speaker 6: not like that. If you if you're doing something that

377
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 6: I know that you're doing something wrong, you know I'm

378
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:16,080
Speaker 6: not gonna And she was different. She would always find

379
00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:19,520
Speaker 6: a way to let that person out of that situation.

380
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 2: People right, even if if she had to look really,

381
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:36,880
Speaker 2: really hard. Here's where I have to confess something that's

382
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:38,800
Speaker 2: under the surface of this interview.

383
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 11: For me.

384
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:44,239
Speaker 2: When I visited Abraham, I was figuring out how to

385
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:50,040
Speaker 2: live without my own father. He died in a sudden,

386
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:54,439
Speaker 2: violent accident on New Year's Eve the year before. A

387
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:58,000
Speaker 2: giant windmill blade carried by a truck hat smashed into

388
00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:02,640
Speaker 2: his own semi truck. The hardest part about losing him

389
00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:06,560
Speaker 2: was that it felt he died as we were transitioning

390
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:11,080
Speaker 2: into a new phase of our relationship. He was my

391
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:15,480
Speaker 2: person as a kid, my favorite person, and I think

392
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 2: I was his. He tickled me with his perfectly groomed beard.

393
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,200
Speaker 2: We had this tradition. Every day I'd run to give

394
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:26,120
Speaker 2: him a kiss and besito, we'd call it. When he'd

395
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 2: get home to our trailer from his factory job, he'd

396
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:36,720
Speaker 2: record me on our camp order. Often he didn't speak English.

397
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:39,480
Speaker 2: He came from a family of twelve siblings and a

398
00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:42,959
Speaker 2: childhood home with a dirt floor, but he was a

399
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,399
Speaker 2: modern parent in so many ways. He took me to

400
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:50,040
Speaker 2: my first concert to see Destiny's Child, and bought me

401
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 2: my first CD, Brandy self titled debut. He built me

402
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:57,919
Speaker 2: an outdoor dance floor for my thirteenth birthday so I

403
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 2: could invite all of my friends for a part. It's

404
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:06,359
Speaker 2: one of my happiest memories me in nineties, black corduroy

405
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:12,160
Speaker 2: bell bottoms, gelled up, curly hair, brown lipstick, hoops, dancing

406
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 2: with all my friends. My dad made stuff like that happen.

407
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:25,760
Speaker 2: That same year, my parents got a divorce. It was

408
00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:30,879
Speaker 2: one of those painful, openly hostile separations, and suddenly my

409
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 2: person was gone. I hardly saw my dad. I tried

410
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:38,400
Speaker 2: staying with him one summer, but he left me alone

411
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:41,200
Speaker 2: with nothing to eat but microwave popcorn.

412
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 3: For a few days.

413
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 2: I fainted from dehydration backstage during a rehearsal of a

414
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 2: local production of Greece. I was in pretending it was

415
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 2: a heat. Embarrassed to say I didn't have food at home,

416
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:54,600
Speaker 2: and I didn't.

417
00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 3: Really know where my dad was. To this day.

418
00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 2: I still don't know excactly why he left this way.

419
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 2: Was he struggling with mental illness? Was he just so

420
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 2: consumed by his own pain that he wasn't aware of

421
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 2: my needs? Did he just stop liking me? I was

422
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:17,040
Speaker 2: estrange from him most of my adolescence and early adulthood.

423
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 2: I went through bouts of intense anger as a teenager,

424
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 2: of grief as an adult, and of forgiveness when I

425
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 2: became a mother, when I realized that, like many working

426
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 2: class immigrant parents, my dad loved me with the limited

427
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:39,320
Speaker 2: emotional toolbox that his upbringing had afforded him. And there

428
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 2: was something about being around Abraham that brought all of

429
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 2: these thoughts about my own father to the surface. Latino

430
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 2: dads movies and shows, what have you believe? They're either

431
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:58,880
Speaker 2: not around or they're super MACHOs my dad or Selena's dad.

432
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 3: But of course it's more complicated than that. My father was.

433
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 2: Around, attentive, affectionate until he wasn't, and Latina daughters are

434
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 2: more complicated too. Selena may have started off under Abraham's wing,

435
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,320
Speaker 2: but she went for what she wanted, even if it

436
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 2: wasn't always aligned with her father's vision. She opened her

437
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,960
Speaker 2: own fashion boutiques to have something that was just hers,

438
00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 2: Despite her father's warnings that it divert her from her music,

439
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,760
Speaker 2: she eloped with a man she loved, even if it

440
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 2: meant facing her father's wrath.

441
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:42,040
Speaker 3: She wore what she wanted.

442
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 2: But ultimately, Selena's not here to tell us what it

443
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 2: was like to be Abraham's daughter, just like my dad

444
00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:55,560
Speaker 2: is not here to solve these questions for me to

445
00:30:55,680 --> 00:31:09,719
Speaker 2: answer why did he leave me? Over the years, Abraham's

446
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 2: reputation as a hard man, it stuck around when we

447
00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:17,600
Speaker 2: joined him for that spontaneous museum tour and he opened

448
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 2: it up for a Q and.

449
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 6: A who's going to be the first one to ask

450
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 6: a question?

451
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:26,320
Speaker 2: The first question someone asked him was why he was

452
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 2: so mean to Selena?

453
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:31,360
Speaker 11: Me, all right, why are you yelling at her so much?

454
00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:38,440
Speaker 6: Have you ever seen me before in the movie?

455
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:41,280
Speaker 15: Do you know me? Then?

456
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 11: Why do you say that that? No, no, that is

457
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:51,959
Speaker 11: a movie.

458
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 6: It RV wasn't even RV was a bus number one.

459
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 6: That was the actor. That was not me. And that's

460
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 6: why a lot of people that see the movie they

461
00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 6: think I'm a bad guy.

462
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:07,640
Speaker 15: I am a mean that I control my children.

463
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:13,400
Speaker 6: You can't do it. Ain't like that, dear. I am

464
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 6: a father, a proud father that had the privilege. I'm

465
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 6: working with my kids since they were little, and as

466
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:30,680
Speaker 6: they grew into adults, they became my friends. So don't

467
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 6: believe the characters in the movie.

468
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 2: But even if he says it's just a movie, there's

469
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:45,640
Speaker 2: this one scene Abraham told me happened almost verbatim. That's

470
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 2: always hard for me to watch.

471
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 16: Now you listen to me.

472
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:51,120
Speaker 7: If you think I'm gonna allow you to come in

473
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:53,840
Speaker 7: and mess up my family, ruin everything that would work

474
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 7: for you're wrong.

475
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:59,520
Speaker 2: It's the scene in the tour bus when Abraham finds

476
00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:05,920
Speaker 2: out about Selena's relationship with her guitarist Chris Bettis. Abraham

477
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 2: loses it.

478
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 10: I love Selena and we want to get married.

479
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 13: That you're fired.

480
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 2: You cannot use it that and then he threatens Selena

481
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:21,320
Speaker 2: tells her he will essentially take away her music career

482
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:23,320
Speaker 2: if she continues to see Chris.

483
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,880
Speaker 7: You listen to me, You all listen to me. If

484
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:30,920
Speaker 7: you follow that man, I will disband the group. There

485
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,640
Speaker 7: will be no more Selena ILOs Dinos. Do you understand me?

486
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:36,680
Speaker 7: Do you all understand me?

487
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 4: It's over.

488
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,680
Speaker 2: What they had all sacrificed for, the music that banded

489
00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:51,520
Speaker 2: them together as a family, what Selena had strived for

490
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:55,200
Speaker 2: since she was nine, to help her family survive, the

491
00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 2: dream that had finally come true.

492
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 3: Abraham threatened to end at all.

493
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:03,360
Speaker 6: And so what you saw in the movie is almost

494
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,480
Speaker 6: at the oracle to what happened in real life.

495
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 3: How did you feel like?

496
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:09,399
Speaker 16: Why?

497
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 3: Why did you get so angry?

498
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:18,680
Speaker 6: Well? I didn't know him that well. I've never liked

499
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:27,560
Speaker 6: a man with long hair. I think long hair for women. Wait,

500
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 6: why are you get married? Take down right now? What if?

501
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 6: What did this guy here marries my daughter? And he's

502
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:43,120
Speaker 6: one of those Mexican guys who think they're MACHOs and

503
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 6: the smaller men are like that. He marries my daughter

504
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:50,239
Speaker 6: and he said, you're not going to sing anymore, and

505
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:53,279
Speaker 6: all the work that regards of family, since there were

506
00:34:53,280 --> 00:35:00,680
Speaker 6: the kids would go down the two.

507
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:15,640
Speaker 2: The last few years of my father's life, our relationship

508
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:20,040
Speaker 2: had been on the mend. He was a cross country

509
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:23,520
Speaker 2: truck driver and stopped in Boston to visit when he could.

510
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:28,160
Speaker 2: We'd spend hours sitting next to each other, quietly watching movies.

511
00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 2: He'd buy a dessert each time. We'd never had an

512
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:37,400
Speaker 2: explicit heart to heart about our history. The closest we

513
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:40,319
Speaker 2: got was once, when, in a crying rage after a

514
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:44,200
Speaker 2: therapy session, I texted him that he'd never known the

515
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:48,480
Speaker 2: damage he'd caused me. He didn't answer and stayed away

516
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:52,320
Speaker 2: for months, but later reached out. I thought the big

517
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 2: conversation would come, but we never got the chance. I

518
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:02,880
Speaker 2: felt this desperation, this cutting feeling that I'd have to

519
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:08,520
Speaker 2: live my entire life with this profound ambiguity about how

520
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:14,040
Speaker 2: much my dad really loved me. I think that's why

521
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 2: spending time with Abraham struck me the way it did.

522
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:22,400
Speaker 2: There was something about how evident his love for Selena was,

523
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:30,000
Speaker 2: no matter how flawed that halted me. He was rigid, overbearing,

524
00:36:31,160 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 2: he was present, steady, involved, and to me that fel

525
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:47,839
Speaker 2: alluring and lasting. There's this moment I keep coming back

526
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:52,719
Speaker 2: to in Selena's famous interview on The Gristina Show, where

527
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:57,439
Speaker 2: the host asks Selena if she lost out on her childhood.

528
00:36:59,000 --> 00:36:59,839
Speaker 13: Mutuam in fun.

529
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, Selena says yes, but it was for a

530
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:09,600
Speaker 2: good cause, she says, to help my family.

531
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:15,880
Speaker 10: Because a man scots all that, you know, and if.

532
00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:20,080
Speaker 2: Your parents do something wrong, you still have to love them.

533
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:24,120
Speaker 2: When I heard her say this, it felt like a

534
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:29,000
Speaker 2: turning point in understanding her. I could see now how

535
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:34,920
Speaker 2: the defining part of Selena's identity, of her family's identity,

536
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 2: of their journey from the restaurant to the music was

537
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:43,319
Speaker 2: devotion to each other. They stuck together, even if it

538
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:46,760
Speaker 2: meant accepting someone else's mistakes.

539
00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:49,239
Speaker 5: It was it's really cool about our family. We don't

540
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:51,200
Speaker 5: hold regids, and I think that's been the key to

541
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:54,239
Speaker 5: the success. You know, we get into a little disagreements

542
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:57,120
Speaker 5: and whether we're right or wrong, we'll go and apologize.

543
00:37:57,200 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 5: That's just the way we are.

544
00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:07,839
Speaker 2: Abraham is still devoted to Selena. Every day he comes

545
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:11,960
Speaker 2: to work at the museum, his daily life steeped in

546
00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 2: her image. Abraham has been, however, imperfectly, for better or

547
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:23,800
Speaker 2: for worse, committed to protecting Selena's memory. At one moment

548
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 2: of the museum tour, one of the guests asked a

549
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 2: question I had been wondering too.

550
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:32,560
Speaker 7: My question is, as a parent, how do you do

551
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:33,279
Speaker 7: this every day?

552
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:36,840
Speaker 8: How do you walk and see all of the memorabilia

553
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 8: and seeing people's reactions as a parent, Like, how do

554
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 8: you do it.

555
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:50,600
Speaker 6: Well, Yes, is a very painful thing for humans, especially

556
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:53,439
Speaker 6: if it's your child. It's a different kind of pain

557
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:56,959
Speaker 6: that we will never understand unless you go through it.

558
00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:04,920
Speaker 6: You know, me, it hits me, you know before I know,

559
00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:06,880
Speaker 6: like I'm in the shower, shower and it hits me,

560
00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:11,200
Speaker 6: or I might be somewhere in the car and it

561
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:17,280
Speaker 6: hits me. Just you know. Sometimes I get so involved

562
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:20,279
Speaker 6: in doing things for Selena that I forget she's not

563
00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:20,960
Speaker 6: here anymore.

564
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 15: In my mind, she's here.

565
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:39,840
Speaker 2: After we wrapped up our time at the Selena Museum,

566
00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:43,160
Speaker 2: I got a text New York and Boston were shutting

567
00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:47,320
Speaker 2: down because of COVID nineteen. Our month long reporting trip

568
00:39:47,520 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 2: had to be cut short. After a few days with Abraham,

569
00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:54,279
Speaker 2: I came back to the East Coast and then eventually

570
00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 2: to Eel Passo to quarantine, and began the after part

571
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:04,239
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty, the months of reflecting and writing about Selena,

572
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:09,160
Speaker 2: about Abraham, remembering the song he told me he loved

573
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 2: the most from her, The mass.

574
00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:29,040
Speaker 13: Kiss Kilie.

575
00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 3: This is no make it a mass.

576
00:40:34,239 --> 00:40:38,480
Speaker 2: It's a song about resignation, about accepting the loss of

577
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:42,919
Speaker 2: someone you love, about letting go even if you don't

578
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:43,960
Speaker 2: have all the answers.

579
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:52,799
Speaker 13: Look at isis kekas is a massis.

580
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:02,480
Speaker 2: We're able to play the song well because remember those

581
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:03,200
Speaker 2: music rights.

582
00:41:03,239 --> 00:41:04,400
Speaker 3: I was so nervous about.

583
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:06,879
Speaker 2: Selena's family changed their mind.

584
00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:29,759
Speaker 4: They said yes, Museum, Gibbsto.

585
00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:37,600
Speaker 2: One of the things I spoke a lot about with

586
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:43,320
Speaker 2: Abraham is how Selena almost immediately became a symbol for

587
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:47,640
Speaker 2: something bigger than herself. I've always known that. I remember

588
00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:51,120
Speaker 2: living through it as a kid, but what I didn't

589
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 2: remember was the culture war that her death sparked, and

590
00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 2: the reverberations of that battle today.

591
00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:02,839
Speaker 1: You did place Selena, and you did take your gun

592
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:03,399
Speaker 1: shot out.

593
00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 7: And I'm gonna do it again, and I'm gonna do

594
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,720
Speaker 7: it twenty breaking time, and I want.

595
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 15: You to leave my country.

596
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:10,480
Speaker 12: No man, I'm my country.

597
00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:11,720
Speaker 2: I was born in this country.

598
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:13,800
Speaker 6: Oh boy, I have the same equal rights you do.

599
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:18,440
Speaker 2: Gun that's next time on Anything for Selena.

600
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:35,680
Speaker 1: Anything for Selena is a co production of W B

601
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:40,400
Speaker 1: U R and Futuro Studios. The production team includes Kristin Torres,

602
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:44,600
Speaker 1: Antonia se Rejuido and Juan Diego Ramidez. The executive editors

603
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:47,080
Speaker 1: are Marlon Bishop and Ben Brock Johnson.

604
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:51,920
Speaker 14: The Latino USA team includes Miel Massias, Andrea Lopez Cruzsalo,

605
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:57,800
Speaker 14: Jujeta Martinelli, Alisas Carce, Gini Montalbo, Alejandra Salasar, Reinaldo, Leanos

606
00:42:57,840 --> 00:42:59,120
Speaker 14: Junior and Julia.

607
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:02,400
Speaker 1: Rocha, with help from Marta Martinez and Raul Berres. Our

608
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:06,320
Speaker 1: engineers are Stephanie Lebau, Julia Caruso and Leah Shaw, with

609
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:09,959
Speaker 1: help from Alishiba YouTube. Our digital editor is Luis Duna.

610
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:13,520
Speaker 1: Our theme music was composed by Sean Ruinos. If you

611
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:15,880
Speaker 1: like the music you heard on this episode, stop by

612
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 1: Latinousa dot org and check out our weekly Spotify playlist.

613
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:22,120
Speaker 1: I'm your host and executive producer. Join us again on

614
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 1: our next episode, and until then, I'll see you on

615
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:27,480
Speaker 1: all of our social media idos BeO COO.

616
00:43:31,719 --> 00:43:35,879
Speaker 8: Latino USA is made possible in part by the chan

617
00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:42,040
Speaker 8: Zuckerberg Initiative, the wind Coat Foundation, and funding for Latino

618
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:45,040
Speaker 8: USA is. Coverage of a culture of Health is made

619
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:47,520
Speaker 8: possible in part by a grant from the Robert Wood

620
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:48,480
Speaker 8: Johnson Foundation.

621
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:55,279
Speaker 1: I'm Mariao Josa. Hold on a second, I'm falling off

622
00:43:55,320 --> 00:44:00,200
Speaker 1: my chair him Mariaojosa. Next time on Latino USA. A

623
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:04,000
Speaker 1: story nearly three decades in the making. I meet Swabe

624
00:44:04,080 --> 00:44:07,400
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety three. He was sentenced to life in prison.

625
00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:09,320
Speaker 1: But then everything changes.

626
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:11,760
Speaker 2: I feel like we're on my shoulders.

627
00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:14,520
Speaker 1: I know we're going to touch down here, but we

628
00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 1: right there were in the line. That's next time. I'll

629
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:18,240
Speaker 1: letting USA