“What Selena means to me…”

Posted by Texas Johnny in Selena Quintanilla-Perez

Every so often I will post some messages the site has received from Selena fans over the years.

Starting with this entry written by Makoons for the Selena 15th Anniversary Remembrance Page:

“My name is Makoons and I am 24 years old, but I fell in love with Selena when I was merely 12. After seeing the film about her life, I could not get enough of her. The soundtrack to “Selena” was the first album I ever bought, and I still have it!

Selena taught me a lot about breaking barriers and fostering pride for my heritage. I am a half-white, half Native American woman who has had to overcome a lot of internal and external obstacles in regards to my ancestry. I was harassed to a dangerous degree in high school for being “too prideful” in a culture my peers seemed to consider valueless.

Selena was a bright, vivid, technicolor Mexican-American woman with deep roots in her community. She knew what she meant to her people and stood as a role model for other young Mexican women. She and her family struggled with that in-between feeling many people of mixed racial background feel, and crossed barriers with a song and a smile. She inspired me to be proud of myself, my family, and my people and to carry on my traditions regardless of pressures from others. Selena’s strength in her culture imbued a strength in me.

Selena was also comfortable in her own skin as a woman. She wore outfits that accented her more prominent physical features without apology or shame. She was a woman with a “real woman’s” figure and she didn’t allow the pressures of fame to change her. Not all women are built to be models or stick figures, and Selena taught me to accept and love myself regardless of what others think of my body.

Now more than when I was younger, Selena’s music stands as a testament to my childhood. Now when I put on “Como La Flor” it’s not only a sad love song, it’s a tribute to the little girl who used to listen to it. It reminds me of summers playing kick-ball and dancing with my friends in my old neighborhood and anchors me when I feel too far away from who I used to be. I may be older, but that 12-year-old girl cumbias on within me. Selena’s music cheers me up when I’m sad and brings me back to happier times.

I’ll never be able to fully encapsulate just how much Selena meant and continues to mean to me, but every year around this time I still can’t help but turn on her music and think about what was and how much more could have been.”