Selena 1997 and Hispanic Culture

Film Review: Selena

Selena (1997) chronicles the rise and tragic end of one of the most popular Latina entertainers, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. The film is a biopic, so it does not have a thesis like a fictional film. It is constrained by needing to follow (mostly) the actual events of Selena’s life. It clearly establishes that Selena was a talented young woman who defied expectations about the limits of the Latino music market. She won over Spanish-speaking fans despite being raised in America and not being a native Spanish speaker, a fact which is poignantly illustrated early in the film when she tries to convince her songwriting father to let her sing in English. She became a historic crossover Mexican-American star, winning over American and Mexican fans with her winning personality and wholesome yet sensual persona. Her rise to fame was cruelly cut short when she was killed by the president of her fan club, however.

The film focuses on the life of the young star, both in her family context and over the course of her increasingly popular tours. It shows how she broke down barriers in the music industry. One of the fundamental conflicts in the film revolves around her loving but overly protective father. Abraham tells the young Selena at the beginning of the film to follow her heart and to sing in Spanish, even though she says she would rather sound like the disco queen Donna Summer. But as Selena grew older, she demanded greater independence to explore her identity, clashing with her father about the sexy clothes she wore on stage and also her love for the band’s guitarist Chris, who she eventually married.

Abraham’s attempt to control his daughter even into his twenties can seem excessive. The film shows how many factors affected his attitude, including his own frustrations with American racism, which cut short his own musical career. He is portrayed as a loving father whose love often becomes confused with his desire for his daughter’s success, to the point that it caused conflict about her career. Ultimately, Selena’s willingness to straddle of two different cultures proved to be more successful than her father’s traditionalist attitude, as was her desire to live for the moment and to marry Chris. Of course, she could never have guessed her time on this earth would have been as brief as it was. The film is a powerful and balanced depiction of Latino family conflicts and a star incredibly important to the community.