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.