Selena Quintanilla, the third child of Abraham and Marcella Quintanilla, was born on Apirl 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas. At the age of 9, Abraham discovered Selena's natural singing ability and decided to put it to the test by forming Selena Y Los Dinos including her brother A.B. (short for Abraham) and sister Suzette. Abraham Quintanilla started a family restaurant in Lake Jackson called Papa Gayo's. For about the first nine months, the restaurant was a hit with both it's American and Mexican customers. Then suddenly, due to "como se dicen, Reganomics" it had to be shut down. Because Abraham quit his job in order to run the restaurant, he was now unemployed. As a result, Selena's family was unable to keep their home and had to go live with Hector, Abraham's brother and all their cousins. Abraham looked desperately for public events for his children to perform at. He found non-paying job for them at a county fair. Unfortunately, that did not go very well because at the time, women were not prospering in the music business. After this, the Quintanilla family took time off from music in order for Selena and her siblings to finish high school. She would occasionally sing at family gatherings and public events in her community.
When Selena was 18, in 1989, she and her family started to take up music again in search of getting signed with the Latina music industry. Abraham found a gig for them at a state fair where Selena Y Los Dinos were noticed by a talent scout and were signed with the Latina Music Industry. With the money they earned from their first few gigs with the new record company, they bought a tour bus tolive in while touring. In early 1992, one of the guitarists had to leave the group, forcing Abraham to search for someone new. A.B. Quintanilla found just the guy for the job. Although a little scruffy, Chris Perez was it. Selena's friend and sister cleaned him up and he joined the group. After much touring and producing, Selena and Chris had become very close and began to fall in love. Abraham was not at all pleased to hear this and kicked Chris out of the group yet Chris and Selena continued to see eachother. On tour in 1994, Selena had secretly let Chris stay in a hotel with her. She explained to him that she was tired of keeping their relationship a secret and wanted to tell her parents. Chris and Selena, both knowing that Abraham would try to put a stop to it, decided to secretly wed on April 2, 1992, then tell her father in order to insure the relationship. Somehow the media discovered what they had done and announced it on the radio before Selena had a chance to explain it to her parents. To her suprise, her father was not angry. Instead he realized that all he really wanted for his daughter was to make sure she is happy and he knew that being with Chris would make that happen.
Shortly after her marriage, Selena had decided that she wanted to make a crossover album from Spanish to English. In order to support this album, she went on her infamous Crossover Tour starting in January of 1995. The last concert of this tour in the Astrodome on Sept. 23 1997, was the last concert she did before her |
