Texas hasn’t gotten its due as a major piece in the complex puzzle of American art. We’re here to rectify that. Every two weeks, H. Drew Blackburn will conduct a thoroughly scientific analysis of the 254 essential (one for every county) books, movies, tv shows, albums, podcasts, songs, and magazine articles — you name it — that best exemplify the Texas spirit. These texts, products of immense talent, dig into the marrow of our being. When it’s all said and done and we’ve built The Texas Voyager collection, we’ll (figuratively) head to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and shoot it beyond the atmosphere, into the cosmos. A wise person once posed the question: “What if the aliens are hot?” Hold onto that hope — this is our chance to impress ‘em.
In 1966, John Lennon made a controversial statement. Not the one where he wrote a single titled, well.. what women are of the world — that was in ‘72. I’m talking about the time he said The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” and offered The Evening Standard his prediction that the fervor around Christianity would eventually subside and get replaced by a devotion to rock music and its stars. “I needn’t argue about that,” he added, “I’m right and I’ll be proved right.” Well, on one hand, since he said this, the number of churchgoers in America has been in a freefall. On the other, rock music has been so dead that people were furious they got a free U2 album — people are more apt to stan pop stars than rock stars these days. So, I’m not sure he’s been vindicated, but how crazy would it sound if I said in Texas, Selena Quintanilla is at least as popular as Jesus?
For proof, look no further than Selena Day, which takes place on April 16 annually — on and around this day people fill streets all over the Lone Star State with revelry celebrating the Queen of Tejano Music in song, dance, and style. Shortly after the star’s death, then-Gov. George W. Bush declared the holiday to honor her across the state. Enormous murals dedicated in her honor are painted on walls in nearly every Texas city. “Mirador de la Flor,” a bronze statue that peers out at the Gulf of Mexico, was erected in Selena’s hometown of Corpus Christi just two years after her murder. And though the field for the most hated man in Texas history would be a contentious one worthy of reality television, the most hated woman in Texas history — that’s clearly Yolanda Saldívar, the nurse-turned-Selena-fan-club-president and Selena Etc. boutique manager who shot and killed the singer in 1995 after she was fired for embezzling money.
The most devastating thing about her murder was that Selena was just 23 years old. She eloped with Chris Pérez, a member of her band, a few years prior, and her career was on the upswing. Selena was of course extremely young but had already accomplished enough for three lifetimes. Her 1993 album, “Selena Live!” won the Grammy for best Mexican-American album. The following year, she released “Amor Prohibido,” which so far has gone double platinum. In 1995, in what would eventually become her final live show, Selena performed at the Eighth Wonder of the World (the Astrodome) during the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, breaking the venue’s attendance record and drawing nearly 67,000 fans inside the stadium. That’s the night she sported that iconic purple jumpsuit. “Dreaming of You,” Selena’s English language crossover album hit shelves months after her death. It debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, a first for a predominantly Spanish-language album. Oh, what could have been. If the unthinkable never happened at the Days Inn in Corpus, we might be talking about Selena the way we talk about Beyoncé.
I’m almost inclined to add the aforementioned purple jumpsuit itself to The Texas Voyager collection because, outside of a red leather jacket, is there any other item of clothing from a musician you could wear on Halloween that would immediately register? Instead, for now, we’ll opt for “Como La Flor,” the Tejano cumbia jam with its devastating lyrics about a romantic partner leaving for someone else, but loving them so deeply, you still wish them the best. This is a song for moments: I have a philosophy about DJing, and it’s like playing spades. Anybody worth their salt in this card game knows the ace of spades is one you play at the end because it trumps all the others. That’s the way it is when you play music anywhere — club, backyard cookout, in the car for a road trip. Save the best for last. The denouement. “Como La Flor,” is built for those moments. The song packs a contagious melody and synthy piano that creates an atmosphere of ephemerality. It’s a beacon of joy bearing a magnetic rhythm that demands at least a lazy little two-step. If you close your eyes, you’re thrown into a dream on a beach somewhere, sipping the best margarita you’ve ever had, with Tajín on the rim, having the time of your life. And in this dream, in this alternate version of reality, Selena is still here with us.
To say Selena is important to Latin-American culture is kind of disrespectful. She’s beyond that. She’s one of its architects, sketching out its function and beauty, inseparable from the scaffolding. The 1997 movie about her life starring Jennifer Lopez was added to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress in 2021 (only after a successful campaign by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro). Latino-driven stories make up less than 5% of the 875 inducted titles, despite accounting for roughly 19% of the U.S. population.
But Selena is beloved by everyone. There are very few people on this planet who’ve received public support from both George W. Bush and Joaquin Castro. Three decades after her death, Selena still crushes Spotify Wrapped, according to MySA. In 2021, according to Spotify, Selena was streamed in over 177 countries 452.5 million times. That same year, 23.5 million different Spotify users listened to her music. There’s maybe no man, woman, or child whose influence is as outsized.
I told a coworker I was writing about Selena for this column, and she said when she was growing up in the Houston area, she had a shrine for the Queen of Tejano Music in her closet. As a matter of fact, most of the girls at her school did. Like I said, at least as popular as Jesus, and if I’m wrong, well, let the good Lord smite me. Maybe I’ll get a chance to meet Selena — smiling, twirling, and spinning in her glistening purple jumpsuit.
