Nick Jimenez

Sunday, July 23, 2000

Disrespect for Selena's memory

Many cities have a place where people naturally gather. New York has Times Square. Mexico City has the Zocalo. San Antonio has Alamo Plaza. If any place in Corpus Christi comes close to being the spot where folks congregate more than any other, it's the area around the Selena memorial and statue on the bayfront.
   The Mirador de la Flor, the kiosk whose center is the bronze statue of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, attracts a constant flow of visitors that has hardly slowed since the statue was erected three years ago. Some of the visitors merely give a look and move on, perhaps unfamiliar with the story of the young Tejano singer who rose from the barrios of the city to stardom and then was slain by a long-time fan.
   But for many, the statue, like her grave in a local cemetery, is the destination of a pilgrimage. It's not uncommon to see these Selena fans taking snapshots of themselves standing next to the statue. I saw one guy drape his arm around her neck while his buddy shot his photo.
   Graffiti, always a problem at the statue, has risen to outrageous proportions. Tony Cisneros, the city's parks director, calls the level of defacement that has occurred "unconscionable." The scribbling began by writing on wood planks that were once attached to the column. Those planks, set up for fans to leave messages, were a mistake. Once begun, the notes took on a life of their own.
   Long after the planks have been removed, Cisneros says, "some fans, not content with writing their names on the column, are writing on the statue."
   The bronze statue would have naturally taken on a uniform greenish patina as the metal weathered. But because the statue has had to be cleaned numerous times to remove writings, the metal has instead taken on a multi-hued look.
   Who told these so-called fans they could scratch their names on a memorial? Why does someone think he or she has a right to mar a piece of public property, much less the tangible memory of someone who still remains very much a part of this community?
   Cisneros thinks part of the problem is the original design. The statue is virtually at eye level and too accessible to those who can't restrain themselves from etching their names into its surface, even though several signs prohibit it.
   As a stab at a solution, a barrier, a 4-foot-high metal fence, will be erected around the statue. The fence is a sad commentary on our stewardship of the memory of one of our most beloved stars.
   Here's my take on the barrier: It won't work. I'm no expert on graffiti, but though the notes are supposed to be acts of devotion, they really reveal a kind of disrespect for Selena's other fans.
   Sure, I understand that some fans still have pent-up emotion when it comes to Selena. She was an entertainer who created a personal bond between herself and each fan. No one who saw it will forget the thousands who streamed past her body and casket in an outpouring of emotion never seen here before, or since. But how did that emotion convert itself into ugly scratchings on her bronze image?
   It's the same kind of disrespect for our own community that made itself evident with the sea of garbage that was strewn all over the bayfront after the Fourth of July celebration. This is our town, our bayfront and she was our Selena. Disrespect for that statue, for our own, is disrespect for ourselves. A fence will not solve that kind of attitude.
   (Nick Jimenez can be reached by phone at 886-3787 or by e-mail at jimenezn@caller.com.)
  
  

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