Different
interpretations
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Remembrances
of Selena's life available in all forms of media
By Elaine Liner
Caller-Times Media Critic
The
story of Selena's life and tragic death has been told, retold, analyzed, re-enacted
and illustrated in books, television documentaries and one successful Hollywood
film during the past five years. The latest interpretation of the Tejano singer's
life and music, the $2 million stage production "Selena Forever," opened March
23 in San Antonio and will travel to nine cities (including Corpus Christi, April
5-7) before possibly heading to Broadway.
Among the thousands of words and images paying tribute to Selena
in the mass media, the Warner Bros. film "Selena" remains the most widely seen
and well-reviewed. Released in the spring of 1997, "Selena," written and directed
by Gregory Nava, served as a star-making vehicle for actress Jennifer Lopez, who
played the title role. Lopez has since starred in a half-dozen feature films -
she is the highest paid Latina actress in Hollywood - and launched a successful
recording career of her own.
With a production budget of $30 million and a marketing budget of
$15 million, "Selena" earned back more than double that at the box office and
went on to become a best-selling home video (in English and Spanish and, on DVD,
in French) before it premiered on prime-time television in 1999 on ABC.
The shocking circumstances of Selena's murder and the trial of her
killer, former fan club president Yolanda Saldivar, have been the subject of several
cable television documentaries, including an "E! True Hollywood Story" on E! Entertainment
Television and episodes of "American Justice" and "Biography" on A&E. Talk shows
hosted by Geraldo Rivera and Cristina Saraleguialso devoted hours to the subject
of Saldivar's conviction and subsequent appeal.
Last summer PBS aired the independent film "Corpus: A Home Movie
for Selena," a documentary by California filmmaker Lourdes Portillo that included
interviews with young fans visiting Selena's grave in Corpus Christi and a roundtable
discussion among feminists about Selena's flashy onstage image.
Many publications
A number of books, hardback and paperback, have been published
about Selena since 1995. The biggest seller was the bilingual "Selena: The Phenomenal
Life and Tragic Death of a Tejano Music Queen," by Clint Richmond (Pocket Books),
which gained the No. 1 spot on the paperback best-seller list and sold 450,000
within a few weeks of its publication in 1996. Copies of the now out-of-print
book, which originally cost about $5 each, are selling for double that amount
on online auction sites such as eBay and Amazon.com Auctions.
"Selena: Como la Flor" by Texas Monthly senior editor Joe Nick Patoski
is regarded as the best-written, most scholarly look at the singer and her music.
Patoski, who also penned a biography of guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, spent nine
months conducting interviews and research for his book, which was published in
hardback in 1996 and paperback in 1997.
Some 25,000 first editions of "Como la Flor" were sold, said
Patoski. About 50,000 paperbacks (reissued by Berkley Publishing Group in 1999,
$6.99) are also in print.
Wrath of Abraham
Patoski drew the enmity of Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla,
for depicting him in the biography as controlling and stubborn. Quintanilla angrily
confronted Patoski during an interview at a Corpus Christi radio station in 1996.
"I'm pretty proud of my work on the book," said Patoski, who writes
about Selena and her music again in the May 2000 issue of Texas Monthly. "If I
advanced the dialogue and awareness of Mexican-American music in Texas, I'm happy."
More books, videos
- "Selena: All
My Hits" (VHS, $14.99) edits together a collection of music videos starring Selena.
- "Selena Remembered"
(VHS, $11.99) uses clips, music videos and interviews with family members to paint
a portrait of the young singer.
- "Selena: The Final
Notes" (VHS, $9.95) is a low-budget, amateurish production incorporating blurred
video, bad audio and incongruous footage of fans. One buyer noted in an online
review that "this video does Selena no justice and looks as though it was made
in someone's garage."
- "Remembering
Selena: A Tribute in Pictures and Words" by Himilce Novas, et al, paperback (St.
Martin's Press, $9.95), was a quickie bio published within weeks of the murder.
Still available in English and Spanish. n "Tejano and Regional Mexican Music"
by Texas music critic Ramiro Burr (Billboard Books, $18.95) is a comprehensive
1999 text exploring the variations of the musical style. With sections on Selena.
- "Selena" by Barbara
J. Marvis (Mitchell Lane Publishers, $15.95) offers a 32-page, large-print biography
for young readers. This book is marred by errors and flat writing.
- "Selena (They
Died Too Young)" by Veda Boyd Jones (Chelsea House, $16) is a just-published short
bio for young readers.
- "Selena Perez:
Queen of Tejano Music (Great Hispanics of Our Time)" by Maritza Romero (Powerkids
Publishers, $14) offers the singer's story in easy-to-read language and photos.
- "Selena's Secret"
by Univision TV personality Maria Celeste Arraras (Simon & Schuster, $12.95) was
supposed to offer new details about the singer's life and death and supposedly
"secret" info about Yolanda Saldivar. Readers were disappointed to discover that
it delivered nothing new. Arraras also refers to Saldivar as the tragedy's "protagonist."
Not good. One reader, posting an online review, said this book left her feeling
"angry and deceived."
Staff writer Elain Liner can be reached at 886-3688 or by e-mail at
linere@caller.com
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