Selena Quintanilla-Pérez died at the height of her fame at just 23 years old.
In the decades since her death, Selena’s legacy has continued to live on. Her music, style, and persona have been celebrated at countless quinceañeras and highlighted in TV shows, murals, and museums.
The new book, The Selena Reader: Remembering the Queen of Tejano, examines Selena’s impact as an entertainer and as a central figure in Mexican American communities.
Co-editors Larissa Mercado-López and Yndalecio Isaac Hinojosa assembled a collection of essays, short stories, poems, and memoirs.
Mercado-López said Selena provides an entry point to explore ideas of identity and cultural hybridity.
“When we’re talking about Selena, we’re talking about language. We’re talking about what it means to be Tejana, what it means to be Mexican,” she said. “We’re talking about mestizaje and constructions of race and gender and sexuality.”
Hinojosa spoke about the purpose behind the collection.
“Our reader is definitely a contribution to the collective memorial of Selena,” he said. “We hope it engages people to have a story with her, to continue that process of story making and talking about Selena.”
