Kriti Mehrotra
It was March 31, 1995, when the entire world for the Quintanilla family turned upside down as the youngest of their brood of three, Selena, was shot to death at the hands of Yolanda Saldívar. This much is actually even evidenced in Oxygen’s ‘Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them,’ just for it to then delve deep into the conspiracies plus motives behind this heinous killing.
Who Are Selena’s Parents?
Although born on February 20, 1939, in Corpus Christi, Texas, as the middle child of Maria Calderon and Abraham Quintanilla’s six, Abraham Quintanilla Jr. didn’t have a very ordinary upbringing. That’s because not only did his parents leave the Catholic Church to become Jehovah’s Witnesses when he was 14, but he also left everything behind as a high school senior to pursue music. According to reports, he aspired to make it big as a singer since he was a mere adolescent and thus often performed at local establishments across Texas before reality ultimately kicked in.
Abraham hence joined the US Air Force in October 1961, unaware his subsequently being stationed at the McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington, would arguably be the best thing for him. After all, that’s where he first came across proud half-Mexican American and half-Cherokee Native American Marcella Ofelia Samora, just for them to soon fall utterly head over heels in love. So the couple decided to tie the knot on June 8, 1963, following which they welcomed three beautiful children into their lives — Abraham Isaac “AB” Quintanilla III (December 1963), Suzette Quintanilla (June 1967), and Selena Quintanilla (April 1971).
That’s when (in 1969) Abraham truly quit his band to begin working at an oil company to make ends meet — his desire to provide his family with a good life overpowered his dreams for a while. Nevertheless, he once candidly said, “Even though the dream I’d had of making it had ended, it never left me. I tried to settle into life in Lake Jackson, but I thought about music all day long.” Therefore, of course, it’s no surprise he began teaching his children to play instruments as well as sing almost as soon as they were old enough, unaware their little familial passion would end up transforming all their lives in a way no one could’ve ever expected.
“I got a little jealous because of all the attention my brother was getting [once he started playing guitar],” Selena told Latin Style Magazine much prior to her demise. “So I picked up a songbook and started pretending to be reading the words and making a melody. My father looked at me and said, ‘Come here.’ He started teaching me. I was like a parrot, repeated everything and singing what he was singing to me. I guess he saw dollar signs.” Well, Abraham actually did: he told a publication back in 1995 itself that “Her timing, her pitch were perfect. I could see it from day one,” before adding, it went beyond mere talent or skill — it was magic.
Abraham thus established Selena y Los Dinos with his kids — named after his own childhood band — and kickstarted their career by landing steady gigs at a local family restaurant in Lake Jackson. But alas, all their stability shattered apart in the early 1980s owing to the Reagan Recession, which meant they then had no choice but to take to the streets plus evolve their music with the mood. “We lost everything, we lost our house; you name it; we lost it,” Selena recalled. “The only way to put food on the table was to go into the music as a profession. We struggled a lot to get where we are.”
The truth is the patriarch subsequently found himself unable to find a job in the oil industry, so he genuinely had to rely on family members in more ways than one for financial assistance/strength. “Music was the only thing I knew how to do,” Abraham later told Texas Monthly. “The band was the best thing we had… We all agreed to try and make a go of it,” yet they never really expected to get as big as they did. That’s when they began having their fair share of ups and downs, primarily in connection with this experienced musician turned manager, just for them to always work things out to continue on, that is, until the tragic March 31, 1995, morning.
Selena’s Parents Are Now Ensuring Her Legacy Rightly Lives On
Following Selena’s shooting death, her father/manager Abraham was quick to make it clear to the world that her friend/former employee Yolanda Sa ldívar had pulled the trigger on the youngster. He then ensured her estate was passed on to him and Marcella rather than remain with her husband of three years Chris Perez in fear of others taking advantage as well as misrepresentating her. So, of course, the Quintanilla family played a significant role in helping Netflix create ‘Selena: The Series’ in 2020-2021 — they wanted to do justice to her memory and feel as if they succeeded.
It hence also comes as no surprise Abraham has since slammed Oxygen’s ‘Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them,’ and the reasons for it go much beyond the claims made against him. He was portrayed as controlling, greedy, intimidating, as well as threatening in this documentary series by Yolanda Saldívar, and he has denied almost all allegations against him. This 84-year-old family man, Q-Productions owner, plus Texas native actually told TMZ that neither he nor any member of his family was involved or supported this project in any way, shape, or form.
Abraham then added, per TMZ, that he wants “absolutely nothing to do with Yolanda herself… cause everything she says is nothing but lies, and no one’s gonna believe what she has to say anyway.” He even wondered what more she has to say that she hasn’t already, reiterating his belief of everyone knowing there’s zero truth behind “anything that comes out of her mouth.” In other words, the Quintanillas are now doing their best to keep Selena’s memories as well as music alive in the most positive of manners — in a way that’s really true to who she was and how she lived her life.
Read More: Where is Selena’s Sister Suzette Quintanilla Now?
