The Gothic Elements of

Selena Quintanilla Perez was born on April 16th, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas. She was the youngest of three children and she began her interest in singing at the tender age of three. Her family grew up with very little money and by the time Selena was nine years old, her father had started a band with his children called “Selena y Los Dinos.” Her family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas soon after and the band began playing at quinceneras, weddings, fairs, and anywhere else they could get booked. Due to Selena’s rising popularity and commitments, Selena was no longer able to regularly attend school and was taken out by her father when she was only in the eighth grade. She eventually received her high school diploma from an independent study program at the age of seventeen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many aspects to Selena’s early life and career that I feel had an essence of the “uncanny.” Selena was very young and naive when she entered the industry and the entertainment industry has always had an undertone of being a glamorous yet merciless lifestyle.  The music industry has a mysterious, almost exclusive quality to it and it has been known to make or break rising stars. There had been many legendary musicians over time that had their lives end in tragedy or despair, so there must have been a feeling of heavy apprehension dwelling beneath Selena and her family’s excitement. The ominous presence of the unknown was everywhere as Selena and her family were constantly travelling to different cities during their tours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selena was a second generation Mexican-American along with her brother and sister. She initially sang songs in Spanish when it was early in her career, and she effortlessly transitioned into singing songs in English as she gained popularity and became more main-stream. Any Mexican-American singer who sings his or her songs in both English and Spanish is inevitably going to be examined twice as much with  for their distinctive dialect and accent in both of the languages. Selena’s father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr, struggled with this in his early music endeavors and he was never able to garner the massive following as his daughter. In many ways, Selena had several intersecting oppressions that she overcame throughout her career because she was a woman, Mexican-American, and she came from lower middle-class household.  Achieving such a paramount success with many societal odds against her could not have been an easy task.  With the gothic element of oppression being so swiftly overcome, it is an honest testament to the strength and courage of such a talented and driven young woman.