El dieciséis de abril/April 16th

Photo from vibe.com article announcing
ABC's just announced television series
(January 2018) inspired by the life of
Selena. Click HERE. 

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Selena Quintanilla-Pérez! (1971-1993)

"The Queen of Tejano Music" who paved the way for success by artists such as Shakira, Ricky Martin, and Jennifer Lopez (who played Selena in the 1997 movie about her life), Selena still inspires devotion from fans around the world. April 16th is "Selena Day" in Texas (as declared by Texas Governor George W. Bush two weeks after her death) and marked annually with a two-day music festival, La Fiesta del Flor, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Selena, who is Mexican-American, was born in Lake Jackson, Texas in 1971 and grew up speaking English as her first language. She started singing in her father's Tex-Mex restaurant, Papa Gayo's, when she was only eight years old alongside her brother, Abraham III (playing bass guitar), and her sister, Suzette (playing drums). The restaurant closed in the early 1980s during the economic recession caused by plunging oil prices, and the family lost everything, even being evicted from their home. The family then formed a band, Selena y Los Dinos, which Selena's father managed and promoted. They desperately needed money and sang at weddings, quinceañeras, and fairs to make ends meet. Many of Selena's teachers expressed concern with how tired she was when she came to school. Nonetheless, the family band continued. Selena, despite being more comfortable in English, sang Tejano music in Spanish because her father wanted her to record songs related to her heritage (read more HERE).  Selena and her family's hard work paid off when she won the Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year in 1987. She would go on to win that award nine consecutive times. Then things really started taking off for Selena, both personally and professionally. She married band guitarist Chris Pérez on April 2, 1992 (the two eloped, due to the disapproval of her father, though he eventually came around). Her 1992 album Entre a Mi Mundo (with the hit song Como La Flor) was a huge commercial success, and her 1993 album Live! won the best Mexican/American Album at the 1994 Grammy Awards. Her 1994 album Amor Prohibido was one of the best-selling Latin albums of all time in the United States. On March 31st, 1995 Selena was shot and killed by the disturbed former president of her fan club. Her death, front page news on The New York Times for two days, was a shock to her many fans and provoked an outpouring of grief. Some 40,000 people lined up to pass by her casket and pay their respects in Corpus Christi. Selena's posthumously released album, Dreaming of You, sold nearly 200,000 copies on the day of its release and went on to become the best-selling Latin album of all time. Read more about Selena's legacy in this 2017 Vanity Fair article, hear a first-person account of the reaction to her death in this 1995 Texas Monthly article, or simply sing along to Bidi Bidi Bom Bom and enjoy the music and dance moves of a legend.

For a Spanish lesson on Selena based on her interview on El Show de Cristina, click HERE.

Other April 16th birthdays of note:

José de Diego (1867-1918): Called the "Father of the Independence Movement" in Puerto Rico (first fighting for independence from Spain, then from the United States), he was a journalist, lawyer, politician, and poet. His poem Pomarrosas (En las orillas de los viejos ríos,/que llevan sus corrientes rumorosas/por los bosques recónditos y úmbrios,/nacen las pomarrosas/pálidas, escondidas, amorosas,/lejos del sol, como los versos míos ... ) was the inspiration for Puerto Rican fashion designer Stella Nolasco's Spring/Summer 2016 collection (read and see more HERE).

Pedro Ramírez Vázquez (1919-2013): He was a famous Mexican architect who designed, among other buildings, The Museum of Anthropology, The Azteca Stadium, and the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Read more in his New York Times obituary, HERE.