The Enduring Beauty of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, the Queen of Tejano

#Selena #Tejano #SelenaQuintanillaPerez #Mexicana #Tejas

By Tijana Ilich

Selena Quintanilla-Perez became known as the "Queen of Tejano Music" during her short but well-received music career performing in the genre in her home state of Texas before her tragic death at age 24 in 1995.

Selena was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas, and raised in a Mexican-American family, but only spoke "kitchen Spanish," originally learning to sing her Spanish tunes phonetically but later taking intensive Spanish classes to sharpen her vocabulary and pronunciation.
She released her first album, "Mi Primeras Grabaciones" with her band "Selena y Los Dinos" in 1984, but the group wasn't noticed until seven years later, in 1989, when she signed a record contract with Capitol/EMI.

Growing up in Texas

Selena was the youngest of three children born to Mexican-American Abraham Quintanilla and Marcella. Her father loved music and formed a band with Selena, her sister Suzette and her brother A.B. (A.B. Quintanilla III of Los Kumbia Kings / Kumbia All Starz fame). Selena was 6 years old, but her father claims he could tell she was destined for a musical career because she had perfect pitch and timing.
Quintanilla Sr. had performed as a vocalist with "Los Dinos" ("The Boys") when he was young so when he opened a restaurant named "Papagallos" a few years later, the newly formed band "Selena Y Los Dinos" were the featured performers.
Although the restaurant failed and the family went bankrupt and relocated to Corpus Christi, the band hit the road, performing at weddings, cantinas, and festivals throughout southern Texas. Ultimately, Quintanilla pulled Selena out of school when she was in the eighth grade so that she could stay on the road, and she passed her high school equivalency exam via correspondence school.

Early Albums and International Attention

In the beginning, "Selena y Los Dinos" was a small band comprised primarily of Selena, Suzette, and A.B., but over the next few years, they added a few members and started recording for a small local label. Their first album, "Mi Primeras Grabaciones," came out in 1984, and although it wasn't sold in any stores, Quintanilla would carry the album with him and pitch them to record executives at the band's performances.
The band recorded 5 albums in this manner, including "Alpha" in 1986; "Preciosa" and "Dulce Amor" came out in 1988. The previous year, Selena won the Tejano Music Award for "Best Female Vocalist" and "Best Female Performer" when she was just 15 years old.
For the next 7 years, Selena would continue to win award after award. In 1989, she signed a record contract with Capitol/EMI and made a string of albums, including "Ven Conmigo," "Entre A Mi Mundo" and "Baile Esta Cumbia." Her 1993 album "Selena Live!" won the "Best Mexican-American Album" Grammy, making Selena the only Tejano artist to win a Grammy award.

Personal Affairs and Business Endeavors

Things were going well in Selena's personal life, as she'd met a man named Chris Perez, who was hired to perform in Selena's band, and the two married in 1992 after overcoming her father's objections and agreeing to move into the house next door. In the family business, Perez is still performing with brother A.B.'s Kumbia Kings/Kumbia All-Starz.
Selena also began to capitalize on her fame in other ways. She opened Selena Etc. Inc, a company that included boutiques that sold her clothing line.
The family avoided fan clubs until 1990, when Selena met Yolanda Saldivar, the aunt of one of Selena's childhood friends. Although they were strangers then, Saldivar convinced the family that a fan club would be a good idea and professed great admiration for the singer. Saldivar became the president of Selena's fan club—an unpaid position that soon boasted over 9000 members.
In 1994, as a reward for her hard work, Selena promoted Saldivar to the paid position of overseeing Selena Etc. Inc. Things started going wrong in short order. The company's designer quit, saying he couldn't work with Saldivar; products that had been paid for were not delivered, and there were accusations of misused and missing funds.

Tragedy and Betrayal

Selena and her father confronted Saldivar. The Washington Post reported that Saldivar was actually fired by phone the evening of March 29th and that the fan club president simply said, "OK". The next day Saldivar called back and made arrangements to meet with Selena so that she could hand over some paperwork.
On the morning of March 31, 1995, Selena went to the Days Inn in Corpus Christi to meet with Saldivar. We can only guess what was said, but Saldivar shot her briefly as Selena left the room. Selena made it to the lobby before collapsing. She died at the hospital a few hours later. It was 2 weeks before her 24th birthday.
While Selena's young life prematurely ended, she continues to win awards and sell records. Her popularity has only grown in the wake of her death with the posthumous release of her last unfinished crossover album "Dreaming Of You," which went quadruple platinum upon its release in 2004, proving that while Selena may have lost her life, her voice has not been stilled.

Coping With Moods: The Challenge of the Turbulent Mind

#Mood #Impulses #selfregulate #selfsoothe #Triple5LightTherapy #BlackMaleTherapist #Psychotherapy The power of moods and impulses can be overwhelming, but we can learn to self-regulate and self-soothe through awareness practices like meditation and mindfulness. By developing a healthy dialogue with our emotional nature, we can access deeper parts of ourselves and become more resilient in the face of stress and pressure. Rather than being swept away by our ever-shifting moods, we can learn to pause and reflect before acting. by Gillian McCann, Ph.D., and Gitte Bechsgaard, RP

Psychologists Have Created A League Table Of Scary And Revolting Animals Phobias

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#Perfection #CopingStrategies #Mindfulness #AllorNothingThinking #Catastrophizing, Broadly speaking, perfectionism is a personality style where people set exceptionally high standards for themselves in order to achieve perfection. However, the motive behind perfectionism is not the achievement of perfection, but rather, the avoidance of failure. More simply speaking, perfectionism is really a type of anxiety. Anxiety is adaptive and evolutionarily speaking, protects us from danger. In cavemen days, anxiety helped our ancestors flee from predators. However, in modern days, rarely do we need to flee from predators. Consequently, maladaptive anxiety is increasingly common and acts as a faulty alarm system- alerting us to danger as if there were a predator chasing us when actually we are not in real danger. In regards to perfectionism, those with this type of anxiety are so afraid to fail, they go to great lengths to avoid the possibility of failure. Underneath, an alarm system is g...

Kate Bush's "50 Words for Snow"

#50WordsforSnow #KateBush #RunningUpThatHill From up on that hill, perhaps wearing a capelet over a flowy Victorian gown, Kate Bush has been regarded as a spirit saint of fearless individuality by a generation of musicians such as Björk and Tori Amos as well as younger mystics-in-training such as Florence Welch, Leslie Feist and Bat for Lashes. All that adoration in the ether must’ve stirred the reclusive British singer-songwriter to create not just one album this year — “Director’s Cut,” a reinterpretation of songs from “The Sensual World” and “The Red Shoes” — but also a second one, “50 Words for Snow,” an art-song cycle that veers from delicate to blustery but always with a sheen of elegance. Bush grounds her songs in the permafrost of winter, with her piano work sounding like the first stirrings after a cold snap. “Among Angels” could be the soundtrack for plants stretching toward the new spring sun, but as much as it’s connected to the natural world, the s...

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