Image result for los DInos
Selena y Los Dinos, Alchetron

Selena Quintanilla was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas. Her father, Abraham Jr. Quintanilla had led a band in the 1950s and 1960s that played early rock and roll songs mixed with traditional Mexican music which would later be categorized as Tejano music. She began singing at the age of nine but her musical career didn’t begin until she started playing with her father’s band, Los Dinos, which would later become known as, “Selena y Los Dinos.” She would then marry the guitarist of the band, Chris Pérez, in 1992 at the time without the approval of her father. On March 31, 1995, she was shot by Yolanda Saldívar, the former manager of her fan club later dying in the hospital from blood loss. To this day, she is still seen as the Queen of Tejano being remembered in documentaries and through her songs.

Image result for selena
Selena Quintanilla, USA Today

Selena Quintanilla’s “Como La Flor,” (1992) hitting both the Mexico Singles Chart (1992) and the American Billboard category of Regional Mexican Songs (1995), proves that it challenges both the gender view in Tejano music, being predominately male-driven, and updates it making it both appealing to Americans and Mexicans. She challenges this through the inclusion of cumbia, rock and techno, the use of her gravelly vocals, instrumentation such as synthesizers and synthetic drums, and metaphors also making her one of the first in Tejano music to crossover in the US and Mexico.