Tejano singer Selena died in 1995. NPR's A Martinez talks to Maria Garcia, creator and host of the podcast Anything for Selena, about projects that will keep Selena's music alive for new generations.

Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DAME TU AMOR")

SELENA: (Singing in Spanish).

A MARTINEZ, BYLINE: Tejano singer Selena died young in 1995, but two projects are reviving her music for new generations. The biopic about her life, starring Jennifer Lopez, is back in theaters today after 25 years, and her family has announced a new Selena album set to be released this month. Maria Garcia is the creator and host of the podcast, Anything For Selena. Maria, welcome.

MARIA GARCIA, BYLINE: Hi, A. Thank you for having me.

MARTINEZ: You know, any time I think of her, see her or hear her voice, I still get pretty emotional thinking about what she was poised to accomplish before being shot to death by the president of her fan club. Maria, how have your feelings on this evolved over the years?

GARCIA: A lot. You know, I have loved Selena since I was 7 years old. I remember watching her on TV, with her crimson lips, her brown skin, the way she spoke. It was, like, truly the very first time where I saw my working-class Latino community represented in somebody in, like, mass media. People talk all the time about how she was poised to become a mainstream American pop star. Let me tell you - for me, for my community...

(LAUGHTER)

GARCIA: ...She was already mainstream to us.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BIDI BIDID BOM BOM")

SELENA: (Singing) Hey, yeah, yeah.

GARCIA: She had an effervescence to her - a verb. But even on top of that, her face, her iconography, particularly after her death, has become a sort of badge of Latino identity.

MARTINEZ: Well, let's get into that effervescence of Selena because one of the things that endeared everyone to her is the way she came off in interviews, particularly how she tried to give interviews in Spanish when English was her natural tongue, as we hear in this clip.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SELENA: (Speaking Spanish). I said, that wrong, didn't I? (Speaking Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).

SELENA: (Speaking Spanish, laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BIDI BIDI BOM BOM")

SELENA: (Singing in Spanish).

GARCIA: (Laughter).

MARTINEZ: So she pronounced the word applause as aplaudos (ph) instead of correctly aplausos. But that's the thing - she was so charming that I think Spanish speakers kind of gave her a pass because she was trying.

GARCIA: Yeah.

MARTINEZ: And tell us why you say there was symbolism in the way she spoke - why someone like you was drawn to her Spanglish.

GARCIA: Oh, my God. Well, I grew up on the border, so I would be in the U.S. during the week, and I'd be in Mexico on the weekends, and I was having a hard time communicating in Spanish. And I remember feeling this sort of, like, pang of shame, so it was really revolutionary for people like me to see Selena, a fourth-generation Mexican American, speaking Spanish the way she did and doing it with such an open heart. It was like she was saying, you know, I don't sound like you, but this heritage, like, it's mine too, and I treasure it too, and there's space for me too.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMOR PROHIBIDO")

SELENA: (Singing in Spanish).

GARCIA: I clearly remember, like, there was - there's this show that she did on "Cristina," where she's talking about....

MARTINEZ: Diecicuatro (ph).

GARCIA: (Laughter) Yes, diecicuatro.

MARTINEZ: So let me explain. I'll explain this. So she was on the show "Cristina" - and Cristina, for those who don't know, was, I mean, the Oprah of the Latin American world. And she was talking about dress sizes, and she said the word 14 as diecicuatro, when the correct word is catorce.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "EL SHOW DE CRISTINA")

SELENA: (Speaking Spanish).

CRISTINA SARALEGUI: (Speaking Spanish).

SELENA: (Speaking Spanish).

(LAUGHTER)

SELENA: (Speaking Spanish, laughter).

SARALEGUI: (Speaking Spanish).

GARCIA: And she turned it into a moment of joy. And then she says, but you understand me, right? Like...

MARTINEZ: Yeah.

GARCIA: ...We're still in community here, you know? We're still the same.

MARTINEZ: You know, as I was listening through Selena interviews, Maria, I don't think I heard one that did not ask her about - well, I'll let this clip from the film, "Selena," starring Jennifer Lopez, explain.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SELENA")

JENNIFER LOPEZ: (As Selena) It cracks me up when they ask me my diet and exercise secrets. They're like, Selena, how do you keep that trim figure? Every girl wants to know. Well, I eat medium pizzas all by myself with lots of pepperoni - that's important - and I drink Cokes and scarf Doritos and never exercise.

MARTINEZ: She also used to say she loved arroz con pollo. Maria, how would you gauge her role in the United States body politics conversation that seemingly always is evolving?

GARCIA: You know, I posed this theory in the podcast that there's a direct lineage between Selena and the ideal body politics of today, which really revolves around the big derriere. After she died, there was, like, this legitimate conversation, especially in Spanish-language media, that whoever played her in her biopic had to have her curves. And then comes Jennifer Lopez. I don't know if you remember this, but in the mid-'90s, there was a lot of talk about Jennifer Lopez's butt.

MARTINEZ: I remember, Maria. They were like...

GARCIA: Yeah (laughter).

MARTINEZ: Yeah.

GARCIA: Yeah. And so then the so-called Latin boom takes place, and you start to see this body ideal change. And what I found was really a story about, you know, Latino identity's really fraught relationship with Blackness. You know, it was J.Lo's proximity to whiteness and racial ambiguity that really allowed her to be praised for these features that had been, frankly, derided in Black women for hundreds of years before.

MARTINEZ: Now, I mentioned Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla, says that two new albums are coming out this year, including one this month. That's going to make 25 new Selena albums since she died 27 years ago. Maria, when you hear that another Selena album is about to come out, do you get excited, or are you exhausted - because the question is, is Abraham honoring her memory, cashing in, or protecting his vision of his daughter?

GARCIA: You know, I think it's a little more complicated than that. When Selena died, Abraham Quintanilla said he was never going to let the world forget his daughter's artistry, and that's sort of been his life mission. And there is this natural tendency from fans to sort of guard her legacy because she is such a precious symbol, but I think that's attention that takes place when an artist transcends from individual to cultural patrimony.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COMO LA FLOR")

SELENA: (Singing in Spanish).

MARTINEZ: That's Maria Garcia, creator and host of the podcast, Anything For Selena. Maria, thanks.

GARCIA: Thank you so much for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tags: Genre: Latin  Selena