Talk:Selena

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Featured article star Selena is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do.
Main Page trophy This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on December 21, 2006.
Peer review This Arts article has been selected for Version 0.5 and subsequent release versions of Wikipedia. It has been rated FA-Class on the assessment scale (comments).
Maintained The following user(s) are actively contributing to this article and may be able to help with questions about verification and sources:
Jaranda (talk • contribs • email)
This in no way implies article ownership; all editors are encouraged to contribute.

An event in this article is a March 31 selected anniversary (may be in HTML comment)

Contents

[edit] Boutiques?

Could someone provide information on her boutiques? All I've ever heard about them was Yolanda's connection. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.193.129.195 (talk) 21:41, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Page needs work

This is an article which will need moving, sysops. Should go under Selena Quintanilla. It will need a big makeover from someone qualified to do it to reassign it from hagiography to encyclopedia article. user:sjc

Zoe wrote in an edit summary: "This page needs a great deal of NPOV work. It also reads like a copyright violation."

Selena deserves much better. I added the cleanup tag. Calicore 05:59, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. It seems someone cut and pasted large chunks of information found on other Selena related websites. I think copyright violations have taken place. We should try and clean up the entire article.


Selena's parent's arent immagrants they are both from the US.

We used the term Mexican-Americans, since they are American citizens (from birth), but from a Mexican decent. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 03:58, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

The Thompson/Gale article (currently footnote 6) appears rather heavily used, down to the puzzling assertion in both places that Selena's "Dreaming of You" debuted at No. 1, but was the second highest debut after Jackson's "HIStory." How can a No. 1 debut be "second" highest? And was "HIStory" really a debut?

Hoya1 13:04, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

It does read incorrect as printed. Maybe they meant second-highest SELLING #1 debut behind Michael Jackson. That seems to be the only problem with the Thompson-Gale article, but there is a lot of info in that article to use as a source.--Bamadude 17:01, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Date of death

Traxplayer: Is the year 1995 of her death correct ?

Mseames: Yes, TraxPlayer, Selena was killed March 31, 1995. 21:02, Jun 23, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Name of article

Isn't her full name "Selena Quintanilla Perez"? I want to move the article to that name. WhisperToMe 06:47, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Her full name is Selena Quintanilla Perez. Keep it here. RickK 06:50, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)
Then wouldn't just Selena be the best title? Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone is located at Madonna. Kent Wang 07:00, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Selena was born Selena Quintanilla. No middle name. Perez was added on as her married last name. Her legal name at death was Selena Quintanilla-Perez but, she only went by Selena. Mseames 08:49, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC)
I agree with User:Kent Wang and User:Mseames, and have moved the page to Selena. —Lowellian (reply) 01:43, August 17, 2005 (UTC)
I changed "born Selena Quintanilla Pérez" to "born Selena Quintanilla," since obviously she was not born with her husband's name. The infobox reflects her name at death. Nelnadon 13:44, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
The confusion may come as well from attempts to preserve or acknowledge the Hispanic double-surname tradition. If the article is correct that her mother's maiden name was Perez, then she would be Selena Quintanilla Perez from birth under that tradition, even though in her case the actual history of her using that name does date only to her marriage to Chris Perez. Many Southern women, in particular, convert their maiden name into a middle name upon marriage (I know I did), and of course, this is one common practice for celebrity women who marry after becoming famous under a previous surname.Lawikitejana 19:09, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

The perez infact comes from her late husband, Christopher Perez, not her mother's maiden name.

[edit] Gay Icon Project

In my effort to merge the now-deleted list from the article Gay icon to the Gay icons category, I have added this page to the category. I engaged in this effort as a "human script", adding everyone from the list to the category, bypassing the fact-checking stage. That is what I am relying on you to do. Please check the article Gay icon and make a judgment as to whether this person or group fits the category. By distributing this task from the regular editors of one article to the regular editors of several articles, I believe that the task of fact-checking this information can be expedited. Thank you very much. Philwelch 22:13, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Selena is definitely an icon within the Gay community, though perhaps moreso among Gay Latinos.

i-m very touch about the sotry of selena... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.212.55.143 (talk) 01:11, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hyperbole?

This quote seems a little over the top: "Indeed, it is wholly impossible to discuss Hispanic culture without mentioning Selena; she has already reached mythical status."

Does Selena have the same status in Latin America? Spain? Non-Mexican U.S. Hispanics? If not, maybe this statement should be qualified. User:129.108.24.78

I agree. The statement is POV and should be removed or qualified. —Lowellian (talk) 21:16, August 14, 2005 (UTC)

I disagree, though perhaps I should have specified "Hispanic-American", as opposed to "Hispanic", which is too general. Selena is unarguably an icon with the Latino community. According to Nielsen Soundscan, she is one of the top five selling Latino artists of all time. Can anyone possibly discuss American culture without mentioning Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson (despite the former's notoriety)? I don't think so. Likewise, it would be absurd to discuss Hispanic American culture without mentioning one of its biggest stars.

Isn't "Hispanic" a U.S. census term? Such that "Hispanic-American" is something of a redundancy? Epstein's Mother 02:08, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
No. The use of latino in English is a census thing, I think. Hispanic definitely predates the census, but I don't know that it was used in the same sense. --Node 23:30, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] I removed the facts section

Mainly because it's unencyclopedic. This is supposed to be an article, not a list of bullet-point facts. Besides, they were uncited anyways. --Khoikhoi 08:30, 23 February 2006 (UTC) i don't know anything about this but all i know is thgat i want to know more about selema because i a m doing a research report on her and i need more information!!!!!!!!!!!!

[edit] Catwoman

The dablink currently reads "For the movie, see Selena (film). If you were looking for "Selina", see Catwoman." Do people actually come here looking for the Batman character? My second guess for the use of Selena would have been a version of the name of the moon, not a fictional character, if an alternate use is necessary at all. If I am mistaken, please correct me, but it seems unnecessary to me.--Rockero 07:35, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copyedit and thoughts

As requested on IRC, I gave this a copyedit. The next things this needs are:

  1. A good NPOV lookover. It's not as out of control as it might be, given the subject, but it is a bit hagiographic.
  2. Consideration of the structure. Right now there are a lot of short paragraphs, roughly chronological (although I think there are some issues with the chronology as it stands), not very well tied together. This needs to be organized more thematically, and the repetitious paragraphs describing one album after another need to go. I'd also recommend, incidentally, cutting back on the number of individual songs listed. As this stands, there isn't much flow to the article, and that needs to change. And finally, of course,
  3. Citations, citations, citations.

Good luck, --RobthTalk 04:27, 15 May 2006 (UTC) Bold text

[edit] Stray sentence

While copyediting I ended up removing a few things to try and improve flow. Since one was a somewhat long and (sort of) sourced sentence, I thought I'd move it here in case someone can fit it or its basic contents somewhere else in the article:

  • In addition, two important figures in the Tejano music industry - Rick Trevi, founder of the Tejano Music Awards, and Johnny Canales, an entertainer with a popular Spanish-language television show who interviewed Selena also at the age of 12 - discovered the singer.[1]

The problem here is that this was just sort of dangling at the end of a paragraph, without making it clear when these people discovered her or how it was important. Well, it does mention when Johnny first interviewed her, but that doesn't help; it says he interviewed her when she was twelve, but this sentence was placed at the end of a paragraph describing what she'd done in 1986, two years later. The part on Johnny could be moved up earlier in the article, of course, but I'm not sure I see his significence. Rick Trevi isn't named at all in the source cited, so I can't figure out where that belongs in the article. They should probably be mentioned somewhere, anyway, but it didn't really fit there. --Aquillion 01:48, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Citation spot check

As part of this project, I randomly checked a few footnotes from this article; results were as follows:

  1. Footnote 3(a). "Taking all their musical equipment in an old bus, they relocated to Corpus Christi, Texas. There, they performed wherever they could: at street corners, weddings, quinceañeras, and fairs."
    • Problem. From site: "While the rest of the Quintanilla clan relocated in Corpus Christi, Selena and her siblings hit the road, performing throughout southern Texas as Selena y Los Dinos ("Selena and the Boys"). They played at weddings and in cantinas and honky-tonks to very small audiences"
      • The article suggests that they were performing in Corpus Christi; the source says otherwise.
  2. Footnote 4. At the Tejano Music Awards in 1987, Selena took the award for Female Vocalist of the Year (and would continue to dominate the Awards for the next seven years).
    • Problem. The site linked to lists that 1987 award and another in 1995, but nothing more. It appears from other sites that she continued to win the best female vocalist award yearly; the citation should lead to a source that states this.
  3. Footnote 7. "Hispanic Business magazine reported that the singer earned over five million dollars from these boutiques, making her one of the twenty wealthiest Hispanic entertainers in the world, and the only Tejana among them."
    • Problem. From site: "Hispanic Business Magazine reports Selena has assets worth $5 million."
      • This supports one of the statements in the sentence. Perhaps just cite the original Hispanic Business article?
  4. Footnote 15. "Stern's comments, predictably, outraged the Hispanic community all across Texas."
    • Checks out. Entirety of article supports this statement.
  5. Footnote 21. "But Selena's fans supported the biography, and Lopez's role in the film helped elevate her career."
    • Iffy. From site: "but it wasn't until the 1997 eponymously titled bio-pic about murdered Latin American singer Selena that La Lopez really hit paydirt, receiving the coveted seven-figure salary enjoyed by so few in Hollywood."
      • First, this doesn't say anything about Selena's fans supporting the movie; a reference for that would be in order. Second, "elevated her career" is an odd phrase, and I can't figure out quite what it means. If its supposed to mean that this was the movie that propelled her into the big-time, a different reference is needed. If it means that this is the movie in which Lopez was first payed the salary of a big-time star, this reference will work, but either way, the statement in the article needs to be rephrased for clarity. (And based on the context in the article, the first meaning would make more sense.)

All in all, this article seems to be suffering from the classic problem of citing statements to sources that relate to them but do not directly support them. --RobthTalk 18:21, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Fixed 4, clarified 3a Corpus Christi is in Southern Texas, going to fix the other 2 Jaranda wat's sup 18:53, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Ok I did a better ref for the J-Lo one and fixed another. Jaranda wat's sup 20:02, 21 July 2006 (UTC)


Footnote 19 cited in support of the factual statement that Selena was the first Hispanic singer to debut at No. 1 does not confirm this.

Hoya1 12:49, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Hmm likely vandalism reverted footnote 19 is with her murderer Jaranda wat's sup 23:14, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mother

Why is Selena seen as Mexican American if her mom is Panamanian-born? If this is true..then she isn't even Chicana. lupe

Her father is Mexican-American (don't know where this bit claiming he was born in Mexico comes from). I have never heard of her mother being Panamanian before someone put it into the article this week; I've looked online but been unable to confirm where her mother was born. I'll keep looking. Lawikitejana 15:35, 13 October 2006 (UTC) Update: I finally found a solid reference to back up that her father was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, and added it. However, someone needs to go back in and make the citation format of my reference consistent with the other references; I don't want to mess up a featured article! For now, I added a "fact" template after the claim that her mother is Panamanian. (I have no problem with it if she is, but we've got to get these points settled so that it's easier to convince people to stop changing her parents' nationalities around every week.) Lawikitejana 15:42, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

The song Amor Prohibido is about her grandparents and the fact they it was a mixed couple...had it been a Mexican who marries a Native American..it would have never been forbidden Lupe

-- It might be worthwhile to note one circumstance of Selena's birth -- the OB/GYN who brought her into the world, the only one in the county at the time, was future Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, current U.S. Presidential candidate...

lupe, it doesn't matter. Her father was at least. And anyway, it's nothing completely special being needed to be 100% Mexican for a title such as "chicana." While she was alive, when did she ever care about being referred to as that? Never. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Garzj019 (talk • contribs) 04:56, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Duetos

I know the Kumbia Kings released an AB Quintanilla-produced album called Duetos that samples Selena in which most of the songs are dedicated to or sample Selena. But All Music Guide and Amazon both say it was released March 29, 2005, two days before Selena died. Are they wrong or am I missing something huge? —ShadowHalo 08:51, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

She died in 1995 not 2005 Jaranda wat's sup 17:20, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Wow, thanks. I must have only been paying attention to the last digit. —ShadowHalo 19:41, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spanish language wikilink

Any particular reason "Spanish" in the intro isn't disamb to "Spanish language"? NorCalHistory 15:36, 18 December 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Birth Name??

Was she born with her mother's surname or her father's? Her birth name is given as Selena Quintanilla Zamora. Did she adopt her father's last name later on or what?192.231.128.68 02:19, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

From my understanding, her father's surname is Quintanilla and her mother's is Zamora. When she married Chris Perez, she dropped her mother's surname and added Perez after Quintanilla. —ShadowHalo 03:17, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I do, I'm speaker of Spanish and in México is common call to married female so. Selena we would call Selena Quintanilla de Pérez, or simply Selena de Pérez, both correctly. I unknow the rules for surnames in your county. Thank you and sorry the grammar of my basic english.
Xammoh 05:30, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Aftermath section disappeared

For a featured article it seems veryu odd that the section titled "Aftermath" is completely deleted and the section left empty as it is. Any explanation?--Bud 09:37, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism that was reverted, next time check the history to check if you can do the revert yourself. Thanks Jaranda wat's sup 23:12, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

i dont have time to fix it, but there's some in the first paragraph. specifically calling her parents wetbacks. Caesarscott 15:29, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

There had been higher than usual vandalism here. Jaranda wat's sup 23:11, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

There's a vandalism war going on, this page needs to be restricted...

An amazing amount of sexual/pornographic references added to vandalize the article. maybe you can lock it down, this is a very sad commentary on what some people will do. 75.100.89.182 04:10, 12 January 2007 (UTC)Steve

This page seems to still get a relatively high amount of vandalism. It would be nice to at least have this semi-protected on a long-term basis. --Stux (talk) 03:32, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Enough with the hyphenated Americans

Selena is just as American as anyone else born and raised in the United States. Calling her Mexican-American is ridiculous, as she is not from Mexico. I notice no white Americans ever have to be hyphenated in Wikipedia, so why does Selena? Let's move on from the hyphenations, as all it does it create divisions that shouldn't exist.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.197.73.30 (talk) 23:24, 31 January 2007

(1) Your premise of "no white Americans ever have to be hyphenated in Wikipedia" is shaky on many levels. Even if we lay aside the whole issue of "define 'white'" — after all, Italian-Americans used to be considered non-white by many, but are usually considered white today — there's the issue that (a) no one said anyone had to be hyphenated, and (b) there are plenty of "white" people with hyphenated notations of their family heritage in Wikipedia (see, for example, Lists of Irish-Americans). So it's not as if she were being singled out. (2) "She is not from Mexico" is irrelevant, as you can see by reading the article Mexican American. The term refers not simply to naturalized citizens born in Mexico, but more broadly to any American whose family is historically of Mexican origin. (3) Regarding "just as American as anyone else ...", it's questionable to insist that noting one's family origin implies being somehow less American.
Nonetheless, certainly a comparison to similar articles on singers would suggest that there's an argument for going with "American" in the first sentence and saving "Mexican-American" for later. Lawikitejana 05:43, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Whoa. Back it up. You know what he/she meant.
1. People such as Americans who best identify with Italian heritage are white or caucasion. Enough said.
2. Her not being Mexican is entirely relevant the the hyphenated American issue. She was born in Texas, a state of the United States of America. It is common knowledge that those who are born in America are known as Americans. Calling her a American-Mexican or Mexican American would make sense if her mother gave birth to her on the very border of both countries, which, needless to say never happens. Selena is an American.
3. Of course it implies being less of an American! People are so convinced that they are oppressed in ever way in this country. Therefore they feel the need to connect to a country or place of origin where there ancestors emmigrated from or fled. There's a reason people live in America. And it is an insult to Americans for people to add hyphenated nationalities to their American citizenship. People need to learn to be proud of being from this nation.
Therefore, Selena was a very patriotic American citzen who spoke and sang beautfiul Spanish.garzj019 20070722PST2200

[edit] Merge from The People Tribute Issue

There is redundant content at The People Tribute Issue, but maybe a sentence or two that isn't here. I propose we merge and redirect. -Selket Talk 19:50, 28 February 2007 (UTC)\ During Selena's life, when she became famous, there were many fans that disliked her music and all of her talent!!!

How can a fan dislike music and talent? 0o

[edit] Cash cow

Removed from the article: "That was the day that Abraham Quintanilla lost his cash cow. He was a greedy SOB".

Can we find any sources for that? It seems like it belongs in the article, but we need a source. I couldn't find any mention of a cash cow here or of Abraham Quintanilla being a greedy SOB. Perhaps there is an article in Greedy SOB Magazine? --Node 14:06, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Most successfull female latin singer ever ?

the article claims Selena to be "one of the most or perhaps the most successful Latin female singer ever". the metrics given for that are awards, billboard positions and album sales. By all those metrics, she's not even close to those of Shakira (and probably a few others as well). I'll modify the text accordingly

[edit] I'm related to Selena

if you have any questions about Selena, please feel free to ask me. I am her 3rd cousin. If you don't beleive me, then sorry u missed the opprotunity. I bet my life that i'm related to Selena.Mitchlover11 00:09, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Note: Any discussion not involving improving the article needs to take place on the relevant user's talk page so that we don't turn this page into a message forum. Also, bear in mind that information for Wikipedia has to come from published sources. That said, hi, Mitchlover11 -- if you have some published sources that those of us hunting online don't have (e.g., Caller-Times articles from Corpus), it'd be great to have some information from those added where it contributes to the article. Lawikitejana 03:38, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Picture of the statue

I have a picture I took last November that shows the statue in more detail, but the current photo has the advantage of showing it in context of the overall memorial. I don't want to have an orphaned photo, so I'll put it up on Commons instead of here and others can decide if it should replace the current image. The file is Image:Selena statue closeup.jpg -- I remember reading something about statues on public display being OK to use, but I can't find it now, so it may end up having to come off Commons if they determine it's not acceptable for their purposes. Nonetheless, it would qualify to be used in this one article under fair use standards, so somebody go look and see whether you think that image should be substituted or if a picture of the full memorial is more educational. Lawikitejana 01:41, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

someone should change the main picture as that is selena gomez and not selena —Preceding unsigned comment added by Paranoid1 (talk • contribs) 23:22, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Zamora/Samora?

I noticed the article gives her mother's maiden name as "Zamora". I know her first cousin's name was "Samora" (before she married my brother) and this reference also says "Samora" [1] . However I'm hesitant to change it as the source (Texas birth records, which I can't access) would seem to be authoritative. I suppose it's possible it was recently changed from "Z" to "S". Can anyone verify (can't get hold of my sis-in-law now, will check w/her later)? Gr8white (talk) 18:07, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

According to sil her grandfather (Marcella's father) changed the spelling from Zamora to Samora. So certainly when Selena was born it was Samora. Marcella's birth certificate may have said Zamora thus the discrepancy in the records. I'm not certain of the relevancy of showing her name in the Spanish naming system as it's not anything she would have ever used, being thoroughly American. Gr8white (talk) 01:19, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] selena

the lady who shot her is bad selena dident want that to happen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.227.239.128 (talk) 12:02, 7 June 2008 (UTC)