Selena Quintanilla’s Life Story and How She Was Murdered by Yolanda Saldiver

Selena Quintanilla was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas, she is the youngest of the Quintanilla family, she has 1 sister (Suzette) and 1 brother (A.B.) and her mom and dad (Marcela and Abraham). She grew up in Texas it was her home and she pretty much has a regular childhood until she was 8. When Selena was 8, her dad noticed that was able to sing, so Abraham decided to have his kids in a band, the band was called Selena y Los Dinos. Selena was the lead singer while Suzette was playing drums and A.B. was rocking the guitar. Marcela had a very strong opinion about this because she didn’t want to put pressure on the kids because they were just kids. Abraham had a completely different idea on this.

Once Selena y Los Dinos started playing, Abraham had booked gigs for them to play in restaurants and on the side of fairs and everything, and with all of this they received more attention from everyone in the town and started to get bigger, now they were performing worldwide. Selena had a lot of fun with everyone and eventually, Selena y Los Dinos needed more members so that’s when they added Chris Pérez, Ricky Vela, Joe Ojeda, and Jesse O'Jay' Martinez.

Selena and Chris were close friends after Chris was added into the band, Chris says (Alexander #) that when he first saw Quintanilla it was like “love at first sight, she was beautiful and talented.” he went on about how he felt about his late wife……”I’m a shy person by nature, and there was just something about her that she was able to pull me out” Pérez said he knew he was falling in love with Quintanilla when we were traveling back from a gig “We were sitting next to each other and we hit some turbulence. Next thing I know, she was holding my hand and that was the beginning of everything”. The two were polar opposites Chris was quiet and preserved while Selena was outgoing, Selena loved their differences the most.

Abraham Quintanilla did not approve of this relationship because he was worried that Selena would get distracted by Chris which would have an effect on her career, so Abraham forbids them from seeing each other, now that Sel and Chris were frustrated because of it they knew in their hearts that they wanted to be together so on April 2, 1992, the two eloped without anyone knowing. They two thought that that was the only way Abraham would accept their relationship. Within time, Abraham had finally accepted the relationship because he knew how happy Selena was with Chris. Pérez and Quintanilla were married for 3 years (1992-1995).

Selena’s career in music was like no other she was known as “The Mexican Madonna” or “La Reina De Tex Mex” and her music was known to everyone but her album “Live!” was nominated for a Grammy under the “Best Mexican-American Album” and when she won that Grammy it was a big deal mainly because it was the first album by a female Tejano artist to win, I guess you could say she paved the way for Tejano women singers everywhere. Her career only went up from there. She was a spokesperson for “Coca-Cola”, she opened up her own boutique and fan club and with all of this happening it was eventually too much for her family to run, so they needed a fan club president, and that's when Yolanda Saldívar, also an employee of the “Selena boutique”, came into the picture. Once the fan club gained more members and popularity, the Quintanilla family gave her more and more trust to help run the fan club and gave her more responsibilities.

Once Yolanda was working for the Quintanilla family, she gained a lot of trust from them just enough for them to believe her in any case scenario. But some of Selena’s close friends and family started to notice Yolanda’s “obsessive” behavior with Selena at first they thought it was professional because she was handling all of Selena’s boutique and clothing line and she even started to control Sel’s business by checking accounts and she even had a copy of the key to Selena and Chris’ house, which was a red flag. Martin Gomez, a designer who had the same office place as Saldivar, started to pick up on the warning signs that were leading to her attachment with Quintanilla. Gomez recalled her behavior as “obsessive” because she would get angry if you crossed paths with her and when Gomez was working on a clothing piece and he needed to go to New York so he would then he would return the hems in his clothing pieces wold be ripped out, and the only person who would be in that room was Saldivar. Gomez had eventually quit his job and left just 6 weeks before Selena’s death. The last thing he told Selena was to be careful because he was afraid of Saldivar. 

Abraham Quintanilla was receiving messages from the fans about missing payments and then would not get anything from the fan club they had wanted after paying the fees for the items they ordered. This was one of the huge red flags that were pointed out to Abraham’s attention which led Abraham to monitor Saldivers behavior and he was convinced that she was pocketing the money they had received for the boutique. Abraham had talked to Selena about this because of how bad she made the fan club and the boutique and the Quintanilla name look and because of how her behavior has been. With Selena now knowing about what Saldivar had done but not talking about it, Saldivar was holding off on telling Selena because she wanted to get everything they were missing out on so she can be seen as innocent. 

On March 31, 1995, the world stopped and gathered everywhere in Corpus Christi, Texas to remember the life and legacy of Selena Quintanilla. But backtrack to days before this historic event...days before Saldiver killed Selena, she had purchased a .38-caliber handgun, this was a huge warning sign. She had Selena had met in Saldivers hotel room at the Days Inn, room 158 in Corpus Christi Texas because Selena wanted to talk to her about her pocketing money and not giving anything to her fans who paid full price for albums, clothing pieces, and souvenirs. Selena was demanding the missing stuff and pocketed money worth of $30,000 but Saldivar was not giving it up, eventually, Selena was about to head out of the room to go home and she opened the door that would lead to her car in the parking lot and once Selena was right under the hotel doorframe, Saldivar had shot Selena under her right shoulder and the bullet went through Selena’s right artery and Selena was afraid, she didn’t know what to do because she was alone she didn’t have anyone with her when she visited Saldivar that day, she ran 392 feet while bleeding out of her right side of her chest she was screaming “SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!!!” she was running so fast that her heart was pumping a lot of blood and that blood was leaving her body and leaving a trail from room 158 to the hotel lobby of Days Inn. While she was running for her life, Saldivar was watching from a distance and walked back into her hotel room calm as eyewitnesses say. Selena made it to the lobby and she collapsed to the floor full of blood, she kept telling the people at the front desk “Help me, help me. I’ve been shot” the paramedics eventually came to the hotel and they were asking Selena what had happened and she said she was shot and they asked her “Who did this to you?” and Selena’s response and last words were “Yolanda Saldíver in room 158” and she rolled her eyes back and never opened them again she was rushed at the hospital and was undergoing emergency surgery but was already pronounced dead because of the blood loss and cardiac arrest.

Later that day Yolanda was watched like a hawk for the next seven and half hours she was surrounded by police and the SWAT team and almost everyone, there was not one person who wasn’t watching her who was at the hotel. She was on the phone with Larry Rucker Young, the lead negotiator with the Corpus Christ Police Department, asking about Selena’s condition. She was threatening to kill herself with the same gun she shot the singer with. Yolanda locked in herself in her pickup truck for those seven and half hours, then admitted to shooting Selena. (Biography Editors). Yolanda wanted to kill Selena because Selena was firing Yolanda. She wouldn’t exist if she didn’t have Selena.

Yolanda was charged with first-degree murder. On October 23, 1995, Yolanda was sentenced to 25 years in prison and is eligible for parole on March 20, 2025. Yolanda was envious towards Selena because she had more and Yolanda wanted that so she pocketed the money and hoped no one would find out. Envy shoots at others but hurts themselves.