Selena Remembered

Copyright 2000 -- All Rights Reserved; No Part may be duplicated without permission from MOCKBA1.  Selena Photo between White Roses is Property of EMI-Latin.

Biography

The sold-out Astrodome Concert for the Houston Livestock and Rodeo February 1995 with the crowd of 61,000+, the largest in Astrodome history at the time only strengthened this belief.  Yet it was ironic and almost prophetic what Selena had answered during a July 1994 interview when she asked to speculate on her future, "I just hope still to be alive, hopefully singing still and later on, maybe 10 years yonder, I hope to have a family by then."1           Four years earlier, Yolanda Saldivar, a self-professed "biggest Selena fan" had come into Selena's life after persistently requesting to start a fan club in her honor.  Although her father had at first been reluctant to allow Yolanda to do so, he eventually gave approval when she had agreed to make it not-for-profit and donate leftover proceeds to charity.   Eventually Yolanda's relationship with the Quintanillas became deeper when Selena named her operations manager to handle sales, customer-relations, and the finances at her Corpus Christi boutique.           At the time, no one, especially Selena who held a positive view of people and constantly was willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, saw Saldivar's dark obsession.  Furthermore, no had been aware that Yolanda had failed to pay off a student loan of $5300, left her nursing job under suspicious circumstances,  been turned down by Shelly Lares, a prominent, young Tejano singer and her father on her bid to form a "Shelly Lares Fan Club," and accused of stealing $9200 from a dermatologist she had worked for, which was eventually settled out of court.           By early 1995, Abraham Quintanilla began to receive complaints from upset fans who reported that they weren't receiving the Selena packets, consisting of a T-shirt, a baseball cap, cassette/CD, and autographed poster they had paid for in membership dues.  Money also began to turn up missing from the boutiques.  With their suspicions growing, the Quintanilla's conducted an investigation and discovered that Yolanda had written four checks, including one for $3000 to herself from the Fan Club's books.  Abraham Quintanilla then angrily confronted Yolanda who denied it and said that she could explain everything given some time.  Following this confrontation, Saldivar purchased a .38 caliber gun. ____________________________________________________________ 1 "Dateline NBC -- 'Obsession,'" Bruce Hagan, Producer; Joshua Kuvin,           Editor, et al. (April 7, 1995).