Netflix doc on Selena Quintanilla-Pérez comes straight from family vault

NEW YORK (AP) — For many, the name Selena Quintanilla-Pérez is the stuff of mythology. The Queen of Tejano broke barriers for women in Latin music genres of all kinds; it’s easy to see the through line between her contributions to the current success of regional Mexicana music. But it’s been 30 years since the singer known simply as Selena was killed at 23 — and those who love her are working hard to ensure her legacy endures for decades to come.

One such example: “Selena Y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy,” a documentary from director Isabel Castro and executive produced by Selena’s siblings, Suzette Quintanilla and AB Quintanilla III. It hits Netflix on Monday.

“I do understand that what Selena means so many years later, to the Latino world,” Suzette Quintanilla says. “Who better than to tell our story other than us?”

Making the movie

The Quintanilla family, ready to share with the world never-before-seen archival material, reached out to Castro following the release of her 2022 film “Mija,” sensing she might be the correct person to tell Selena’s story.

“Suzette, we met, we kind of immediately hit it off,” says Castro. “We are both older sisters.”

The feeling was mutual. “She was a fan,” says Suzette Quintanilla. “She totally understood the struggle between being Mexican American and embracing both cultures.”

Then the work began: years of combing through and cataloging “floor-to-ceiling, like, DVDs, VHSes, canisters of raw film, flash drives,” says Castro. There were duplicates, too, which required identifying the best quality footage — all the while “trying to turn a myth into a personal story,” she said.

“We call it ‘the vault,’” Suzette Quintanilla says of their collection. “We have everything that you could possibly think of.”

Across the footage, Selena the sister, daughter and person emerged — not just the superstar face of her family’s band, Los Dinos. The moments that meant the most to Castro were the most intimate: Suzette holding a camcorder and filming her sister, a handwritten letter Selena gave to her husband Chris Pérez and scenes from inside their first tour bus, the infamous Big Bertha.

Selena’s mother, Marcella Quintanilla, had not done an interview about her late daughter since her death — and even before, remained largely behind the scenes. For the documentary, she opened up, sharing photo albums and reflecting publicly for the first time.

“I love my mom in the documentary,” Suzette Quintanilla beams.

Selena “became representative of something so vital for me about, like, what it means to be a Latina in this country,” says Castro. “Seeing the home video reminded me that she was just a young girl who died when she was 23.”

Selena, the cultural icon

For those who grew up with the music of Selena as a cultural touchstone, it might seem like her story is well-mined: There is the now-classic 1997 biopic “Selena,” which helped launch the career of its lead Jennifer Lopez, a 2020 Netflix series and much more. “Selena Y Los Dinos” nods to that legacy, but appeals to both the loyal fan and the viewer who might only know her name.

“The most challenging part of the editing process was trying to thread the needle between making this film for her built in audience — which is vast and extremely dedicated and extremely knowledgeable — and new audiences around the world and also new generations,” says Castro.

For those not well-versed in her music, Selena’s public-facing story often focuses on the details surrounding her death. (Selena was killed by her fan club’s president, Yolanda Saldívar, in 1995. Saldívar, serving a life sentence in Texas, was denied parole in March.) “Selena Y Los Dinos” doesn’t spend much time at all with the end of her extraordinary life.

“We do not focus on the murder,” says Castro, who says her film is about a Latina’s joy and power. “I’m kind of fed up with this expectation that Latino stories are often centered around victimhood.”

“This is about her life, our life and our growth, and telling our story at Selena Y Los Dinos,” says Suzette Quintanilla. “The person who took her life and everything that has to do with her death is off the table. This is about what we created.”

Getting personal to tell a bigger story

“Selena Y Los Dinos” also makes it a point to emphasize the undercelebrated facets of Selena’s story: Her learned bilingualism and bicultural identity, her fight to make it to the top of the music industry as a Latina and her marriage to Pérez, Los Dinos’ guitarist. He also appears in the doc; their elopement was controversial in the Quintanilla family as Selena was just 20 at the time. (“I’m glad that she did experience love,” says her sister. “I realize now that I’m older, and now that she isn’t. … I do realize that life is short and we only have one life. So, you have to live it.”) That is accomplished through extensive interviews with the Quintanilla family and members of Los Dinos alone — there are no critics or historians jumping in to provide additional context.

“A huge goal of mine was to try to really take this symbol and make the film feel as personal as possible. And I felt that if it was told from the perspective of her family and those who knew her best, it would allow viewers to kind of have that experience,” said Castro.

Suzette Quintanilla’s hope is that Latino audiences find great representation in the film.

Her dream is that it “continues her legacy, our legacy” as well as furthers understanding of Selena “and what she represents to us as Latinos and to the younger generation. It’s also hopefully to inspire that if you have a dream, go for it.”