{"id":2157348,"date":"2025-11-14T21:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T21:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2157348"},"modified":"2025-11-14T21:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T21:13:12","slug":"netflix-doc-on-selena-quintanilla-perez-comes-straight-from-family-vault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/netflix-doc-on-selena-quintanilla-perez-comes-straight-from-family-vault\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix doc on Selena Quintanilla-P\u00e9rez comes straight from family vault"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2025%2F11%2Fnewspress-collage-irvetsj85-1763150765025.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261763132777\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 For many, the name <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/04\/02\/entertainment\/selena-producer-on-how-dreaming-of-you-changed-after-her-murder\/\">Selena Quintanilla-P\u00e9rez<\/a> is\u00a0the stuff of mythology.\u00a0The Queen of Tejano broke barriers for women in Latin music genres of all kinds; it\u2019s easy to see the through line between her contributions to the current success of\u00a0regional Mexicana music. But it\u2019s been 30 years since the singer known simply as Selena was killed at 23 \u2014 and those who love her are working hard to\u00a0ensure her legacy endures\u00a0for decades to come.<\/p>\n<p>One such example: \u201cSelena Y Los Dinos: A Family\u2019s Legacy,\u201d a documentary from director Isabel Castro and executive produced by Selena\u2019s siblings, Suzette Quintanilla and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/04\/29\/us-news\/brother-of-slain-pop-star-selena-lashes-out-at-fans-during-concert\/\">AB Quintanilla III<\/a>. It hits Netflix on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do understand that what Selena means so many years later, to the Latino world,\u201d Suzette Quintanilla says. \u201cWho better than to tell our story other than us?\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>A new documentary on Selena Quintanilla-P\u00e9rez called \u201cSelena Y Los Dinos: A Family\u2019s Legacy\u201d is executively produced by the singer\u2019s siblings. <span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Making the movie<\/h2>\n<p>The Quintanilla family, ready to share with the world never-before-seen archival material, reached out to Castro following the release of her\u00a02022 film \u201cMija,\u201d\u00a0sensing she might be the correct person to tell Selena\u2019s story.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cSuzette, we met, we kind of immediately hit it off,\u201d says Castro. \u201cWe are both older sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The feeling was mutual. \u201cShe was a fan,\u201d says Suzette Quintanilla. \u201cShe totally understood the struggle between being Mexican American and embracing both cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then the work began: years of combing through and cataloging \u201cfloor-to-ceiling, like, DVDs, VHSes, canisters of raw film, flash drives,\u201d says Castro. There were duplicates, too, which required identifying the best quality footage \u2014 all the while \u201ctrying to turn a myth into a personal story,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe call it \u2018the vault,\u2019\u201d Suzette Quintanilla says of their collection. \u201cWe have everything that you could possibly think of.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The Quintanilla family shares never-before-seen archival material in the documentary. <span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Across the footage, Selena the sister, daughter and person emerged \u2014 not just the superstar face of her family\u2019s 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 P\u00e9rez and scenes from inside their first tour bus, the infamous Big Bertha.<\/p>\n<p>Selena\u2019s mother, Marcella Quintanilla, had not done an interview about her late daughter since her death \u2014 and even before, remained largely behind the scenes. For the documentary, she opened up, sharing photo albums and reflecting publicly for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love my mom in the documentary,\u201d Suzette Quintanilla beams.<\/p>\n<p>Selena \u201cbecame representative of something so vital for me about, like, what it means to be a Latina in this country,\u201d says Castro. \u201cSeeing the home video reminded me that she was just a young girl who died when she was 23.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Selena, the cultural icon<\/h2>\n<p>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 \u201cSelena,\u201d which helped launch the career of its lead\u00a0Jennifer Lopez, a\u00a02020 Netflix series\u00a0and much more. \u201cSelena Y Los Dinos\u201d nods to that legacy, but appeals to both the loyal fan and the viewer who might only know her name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most challenging part of the editing process was trying to thread the needle between making this film for her built in audience \u2014 which is vast and extremely dedicated and extremely knowledgeable \u2014 and new audiences around the world and also new generations,\u201d says Castro.<\/p>\n<p>For those not well-versed in her music, Selena\u2019s public-facing story often focuses on the details surrounding her death. (Selena was killed by her fan club\u2019s president,\u00a0Yolanda Sald\u00edvar,\u00a0in 1995. Sald\u00edvar, serving a life sentence in Texas, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/03\/27\/us-news\/yolanda-saldivar-woman-who-killed-music-icon-selena-in-1995-has-been-denied-parole\/\">was\u00a0denied parole\u00a0in March<\/a>.) \u201cSelena Y Los Dinos\u201d doesn\u2019t spend much time at all with the end of her extraordinary life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not focus on the murder,\u201d says Castro, who says her film is about a Latina\u2019s joy and power. \u201cI\u2019m kind of fed up with this expectation that Latino stories are often centered around victimhood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is about her life, our life and our growth, and telling our story at Selena Y Los Dinos,\u201d says Suzette Quintanilla. \u201cThe person who took her life and everything that has to do with her death is off the table. This is about what we created.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cThis is about her life, our life and our growth, and telling our story at Selena Y Los Dinos,\u201d sister Suzette Quintanilla says. <span class=\"credit\">AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Getting personal to tell a bigger story<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cSelena Y Los Dinos\u201d also makes it a point to emphasize the undercelebrated facets of Selena\u2019s story: Her learned bilingualism and bicultural identity, her fight to make it to the top of the music industry\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/latina-women-workforce-gdp-labor-force-wage-gap-bd7f4cfd8e8163dd7313208787998ab2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as a Latina<\/a>\u00a0and her marriage to P\u00e9rez, Los Dinos\u2019 guitarist. He also appears in the doc; their elopement was controversial in the Quintanilla family as Selena was just 20 at the time. (\u201cI\u2019m glad that she did experience love,\u201d says her sister. \u201cI realize now that I\u2019m older, and now that she isn\u2019t. \u2026 I do realize that life is short and we only have one life. So, you have to live it.\u201d) That is accomplished through extensive interviews with the Quintanilla family and members of Los Dinos alone \u2014 there are no critics or historians jumping in to provide additional context.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA 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,\u201d said Castro.<\/p>\n<p>Suzette Quintanilla\u2019s hope is that Latino audiences find great representation in the film.<\/p>\n<p>Her dream is that it \u201ccontinues her legacy, our legacy\u201d as well as furthers understanding of Selena \u201cand what she represents to us as Latinos and to the younger generation. It\u2019s also hopefully to inspire that if you have a dream, go for it.\u201d<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/maria-sherman\"\/><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 For many, the name Selena Quintanilla-P\u00e9rez is\u00a0the stuff of mythology.\u00a0The Queen of Tejano broke barriers for women in Latin music genres of all kinds; it\u2019s easy to see the through line between her contributions to the current success of\u00a0regional Mexicana music. But it\u2019s been 30 years since the singer known simply [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2157349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[345395,21741,22149,23191,373329],"class_list":["post-2157348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-documentaries","tag-entertainment","tag-musicians","tag-netflix","tag-selena-quintanilla"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Netflix-doc-on-Selena-Quintanilla-Perez-comes-straight-from-family-vault.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2157348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2157350,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157348\/revisions\/2157350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2157349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2157348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2157348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2157348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}