The 1997 film Selena is a biographical drama about Selena Quintanilla, a famous Mexican-American singer in the 1980’s. Her father, Abraham, was a former vocalist in a band called Los Dinos who faced racism and discrimination due to his Mexican decent. After the decline of the band, he noticed the vocal talent of his youngest daughter, Selena, and started a family band called Selena Y Los Dinos consisting of Selena and her older sister and brother. As Selena grew older and started recording albums, she became very popular and became know as the “Queen of Tejano” which is a style of Mexican music that incorporates different types of music such as western along with it. The films shows how she becomes the first female crossover Latin artist, but the end of the film reveals that she gets murdered at the age of 23 by the founder of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar.
The film depicts many injustices that occur during Selena’s life, but I want look at the injustices that her father also had to deal with that gets brought up in the film but can be overlooked. A major point in the film that stuck out to me was about interesting identities when Selena’s father says to her, “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time! It’s exhausting!” Abraham understood that by being Mexican American he was seen as “Other” by Mexicans and by Americans and always had to prove himself by having to be Mexican enough to the Mexicans and American enough to the Americans. An example of injustice due to intersecting identities of being Mexican American and speaking Spanish and English is of when Abraham and his band were always told by society what they could and couldn’t play. For example, they were performing at a club and were called “queers” for singing English music instead of Spanish language Mexican music because they looked Mexican. Another example in the film is of a club owner refusing to pay the band after finding out they were Mexican American. They were also turned down for motel rooms and venues for being Mexican American in predominately white neighborhoods.
I think a take away by Abraham stating that “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans” is that we set ourselves up as the “One” over others with the same identity as us, such as using systems of power for Americans to marginalize other Americans or Mexicans to marginalize other Mexicans. I think this also shows that there is discrimination and marginalization in all levels of society and challenges us to think about what ways we see this in our own life. What can we do prevent ourselves as setting ourselves up as the “One” over others who do or don’t share intersecting identities as us?
