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A panel in Texas on Thursday denied parole for the woman who killed Selena, a 23-year-old trailblazing Mexican American singer who was making it big in the popular music scene. The decision came a few days shy of the 30th anniversary of the killing, which shocked her fans and spurred a cultlike following.<\/p>\n
Yolanda Sald\u00edvar, the woman who fatally shot her, was the founder of Selena\u2019s fan club; she killed Selena after a confrontation in a motel in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 31, 1995. A jury convicted Ms. Sald\u00edvar of first-degree murder, and she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.<\/p>\n
Ms. Sald\u00edvar\u2019s case had gone into the review process approximately six months before she was to first become eligible for parole this Sunday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole said in a statement. She won\u2019t be eligible for parole for five more years.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a thorough consideration of all available information, which included any confidential interviews conducted, it was the parole panel\u2019s determination to deny parole to Yolanda Saldivar and set her next parole review for March 2030,\u201d the statement said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The panel cited the violent nature of the killing as the reason for its denial.<\/p>\n \u201cThe record indicates that the instant offense has elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior or conscious selection of victim\u2019s vulnerability indicating a conscious disregard for the lives, safety, or property of others, such that the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n When she was killed, Selena had just come off a Grammy Award win. She was on the verge of making a breakthrough that could have brought her songs about heartbreak and new love to wider Spanish- and English-speaking audiences.<\/p>\n \u201cSelena was a once-in-a-generation artist,\u201d Maria Garcia, the host and creator of the podcast \u201cAnything for Selena<\/a>,\u201d said on Thursday. \u201cShe revolutionized music, fashion and body politics in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s why Selena\u2019s case was drawing attention from fans across the country, and more about her legacy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Selena Quintanilla P\u00e9rez was born in Lake Jackson, near Houston, in 1971. She began singing professionally when she was nine years old. She, along with her family band, Selena y Los Dinos, was one of the biggest acts<\/a> in Tejano music. Tejano, also known as Tex-Mex, is a modern blend of Mexican- and European-influenced polkas and guitar music. She later married Chris Perez, a neighbor who was the lead guitarist in Selena y Los Dinos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Selena was the reigning queen of the Tejano music world at the time of her death. Her 1993 album, \u201cLive,\u201d won best Mexican American album, making her the first female Tejano artist to win a Grammy. Her album \u201cAmor Prohibido\u201d (\u201cForbidden Love\u201d) sold 400,000 copies in the United States and many more in Mexico. Everything she sang came from personal experience.<\/p>\n Selena made her film debut, in \u201cDon Juan DeMarco<\/a>,\u201d exactly one week after she was killed. She was also about to release her first English-language album, \u201cDreaming of You<\/a>.\u201d When it was released, it sold 175,000 copies on the first day, a record at the time for a female vocalist.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen someone passes, one often hears that they lit up a room or that they had a heart of gold,\u201d Ms. Garcia said. \u201cBut with Selena, those ideas were demonstrably true. Speak to anyone who knew her well and it\u2019s clear this was an extraordinarily generous person with a magnetic charisma.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Sald\u00edvar, a registered nurse, was the founder of Selena\u2019s fan club and a manager of Selena Etc., a boutique and beauty salon. Ms. Sald\u00edvar, 34, was fired after Selena\u2019s family accused her of embezzling money.<\/p>\n Selena went to pick up financial documents, which Ms. Sald\u00edvar had in her room at the Days Inn in Corpus Christi, trial testimony showed.<\/p>\n After an argument, Selena was shot<\/a> in the back with a .38-caliber revolver in the room. She ran and collapsed and died in the nearby lobby.<\/p>\n Ms. Sald\u00edvar \u2014 during a 10-hour standoff with the police \u2014 said, \u201cI didn\u2019t mean to do it. I didn\u2019t mean to kill anybody.\u201d She told officers that she had bought the .38-caliber revolver to kill herself.<\/p>\n A jury in Houston took less than three hours to convict her<\/a> in October 1995.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Recording Academy gave her<\/a> its lifetime achievement award during its Grammys telecast in 2021. Recently, there has also been a Netflix series<\/a> and a podcast<\/a> to introduce her to a new generation as well as a nostalgia trip for millions of longtime fans.<\/p>\n She described her music in an interview in 1994 with the San Jose Mercury News. \u201cIt\u2019s got polka in it, a little bit of country, a little bit of jazz,\u201d she said. \u201cFuse all those types of music together. I think that\u2019s where you get Tejano.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a surge of Hispanic artists after Selena made singing in both English and Spanish much more popular with mainstream American audiences. One of those artists was Jennifer Lopez, who found her initial fame playing Selena in the 1997 film \u201cSelena<\/a>.\u201d That film made Selena a household name north of the border, and showed that cross-cultural identity was no barrier to commercial success.<\/p>\n \u201cDreaming of You,\u201d the English-language album that she was working on when she died, went to the top of the Billboard 200 chart three months afterward, selling three million copies in the U.S. It featured the hits \u201cI Could Fall in Love\u201d and \u201cDreaming of You.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2017, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Selena crossed most consequential borders: cultural, ethnic, geographical, linguistic and musical.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Garcia said that Selena\u2019s image became a shorthand for Latino identity.<\/p>\n \u201cAn attack on her is perceived as an attack on a collective, a people. Latinos feel protective of her legacy. Because it is also our legacy, our cultural patrimony.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWho was Selena?<\/h2>\n
How was she killed?<\/h2>\n
What is her legacy?<\/h2>\n