Selena Quintanilla with her family.Photo:A.B. Quintanilla Instagram
A.B. Quintanilla Instagram
AlthoughSelena Quintanillais gone, her legacy is still alive, thanks to her family, including her father, Abraham Quintanilla; her mother, Marcella Quintanilla; and her siblings, A.B. Quintanilla III and Suzette Quintanilla.
“In my mind, she’s still alive, because you get involved with all her things and doing things for her every day that sometimes I forget that she’s not here with us anymore,” Abraham toldEntertainment Tonightin March 2017. “So in a sort of way, it’s hard to explain, in my mind, she’s alive."
At the height of her fame, Selena, known as the “Queen of Tejano Music,” racked up seven No. 1 hits, according toBillboard, and became the first female Tejano artist to win aGrammy. Her fifth album,Dreaming of You, which was released three months after her death, was the first mostly Spanish album to top the U.S.Billboard200 and wasranked as the top-selling Latin albumof the last 25 years in 2017.
So who are Selena Quintanilla’s family members? Here’s everything to know about the people who knew her best and their relationships with the late singer.
Her parents have been married since 1963
Selena Quintanilla’s parents Abraham and Marcella Quintanilla at an event.Suzette Quintanilla Instagram
Suzette Quintanilla Instagram
Abraham and Marcella Quintanilla (née Samora) reportedly met in Tacoma, Washington, while he was stationed at McChord Air Force Base. They tied the knot on June 8, 1963.
Together, they raised their family in the coastal city of Corpus Christi, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border.
A.B. celebrated his parents' wedding anniversary onInstagramin 2023. “I would love to congratulate my parents on their 60th anniversary!!!” he wrote. “6 decades of marriage…Wow!!! I love y’all 💜💜💜."
Abraham was the first family musician
Abraham managed Selena and her band, Selena y Los Dinos, which featured A.B. on bass, Suzette on drums and her husband Chris Pérez on the guitar. BeforeSelena’s career, Abraham sang in a band of his own called Los Dinos.
Abraham joined the group, which was made up of his high school classmates, in 1957, and together they released several records.
According to A.B., Abraham’s early experiences in the music industry enabled him to recognize Selena’s tremendous talent. “There are a lot of families who think, ‘My kids are talented, they sing, they’re awesome,’ but my dad, as a musician,saw something that we didn’t,” he told PEOPLE in March 2020.
Abraham said of his younger daughter in 1995, “Her timing, her pitch were perfect. I could see it from day one.”
Suzette inspired Selena’s song “No Me Queda Más”
Abraham Quintanilla, Marcella Quintanilla, Suzette Quintanilla, A.B Quintanilla III and Isis Sauceda during People En Espanol’s Festival in San Antonio, Texas on September 1, 2012.Danny Bollinger/WireImage
Danny Bollinger/WireImage
Abraham recalled that Selena had tears in her eyes when she recorded the song. “Her eyes were watering because she knew how Ricky felt,” he added.
Suzette opened up her home to Jennifer Lopez while she was filmingSelena
Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Vela, Suzette Quintanilla, A.B. Quintanilla III and Chris Pérez onstage after performing a musical tribute to Selena at the 2015 Billboard Latin Music Awards.Rodrigo Varela/Getty
Rodrigo Varela/Getty
To learn more about the woman she was cast to play, Lopez moved in with Suzette at her home in Corpus Christi while filmingSelena, perE! Online.
Lopez opened up about the experienceon the Apple MusicBeats 1radio in 2019: “It was a beautiful time in my life and it taught me so much about life. I slept in [Selena’s] bed at home. I talked to the whole family. I spent time with them. It can be melancholy and beautiful at the same time.”
Suzette and Lopez reunited in September 2017 during one of the actress’s Planet Hollywood Las Vegas residency shows. “[It] always feels good to see Jennifer and seems like old times when we hung out during the making of theSelenamovie,” Suzette toldET. “[I] don’t get to see her much.”
She added that she appreciated Lopez’s respect for her late sibling. “It always makes me feel good inside when I hear her speak of what my sister means to her,” she told the outlet. “How Jennifer looks up to her not only as an artist but as a person.”
Selena would have had nine nieces and nephews
A.B. Quintanilla with his family on The Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California on November 3, 2017.Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Selena would have been an aunt of nine.
Her older brother A.B. has eight kids. His sons Svani and Gianni appeared with him on the cover ofPeople en Españolin 2008. In 2020, A.B.posted a photoof his daughter, Martika, with Svani and Lopez during the filming ofSelena.
Suzette and her husband, Bill Arriaga, have one son,Jovan Arriaga. “[He] carries my sister’s smile,” Suzette once wrote on Facebook.
The Quintanillas helped to create the Netflix show based on Selena’s life
The cast of the Netflix show ‘Selena: The Series.'.NETFLIX
On Dec. 4, 2020, Netflix releasedthe first partofSelena: The Series, a biographical drama based on Selena’s life.The second partdropped in May 2021.
As PEOPLE reported at the time, Selena’s family worked with the show’s creator and executive producer, Moisés Zamora, to bring the project to life. In addition, both of Selena’s siblings were credited as executive producers on the series.
“We feel great responsibility to do justice to her memory,” Suzette toldThe Hollywood Reporterin December 2018 when the project was first announced. “With this series, viewers will finally get the full history of Selena, our family and the impact she has had on all of our lives.”
In December 2020, Suzette thanked fans for the series’ success, captioning a photo onInstagramof the show ranked at No. 1 in the U.S. that day. “GUYS!!! OMG!!! Waking up and seeing this is insane and Beautiful!” she wrote. “THANK YOU THANK YOU for this love you have always given to our family. 🙏💜.”
source: people.com
