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Anything for Selena.
Chris Pérez, 56, discovered early on that being married to Selena Quintanilla-Pérez earned him no special favors with her passionate fans, who yielded real and commanding power — they showed up for the Tejano singer like an army.
“I remember Selena thanked several people at an awards show,” recalled Pérez, who was by his wife’s side on that stage. “Then she thanked her husband. Everybody started booing.”
That unnerving moment was a lesson that has stayed with him, even 30 years after her death— the “Como la Flor” singer was infamously killed by a former employee. Selena posthumously went on to become the global superstar she was always meant to be. Meanwhile, Pérez was cast as the widower. No matter his evolution since, the image has stuck.
On a recent balmy day in Los Angeles, Pérez woke up at his Airbnb rental hoping to see views of the city, but clouds blocked the normally sunny skies. The Texas native, in town for some meetings, chuckled at the dull weather as he reflected on his days with Selena spent in Southern California.
Pérez remembers jumping from red carpets to awards shows and staying at the then-named Universal Hilton & Towers with views of the Hollywood Hills and Universal Studios. To them, L.A. represented the big things that were coming their way.
“We were married, the records were kicking ass and crowds were getting bigger,” he recalls. “Then the unfathomable happened.”
On March 31, 1995, Yolanda Saldivar fatally wounded the rising singer with a bullet from a .38-caliber revolver at a Days Inn motel room in Corpus Christi, Texas. Selena had confronted her once trusted employee and founder of her fan club about allegations of embezzlement. Saldivar was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. On March 27, her petition for parole was denied.
Making sense of that day and the years that followed took a toll on Pérez, who was 25 at the time. Selena was 23.
“I finally allowed myself the freedom to move forward,” he said. “It’s not about forgetting, but moving forward.”
Mariluz Gonzalez, who founded Vesper Public Relations in 2008, began her career as an assistant with the Capitol/EMI Latin label, and got to work with Selena and promoting her music to Spanish-language TV stations.
“I remember Selena coming over to our room as we were watching ‘The Arsenio Hall Show’ and she said, ‘One day I want to be on Arsenio’s show,’ ” said Gonzalez, recalling one particular press trip they made to Fresno.
“I’m sure you’ll be there,” she told the rising star.
Gonzalez eventually left the music label to work for public relations firm Rogers & Cowan. She was going to be part of the team tasked with helping Selena break into the general market. After spending her whole career singing and recording in Spanish, Selena was working on recording her first English-language album.
“My first assignment was to go see Selena at a show here in L.A.,” said Gonzalez. The Tejano singer was slated to perform at the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena on April 1, 1995. “Sadly, it never happened. Everyone was distraught, nobody wanted to believe. I choose to remember her talent, career and that she was the kind of artist you wanted to work with because she was very nice.”
Selena never completed her English-language album — only four of the 13 tracks on “Dreaming of You,” released posthumously in July 1995, were recorded in English. The album would go on to become the first and only predominately Spanish-language album to top the Billboard 200 chart. It’s titular track peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
In the decades since Selena’s death, a new generation of Latin music acts have broken into the mainstream without having to record in English. Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny is one of the most streamed artists globally and has hosted “Saturday Night Live.” Colombian entertainer Karol G has performed on the “Today Show,” and the legendary Mexican band Maná was recently nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Over the last three decades, Pérez has been on his own journey. He remarried, had children and got divorced. The struggle was real, he said.
Pérez decided to chronicle the challenges he’s faced in “To Selena, With Love,” a memoir released in 2013. He leaned on family, friends and was encouraged by Selena’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, to pen the book.
“There was real melancholy,” Pérez said. “Now there’s a feeling of joy in remembering those days. Selena and I accomplished many things and there were many good times.”
He’s continued to make music. In 2000, the Chris Pérez Band won a Grammy for Latin rock/alternative performance, beating out rock en español heavyweights Café Tacvba, Enanitos Verdes, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and Jaguares.
In recent years, Pérez co-launched Blue Mariachi as a way to introduce a new era of Tejano artists. He’s also released a line of sauces and wine, but it’s the music that drives him. He’s been collaborating with singer Carlito Miranda, a longtime friend, on Grupo Metal. The two met through mutual friends as teens.
“I’ve known Chris for 35 years,” said Miranda. “He’s a great listener, a great philosopher and his story of working at McDonald’s to get his first guitar has always stayed with me.”
Pérez, who lives in San Antonio, has frequently returned to L.A. Most recently he’s spent time at a local recording studio and has lent his support to the promotion of “Selena y Los Dinos,” an intimate new documentary that uses original VHS footage recorded by Selena’s older sister, Suzette. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January and received a special jury award. Such was the buzz that organizers pulled it from the festival’s streaming platforms over piracy concerns. “Selena y Los Dinos” also recently screened at the South by Southwest Film Festival, with the Quintanilla family members of Los Dinos and Pérez in attendance.
“We all became tight during the process of making the documentary,” said Pérez, adding that he made a request to the filmmakers last October after seeing an early cut at SoHo House West Hollywood to include more of his relationship with Selena’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, in the film. Despite some challenges through the years, including legal issues, their relationship, the guitarist said, is grounded and he hopes that comes through in the final version.
When asked about Saldivar’s recent appeal for parole, Pérez at first declined to comment, but quickly followed up by saying he thought the life sentence she received was fair.
“Justice was served,” he said.
“When everything happened, I was so dead inside,” Pérez said of Selena’s death. “It took all my energy to get back to a certain level.”
Before heading to his next meeting in L.A. and then flying home to San Antonio the next day, he shared one more thing.
“Selena and I went against the current,” Pérez says. “We did all we wanted to do and we did it all for the love that we have for each other.”
For Selena, anything.
