An outpouring of memorial tributes and public expressions of grief followed the death of the Tejana recording artist Selena Quintanilla Perez in 1995. The Latina superstar was remembered and mourned in documentaries, magazines, websites, monuments, biographies, murals, look-alike contests, musicals, drag shows, and more. Deborah Paredez explores the significance and broader meanings of this posthumous celebration of Selena, which she labels Selenidad. She considers the performer s career and emergence as an icon within the political and cultural transformations in the United States during the...

An outpouring of memorial tributes and public expressions of grief followed the death of the Tejana recording artist Selena Quintanilla Perez in 1995. The Latina superstar was remembered and mourned in documentaries, magazines, websites, monuments, biographies, murals, look-alike contests, musicals, drag shows, and more. Deborah Paredez explores the significance and broader meanings of this posthumous celebration of Selena, which she labels Selenidad. She considers the performer s career and emergence as an icon within the political and cultural transformations in the United States during the...