Just finished my intensive summer course in Beginning Spanish 1A the week before last, and next week Spanish 1B is already looming. Thank Jobs for iTunes and iPods, because I wouldn’t have even squeeked out the B+ I got without access to iTunes Latino. Specifically, downloads of the wonderful Pop and Cumbia star Selena Quintanilla. Yes, she was tragically assassinated in 1995, only 23 and on the verge of her big Pop mainstream breakthrough, but go into the Mission here in San Francisco. If airplay is any indication, Selena lives!
Perhaps you know a little about Selena from Jennifer Lopez’s breakthrough role in the movie of the same name. Or you can refresh yourself on her story . But you probably haven’t heard a lot of her music. As they used to say on the old American Bandstand “It’s got a great beat and you can dance to it.” That is if the is your dance of choice.
But the best thing about Selena, from a beginning Spanish student’s perspective: she sings clearly, pronounces every syllable and you can understand the lyrics which are mostly in the present tense. Honestly, her greatest hits album should be issued along with Spanish textbooks.
That’s when Dube stepped in with the Selena suggestion. “You should listen to Selena records. She was a Tejano and she didn’t even speak Spanish. She learned it to sing in Spanish. So she sings just like you would, with an American accent.” Hmmmm. Gringo Pop. Intriguing. So off to iTunes Latino I go to download her greatest hits. Fantastic. Easy words. Lots of repeated choruses. And it has a great beat and you can dance to it.
I was hooked. Some called Selena “The Mexican Madonna”, which I think is wildly inaccurate. Sure she was sexy and she was in constant dancing motion during her concerts. But she was American born and bred. Her Mexican father convinced her to learn Spanish and sing to that constituency. But even less Madonna-like, she always projected what she was, a very nice, sweet Tejano girl. Not rebelling against anything, just singing great music that you could dance to. Instead of rebelling against her heritage, as Madonna did against Catholicism, Selena embraced her background, although sometimes with a twist. The costumes of her bandmates and herself, all her own designs, often took playful license with her Hispanic heritage. There were bolero jackets, matador pants, ponyskin chaps and vests, Senorita ruffles. I wonder how many invitations she got to be the headliner at various Hispanic or Latino Heritage Festivals. She would have been perfect.
Ready for more? La Carcacha or “The Jalopy” is one of my favorites and on a subject some of my old car aficionado friends can get behind. It’s about a girl whose boyfriend drives an old beat up car, her friends laugh at him, but she doesn’t care, she loves him still because he “treats her like a Queen”. As Selena says, “Saborcito…manos arriba!” Give it a little flavor, put your hands up!