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Love for Selena still grows
Singer's personality still felt around city

By Sara Lee Fernandez Caller-Times
March 28, 2005

In the 10 years since her murder, Selena Quintanilla-Perez's star has only grown brighter with a brilliance still celebrated across Corpus Christi. 

Businesses around the city, including Rosita's Mexican Restaurant, Hi Ho Drive-In and Fuddruckers, still display photos or murals of the entertainer, and admirers still feel the warmth of her personality. 

"She meant a lot to Corpus Christi and to all of us," said Rosita Rodela, owner of Rosita's Mexican Restaurant. "I can't believe it has been 10 years already. I still can't believe that she's gone." 

Rodela has three pictures of Selena on display at her family restaurant: two she's had since the singer was still alive and one, a large oil painting in the main dining room, given to her several years ago by the singer's father, Abraham Quintanilla. 

Thomas H. Kreneck, special collections librarian and archivist for Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said Selena, her achievements and her fan base put the singer in a position not many entertainers are placed in. 

"She figures in as a historical figure. I do not speak as an expert on Tejano music, but just based on what I've seen and what I've heard," Kreneck said. "I'm certain it goes beyond the music, but she is a figure of Texas folklore." 

Kreneck said the impromptu murals painted on various walls around the community, her photos in businesses and the places memorializing her all point in the direction of folklore. 

"I think that she struck a chord with people in the Corpus Christi community, in particular with the Hispanic community and with everyone that came to know who Selena was," he said. 

Kreneck said Selena's music served as a personal touchstone in peoples' lives. 

"I think we all do (that) with music," he said. "I don't know of anyone that doesn't like some kind of music." 

He also said the movie based on her life put her in a unique category with performers such as Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Jim Morrison, Billie Holiday and Ray Charles. 

Corina Flores-Hok, who graduated from King High School, said Selena was and is important to the city and the community because the entertainer was grounded and real. 

"She made a difference in the Hispanic community because she showed that whether you're poor or rich, graduated from high school or not, you have a chance to make a difference," said Flores-Hok, 26. "It's because she was just so different. She was just herself and she didn't try and act." 

Unlike many around the world, Flores-Hok was a fan and admirer of the singer years before March 31, 1995, when Selena was fatally shot by her former fan club president, Yolanda Saldivar, at the Days Inn motel near Navigation Boulevard and Interstate 37. 

"At my quinceanera . . . 11 years ago now . . . all my music was Selena music," she said. "There was Selena music on my videotape. She was the only Spanish singer I would listen to. I like her music and the kind of person she was." 

Chrissy Colomo, 22, still remembers with fondness meeting the singer for the first time when Colomo was 11. 

"She was just a light. There was no one in the room that could take their eyes off her," Colomo said of seeing Selena perform at a club called Texas T. 

After that performance, Colomo said the singer gave her a hug and autographed the back of her blue jean skirt. 

"A lot of people didn't recognize her until (her death) and that's sad," she said. "But she had such a huge audience in the Hispanic community." 

She said the singer brought about a felling of unity and happiness for her audiences. 

"She's our Celine Dion . . . it sounds almost funny to compare but it is like when Elvis _was gone. This was someone from our community." 

Colomo's mother, Cruz Colomo, who founded the Coalition for the Advancement of Women in Nueces County, said she, like her daughter, admired Selena. 

"I knew her as a person and she was a very vibrant, vivacious, energetic person who knew no boundaries," Cruz Colomo said. 

"I don't believe she knew the magnitude of her stardom. She'd go to the mall with no makeup." 

She said the reason Selena impacted the community and the world was because of her heart and her attitude. 

"She didn't discriminate and she was kind," she said. "All those qualities, you don't find in stars nowadays . . . She showed us that, with her stance against drugs and staying in school, that you can come from anywhere, and if you reach for the stars, you can touch them. The sky is the limit and that creates a mentor for young girls." 

Contact Sara Lee Fernandez at 886-3767 or fernandezs@caller.com

District attorney chronicles Selena investigation
Valdez wrote book about case, still seeking publisher

By Neal Falgoust Caller-Times
March 28, 2005

Every year about this time, the phones start ringing in the Nueces County district attorney's office with callers asking the same questions. 

Why was Tejano superstar Selena killed?

How many shots did her killer, Yolanda Saldivar, fire? 

What was her motive? 

District Attorney Carlos Valdez, who prosecuted the case that sent Saldivar to prison for life with the option of parole in 2030, answers those questions in his yet-to-_be-published book, "Justice for Selena: The State vs. Yolanda Saldivar." 

Valdez is editing the book and looking for a publisher. The manuscript sits in a white cardboard box in his Nueces County Courthouse office waiting for someone to buy it and put it on bookshelves. To date, he hasn't received any offers. 

Valdez was returning to the Nueces County Courthouse from lunch on March 31, 1995, when _he heard about the shooting at _the Days Inn Hotel at 901 Navigation Blvd. and the standoff between Corpus Christi police and Saldivar. 

That's where the book begins. During the next 602 pages, Valdez relives the investigation, the closed-door strategy meetings in which prosecutors planned their case against Saldivar, the pretrial hearings in Corpus Christi and the trial in Houston. 

It is part memoir because it is written in the first person. But it also is part documentary because Valdez's sources include a daily log he kept of the proceedings and the evidence as it was presented in court. 

He also offers his own analysis of the drama that surrounded the case. In the chapter about the pre-trial publicity and the change of venue hearing, Valdez recounts how surprised he was to see the throngs of people vying for a seat in the courtroom. 

"Our first mistake was believing we were prepared for what was coming," Valdez wrote in the manuscript. 

The first draft of the book took about a year to write. Valdez _said he wrote the manuscript _in longhand, mostly in the mornings before leaving for the office. 

"I wrote every letter, every word myself," Valdez said. "What was interesting about writing it was that I relived all the incredible stress." 

Contact Neal Falgoust at 886-4334 or falgoustn@caller.com

pictures:

Tommie Cantu dines in Rosita’s Mexican Restaurant on Saturday

in front of a portrait of slain singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez,

just one of many across Corpus Christi.