Queen of Tejano music, Selena Quintanilla-Perez, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Nov. 3, 2017. After a very successful and sadly very short singing career, Selena fans felt it was time she be given this honor.

  The start of Quintanilla’s career began with the small family band, Selena y Los Dinos, run by her father. The band featured her older brother and sister who played guitar and drums. Despite a rigorous schedule, Quintanilla succeeded in both school and singing. Slowly through the years she rose to fame despite her early troubles with many different club owners. Quintanilla was rejected several times when people heard of the female singer working on a genre that was historically dominated by men. She moved past these obstacles and received several awards that few singers could imagine receiving in such a short amount of time. In 1994, she was awarded a Grammy for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album, and in 1995 the ALMA award for Outstanding album. Just recently in 2016 and 2017 she received Billboard’s Latin Music Award for Top Latin Albums Female Artist of the Year. These are just a few out of the 67 total awards won by Quintanilla.

  Fans truly believe that Quintanilla could have gone much farther with her career, but on Mar. 31, 1995 she was shot and killed by Yolanda Saldívar. Saldívar was the president of Quintanilla’s official fan club and was a great friend once to the family. Her death shook the world. For many girls Quintanilla had been a role model for her confidence and contribution to many social causes. The reactions to the news were compared to that of the deaths of John Lennon, Elvis Presley, and President John F. Kennedy. A vigil was held in Corpus Christi on April 1, attracting nearly 3,000 people joining to mourn her. The following…(To read the rest of this story, pick up a copy of The Hawkeye from the newsstand near the front office or the media center)