History Film / Selena

* BoyfriendBlockingDad: Abraham towards Selena. While he had good reasons to be weary of Chris dating his daughter, he also just wants to protect her. [[DefrostingIceQueen Eventually, following Selena's elopement with Chris, Abraham admitted that he was upset as he felt like he was losing Selena and apologizes for his earlier behavior; even willing to accept Chris into the family]].

* BoyfriendBlockingDad: Abraham towards Selena. While he had good reasons to be weary of Chris dating his daughter, he also just wants to protect her.

* HateSink: Yolanda, for obvious reasons.

''Selena'' is a 1997 biographical film written and directed by Gregory Nava, about the life of Tejano singer [[Music/{{Selena}} Selena Quintanilla-Perez]]. The film details Selena's beginnings as a child performer up trough her rise to stardom as a Latino and North American icon, ultimately culminating in her untimely and tragic death at the hands of her fan club manager Yolanda Saldivar.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While Abraham did go too far by yelling at Selena and Chris and threatening to disband the group, he did have a right to feel concerned with what would happen with the band should their relationship lead to marriage. Marcella, even Chris, sees things from Abraham’s point of view later on.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While Abraham did go too far by yelling at Selena and Chris, he did have a right to feel concerned with what would happen with the band should their relationship lead to marriage. Even Chris sees things from Abraham’s point of view later on.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While Abraham did go too far by yelling at Selena and Chris, he did have a right to feel concerned with what would happen with the band should Selena and Chris should their relationship lead to marriage. Even Chris sees things from Abraham’s point of view moments later.

* MexicanStandoff: Yolanda did this for over nine hours before she finally gave up.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While Abraham did go too far by yelling at Selena and Chris, he did have a right to feel concerned with what would happen with the band should Selena and Chris were to make their relationship public. Even Chris sees things from Abraham’s point of view moments later.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Abraham called Chris a "bum musician," yet Abraham himself had a failed music career and lived through his kids.
* HowWeGotHere: The movie begins with Selena's performance at the Houston Astrodome on February 26, 1995. Afterward, it flashbackes to 1961 during Abraham's early days with Los Dinos. Following the family's rise to fame, the movie cuts back to the Astrodome concert mid-performance.

* KilledOffscreen: The fatal encounter between Selena and Yolanda is not shown on-screen, simply cutting to police arriving on the scene with Yolanda in hysterics with a gun to her head, almost being DrivenToSuicide after shooting Selena as the police and Feds try to talk her down into surrendering and facing trial.

* TheTragicRose: A symbolic example. During the concert where she sings “Dreaming of You”, Selena stops to notice a white rose thrown at her. The look on her face and the scene following quickly foreshadows her ultimate fate.

* FauxFluency: Selena was not fluent in Spanish, so she had to learn her Tejano music phonetically when she was younger (she lampshades how ridiculous the lyrics are when translated to English). However, Abraham pressed the importance of her knowing both languages in order to break through, and after she became popular in the Tejano genre, her English command made it easy for her to crossover to the American mainstream. There's a scene where she holds a press conference in Spanish, and after trying to sum up her feelings in that language, she stumbled and finishes her sentence with "excited", which makes everyone laugh, but with her, not at her. The actual Selena quote this scene is based on is a bit less fortunate, was probably bowdlerized to keep the movie family-friendly. Selena said "estoy muy excitada estar en México" which sounds like it should mean "I'm very excited to be in Mexico" but really translates as "I'm very horny to be in Mexico."

* ForegoneConclusion: Since this is a biopic of a deceased person, the story's end is sadly inevitable.

* HowWeGotHere: The movie begins with Selena's performance at the Houston Astrodome on February 26, 1995. Afterward, it flashbackes to 1961 during Abraham's early days with The Dinos. Following the family's rise to fame, the movie cuts back to the Astrodome concert mid-performance.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While Abraham did go too far by yelling at Selena and Chris about their relationship, he did have a right to feel concerned with what would happen with the band should Selena and Chris were to make their relationship public. Even Chris sees things from Abraham’s point of view moments later.

* HowWeGotHere: The movie begins with Selena's performance at the Houston Astrodome on February 26, 1995. Afterward, it flashbackes to 1961 during Abraham's days with The Dinos. Later, the movie cuts back to the Astrodome performance mid-performance.

* GoldDigger: Invoked. The reason why Abraham wasn't approving of Selena and Chris's romantic relationship was because he was worried that the later was a gold digger who would ruin everything Abraham worked for.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Abraham called Chris a "bum musician," yet Abraham himself had a failed music career and lived his failed musical dreams through his kids.

* ImportantHaircut: Suzy gives Chris a good haircut so he can join the band.

* KilledOffscreen: The fatal encounter between Selena and Yolanda is not shown on-screen, simply cutting to police arriving on the scene with Yolanda in hysterics with a gun to her head, threatening to be DrivenToSuicide after shooting Selena as the police and Feds try to talk her down into surrendering and facing trial.

* OverprotectiveDad: Abraham towards Selena. While he had good reasons to be weary of Chris dating his daughter, he also just wants to protect her.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: Selena’s cultural impact and altruistic personality was what led her to becoming an icon for the Hispanic community of America. Even though Yolanda kills her, Selena manages to get the last laugh and the candlelight vigil at the end of the movie definitely shows that she will become a legend to be remembered for many years to come.

[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-Selenathemovie_2497.jpg]][[caption-width-right:220:''[[TagLine The story of a girl who had the spirit to believe in a dream and the courage to make it come true.]]'']]

-->--'''Abraham Quintanilla, Jr.'''

''Selena'' is a 1997 biography about the life of Tejano singer [[Music/{{Selena}} Selena Quintanilla-Perez]]. The film details Selena's beginnings as a child performer up to her rise in stardom as a Latino and North American icon, ultimately culminating to her untimely and tragic death at the hands of her fanclub manager, Yolanda Saldivar. Creator/JenniferLopez stars in the lead role, and Creator/EdwardJamesOlmos stars along side her as Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla. This film is notable for providing a StarMakingRole for Jennifer Lopez.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Selena's husband was Chris Perez- who had long hair, wore punk clothes, and played heavy metal before performing with her. Subverted when Chris turns out to be a NiceGuy.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Abraham says that the scene on the beach where Marcela teaches Selena how to do the washing machine dance didn't actually happen - though they did often sit on the beach and talk about life.

''Selena'' is a 1997 biography about the life of Tejano singer [[Music/{{Selena}} Selena Quintanilla-Perez]]. The film details Selena's beginnings as a child performer up to her rise in stardom as a Latino and North American icon, ultimately culminating to her untimely and tragic death at the hands of her fanclub manager, Yolanda Saldivar. Music/JenniferLopez stars in the lead role, and Creator/EdwardJamesOlmos stars along side her as Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla. This film is notable for providing a StarMakingRole for Jennifer Lopez.

* PlayingGertrude: Constance Marie was only 31 when playing Selena's mother Marcella. She was only four years older than Jennifer Lopez and a couple months ''younger'' than Jackie Guerra, who played Suzette. Also, Yolanda Saldivar was 35 when she was sentenced to prison, and she was played by Creator/LupeOntiveros (who was 54 at the film's release).

* DownerEnding: When the Quintanilla family and Chris are in the hospital and gets the news of Selena's death. They cry slow, painful tears.
** In RealLife the Quintanilla family still tries to keep her name alive. Selena's father Abraham still manages her estate, image, and musical rights.