Nov. 2, 2025

Perez Vs. Quintanilla - "To Selena, With Love and Lawsuits: The Battle for a Fallen Star's Soul"

Show Notes
Transcript

Thirty years after Selena's murder, her widower Chris Pérez and the Quintanilla family remain locked in bitter warfare over who owns her memory. From Abraham forbidding their romance to Chris's secret elopement with the Queen of Tejano, from the $50 million estate Chris was frozen out of to his banned memoir "To Selena, With Love," Marcus Reid exposes how grief became greed. Featuring brutal lawsuits, social media wars, and the Netflix series that erased Chris from his own love story. This Día de los Muertos, we ask: who has the right to speak for the dead—the family who controlled her or the husband who loved her?

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Calaruga Shark Media, March twenty twelve, a San Antonio law office.

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Chris Perez sits across from his attorneys, holding a manuscript

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that's taken him seventeen years to write, to Selena with Love,

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his memoir about his marriage to the Queen of Tejano Music,

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murdered when she was just twenty three and he was

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twenty five. They can't stop me from telling my own story,

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Chris says, his voice shaking with emotion and rage. She

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was my wife, not their property. They are the Quintinilla family,

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Selena's father, Abraham, mother, Marcella, sister, Susette, brother a b

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For seventeen years, they've controlled every aspect of Selena's legacy,

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her music, her image, her story. They own the museums,

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approve the merchandise, decide which songs get released, and they've

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made it very clear that Chris Perez is not welcome

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in their version of Selena's memory. Mister Perez, his lawyer, says, carefully.

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They own her estate, they control the trademark. If you

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publish this book, they will come after you. Chris looks

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at the manuscript filled with love letters, private moments, The

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story of two young musicians who fell in love against

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her father's wishes, let them try. The dead deserve to

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have their full story told. One week later, Abraham Quintania

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files a lawsuit to stop the book's publication. The war

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over Selena's memory, who owns it, who can tell it,

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who profits from it, has officially begun. Welcome back to feuds, power, pride,

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and payback, Marcus Reid. Some feuds are about money, others

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are about control, But the most painful feuds are about memory,

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Who gets to speak for the dead, who owns their story?

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And what happens when love and legacy become legal battlegrounds.

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This Dia de los Morto's weekend. As millions place Selina's

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photo on their afriendics, we're exploring the bitter war between

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those who loved her most, the family who raised her,

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and the husband who lost her. It's a story about

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how grief becomes greed, how memory becomes merchandise, and how,

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even in death, Selina Quintinia Perez remains caught between two

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families who both claim to honor her, but can't honor

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each other. This is episode thirty six to Selina with

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Love and lawsuits, The battle for a Fallen Star's Soul,

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Act one, The Forbidden Love. To understand why Chris Perez

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and the Quintinilla family are still fighting thirty years after

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Selena's death, you need to understand how their relationship began,

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with Abraham Quintinilla forbidding his daughter from dating her own guitarist.

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Christopher Gilbert Perez joined Selena I Lostinos in nineteen eighty

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nine as a last minute replacement guitarist. He was talented, tattooed,

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and everything Abraham didn't want for his daughter. Where the

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Quintinillas were tight knit, traditional and controlling, Chris was independent,

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rock influenced, and refused to be intimidated by Selena's domineering father.

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I saw how he looked at her, Abraham later said,

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I knew trouble when I saw it. The attraction between

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Chris and Selena was immediate, but secret. For two years,

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they hid their relationship, sneaking moments between concerts, lying about

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where they were, acting like colleagues when they were falling

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in love. The band knew, the crew knew, everyone knew

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except Abraham, or so they thought. When Abraham finally discovered

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the relationship in nineteen ninety one, his explosion was volcanic.

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He fired Chris from the band forbade Selina from seeing him,

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and threatened to disband Los Dinos entirely if she disobeyed.

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For Abraham, this wasn't just about protecting his daughter, was

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about protecting his investment. Selina was the family business, and

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romance was a distraction that could derail everything they'd built.

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But Selina, for perhaps the first time in her life,

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defied her father completely. On April second, nineteen ninety two,

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she and Chris eloped to Noosi's County court house, getting

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married in secret. When they returned and told the family,

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Abraham's rage was matched only by his calculation. The marriage

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was done, the scandal had to be managed, and Chris

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had to be brought back into the fold. He never

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forgave me for taking her, Chris would later write, even

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when he smiled, even when we worked together, I could

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see it in his eyes, I was the thief who

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stole his daughter. For three years, they navigated the complex dynamics.

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Chris was simultaneously Selina's husband and her employee, her partner,

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and her father's reluctant subordinate. They lived in a house

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next door to her parents worked in the family business

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existed in Abraham's world even as they tried to build

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their own. Then came March thirty first, nineteen ninety five,

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and everything ended in Room one fifty eight of a

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day's in in Corpus Christie, Act two, the widower versus

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the estate. In the immediate aftermath of Selena's murder, grief

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united them. Chris stood with the Quintinelas at the funeral,

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mourned with them, shared their devastation. But grief has a timeline,

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and when it began to fade, the battles over Selena's

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legacy began. The first major conflict came over her estate.

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Under Texas law. Chris, as the surviving spouse, would normally

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inherit everything, but Selena died intestate without a will at

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just twenty three years old. Abraham moved quickly, establishing control

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over her estate, her music, her image rights. Chris, devastated

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and barely functional, didn't fight initially. He trusted the family

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to do right by Selena's memory. That trust eroded quickly.

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Chris watched as Abraham turned Selina into an industry museums

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merchandise posthumous albums mixed with modern production. He saw her

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image on everything from cups to cosmetics. Her private moments

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turned into public commodities. Most painfully, he found himself edited

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out of the narrative. In the nineteen ninety seven Selena

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film starring Jennifer Lopez, Chris's character was minimized, their elopement

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portrayed as a brief rebellion rather than the defining act

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of independence. It was Abraham controlled the narrative, consulted on

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every scene. In short, his version of events became the

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official history. They made me a footnote in my own

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wife's story, Chris said later, like I was just another

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band member instead of the person she chose to spend

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her life with. Chris retreated into his own grief, forming

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a rock band, struggling with depression and survivor's guilt. For years,

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he stayed silent while the Quintinilla machine churned out Selena content.

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But silence wasn't healing. By twenty ten, he decided to

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tell his own story, Act three, to Selena with Litigation.

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The publication of To Selena with Love in March twenty

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twelve was Chris's declaration of independence from the Quintinilla narrative.

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The book was intimate, revealing, filled with private letters and

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moments only he knew it showed Selena not as the

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perfect icon her family promoted, but as a complex young woman, funny, insecure,

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passionate real. Abraham's response was swift and brutal. He sued

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to stop the book's publication, claiming Chris was violating the

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estate's ownership of Selena's image and story. When that failed,

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the book was already in stores, he went after Chris's

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planned television adaptation. The lawsuit filed in twenty sixteen against

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Chris and the producers of his proposed TV series was

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scorched earth. Abraham claimed Chris had signed agreements in the

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nineteen nineties giving up rights to Selena's story. He accused

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Chris of trying to profit from tragedy, of exploiting Selena's

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memory for money. Chris fired back in court documents that

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exposed decades of resentment. Abraham had profited millions from Selena's

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death while freezing out her widower. The estate had become

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a business that bore no resemblance to the woman Selina

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actually was. The family had turned her into a saint,

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stripped of the very humanity that made her special. Mister

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quintin Nilla wants to own his daughter in death the

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way he controlled her in life. Chris's filing stated, but

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memories can't be trademarked. Love can't be copyrighted. The story

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of our marriage belongs to me as much as anyone.

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The battle lines were clear. Abraham saw Chris as an

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opportunist trying to cash in on the Selena brand he'd

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spent decades building. Chris saw Abraham as a tyrant who'd

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commercialized his daughter's death while erasing anyone who threatened his

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control Act for the war without end. The legal battles

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multiplied when Chris endorsed a different Selena Mack cosmetics line

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than the family approved, they sued. When he performed Selena's

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songs with his band, they sent cease and assist letters.

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When he posted photos of their wedding on Instagram, they

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claimed copyright infringement. The twenty sixteen TV series lawsuit was

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particularly vicious. Documents revealed Abraham had been monitoring Chris's social media,

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cataloging every mention of Selena, building a case that he

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was violating their agreements. Chris countered that Abraham had forced

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him to sign documents while he was grieving that the

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agreements were unconscionable. In twenty seventeen, a judge dealt Chris

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a devastating blow, ruling that he had indeed signed away

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rights to Selena's story in a nineteen ninety five agreement.

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The TV series was dead. Chris had lost again to

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the Quintinila machine, but the public relations war was different.

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Fans began taking sides. Many supported Chris's right to tell

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his story, seeing Abraham as controlling and money hungry. The

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hashtag Chris deserves justice trended. Selina's fans split into camps,

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those loyal to the official family narrative and those who

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believed Chris's version showed the real Selena. The conflict reached

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new lows in twenty twenty when Netflix announced Selena the

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series produced with full Quintinilla participation. Chris wasn't consulted, learned

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about it from news reports. When the series aired, fans

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noted how it minimized his role, sanitized their relationship, turned

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their passionate romance into a subplot in the Abraham Quintinilla story.

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Chris's response on Instagram was heartbreaking. Here's my take go

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learn about how this family really is no friendship, all business.

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Epilogue ofriendas and Ownership. As we record this on Dia

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delos Mortos twenty twenty five, Selena would have been fifty

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four years old. Instead, she remains forever twenty three, frozen

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in time, her image appearing on millions of a friend

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as across America and Mexico. Families who never met her

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place her photo next to their own deceased, claiming her

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as cultural heritage that transcends ownership. The irony is bitter

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on a holiday about remembering the dead as they truly were.

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Selena exists in multiple versions. The Quintinilla version perfect daughter,

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obedient artist, santified icon whose every note belongs to the estate.

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The Chris version passionate woman, independent spirit, complex human whose

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private moments deserve remembrance. The Fan version everything to everyone,

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symbol of Latina achievement, tragedy transformed into triumph. Abraham Quintinia,

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now eighty five, still controls the estate with iron precision.

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New Selena albums appear regularly, her voice mixed with modern

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production collaborations with artists she never met. The museum in

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Corpus Christi draws thousands. The merchandise sales never stop. The

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machine Abraham built has made the family millions, but cost

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them Chris's friendship, fan unity, and perhaps some essential truth

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about who Selena really was. Chris Paris fifty six has remarried,

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but never moved on. He still posts memories on her

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birthday and death day. He still fights for his right

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to remember publicly. He's still the widower the family wishes

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would disappear, But who refuses to be erased? This Dia

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de los mortos. As candles flicker before Selena's photos and

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Marigold's guide her spirit home, the question remains who owns

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the dead? The family who raised them, the spouse who

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loved them, the fans who immortalize them. Or do the

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dead belong only to themselves, forever beyond the reach of

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law suits and licensing deals. Perhaps that's why Selina remains

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so beloved thirty years after her death. Despite the feuds,

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the law suits, the competing narratives, something essential about her

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escapes ownership. In the end. No court can copyright a

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voice that moved millions, No trade mark can contain a

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spirit that transcends death. No family feud can diminish, the

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light of a star that refuses to fade. Some feuds

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end with reconciliation, others end with legal victories. The battle

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for Selena's memory achieves neither, continuing as long as there's

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money to be made and love to be claimed. But

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on Dia delos Mortos, when the veil between worlds grows thin,

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perhaps Selina herself laughs at the living fighting over her

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legacies while she dances free among the marigolds, finally beyond

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any one's control. I'm Marcus Reed. Thanks for listening to feuds, power,

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pride and payback. This weekend, our sister show, Celebrity Trials

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presents a special two part series on Selena's murder and

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the trial of Yolanda Saldivar. Join read Carter as he

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takes you inside that day's in Room one fifty eight,

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where the Queen of Tejana was shot in the back,

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through the nine and a half hour standoff to Yolanda's

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recent parole denial in March two thousand twenty five. In

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Part two, experience the Houston trial that gripped the nation,

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the guilty verdict that brought Texas to tears, and how

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Selena's legs endures on Dia DilOS mortosalters across two nations.

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Find celebrity trials wherever you get your podcasts. Join our

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Feuds community on Facebook and Instagram, where thousands are sharing

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their Selena memories and debating who has the right to

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speak for the dead. Search Feuds podcast or click the

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link in the show notes. Until next time. Remember love

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might be eternal, but in America, even eternity comes with

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licensing agreements.