Two LA Businesses Tried To Honor Selena With A Beer. They Got A 'Cease And Desist' Letter From Selena's Family

The owners of a Pico Rivera brewery and a Chicano lifestyle boutique in Highland Park say they were only trying to honor late Mexican-American icon Selena when they teamed up for a limited beer release, Tomo La Flor.

Then they say a “cease and desist” letter arrived from the music legend’s estate.

“It was a downer,” said Agustin Ruelas, the co-owner at Brewjeria, the Latino and POC-owned craft brewery in Pico Rivera. “We just wanted to honor Selena.”

All about Selena

Selena rose to meteoric fame in the late '80s and early '90s, carving her own path in a genre that tended to be dominated by men. The beloved Grammy Award-winner came to be known around the globe as the “Queen of Tejano music.”

Then came a shocking turn of events at the height of her career: The president of her fan club shot and killed Selena on March 31, 1995, just shy of the superstar’s 24th birthday, which was April 16, 1971.

Nearly 30 years after her death, fans continue to grapple with the loss. As such, Selena tributes and recollections run especially strong this time of the year.

A beer to honor Selena

Noelle Reyes hosts a pizza party at her Highland Park-based Chicano lifestyle boutique, Mi Vida, each year around Selena's birthday. The mood is joyous as visitors share their love of the artist and sing aloud to Selena's music blasting from speakers.

This year, Reyes and her friend Ruelas decided to collaborate on a beer honoring the late singer and timed its release to hit the market in advance of Selena birthday.

The two used social media flyers to spread word about the unveiling of a special edition beer x pizza party at Brewjeria. (Why pizza? As fans and devotees of the 1997 movie “Selena” know, she loved pizza.) There was a line out the door at the appointed time.

About 1,000 cans were made of the hibiscus-and-guava pale ale, said Ruelas, and quickly sold out. He was considering making more of the beer before the letter arrived.

Legal battles over Selena's image

Selena’s father and her estate have sued many times over the years to protect the singer’s image and likeness. Last year, a cruise line was reportedly sued. A cover band was also sued, according to media reports. There were also legal efforts to halt production on a TV series about Selena.

Selena’s estate has yet to respond to a request from LAist seeking comment.

Reyes said she did not believe the beer crossed over into copyright or trademark infringement.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly summarized Ruelas' comments. He did not express a position on copyright or trademark infringement. He said he didn't believe they were doing anything wrong and the beer was a sincere effort to honor Selena's memory. [Updated May 3 at 12:20 p.m.]

The image on the front of it — a woman with a short dark bob and a glittery necklace reading Tomo la Flor, a play on the singer’s mega hit, “Como la Flor” — was meant to pay homage to the late icon without coming up against any legal lines or even including her name.

As a creator herself, Reyes, says she understands that there are necessary limits to using someone else’s likeness or name. But she believes the beer was firmly on the side of artistic homage.

And that was by careful design. Reyes said she also received a cease and desist letter years ago when her husband designed a sweatshirt that had an image on it that artistically echoed Selena’s stylized signature but stopped well short of copying it.

The beer and sweatshirt were humble tokens of love and admiration for an icon who empowered women, Latinos, and people of color to realize that they mattered, Reyes said.

“Little people like us, we’re not making our livings off of this,” Reyes said. “This was just to honor her. Folks like us, minorities, as brown folks, we don’t have many stars that look like Selena and achieved as much as she did.”

Go deeper

For a rich dive into the battle that rages over Selena image nearly 30 years after her death, there is this piece in Texas Monthly, this NPR story headlined "Selena At 50: Preserving and Protecting A Precious Legacy" and this Refinery29 story headlined “Let Selena Quintanilla Rest in Peace."