Selena, Forever: Remembering The Mexican American Superstar On Her Birthday

Selena, you were so ahead of your time.

Actually, you are timeless.

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Today is Selena’s birthday, so you can expect to find signs of the late Mexican-American superstar everywhere today — radio, TV, online. No doubt, there will be flowers to mark her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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The Grammy winner would have been 53 had she lived. Instead, she was gunned down by a former business associate and the one-time president of her fan club in March 1995, a crime that continues to shock.

Why we'll never forget Selena

Some celebrities fade a little each year after their passing. But Selena’s flame continues to burn bright for many reasons.

"It was a tragic death at the pinnacle of her breakout success," said Steven Loza, director of the UCLA Center For Latino Arts and the chair of global jazz studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

But it's more than just that, he said.

The charismatic Selena was lightning in a bottle, a crossover success who didn't leave her Mexican heritage behind, but elevated it. Loza noted that Mexican people make up the largest percentage of Latinos in America, but are underrepresented at the highest levels of the entertainment industry.

"She was one of the few hopes of breaking through," he said. "It's hard to break through the eye of the needle."

What made Selena special

Noelle Reyes hosts a pizza party at her Highland Park-based Chicano lifestyle boutique, Mi Vida, each year around Selena's birthday. (Why pizza? As fans and devotees of the 1997 movie Selena know, she loved pizza.) Reyes said Selena continues to enchant a new generation of fans for a simple reason: "Because she is so relatable. That’s what superstars do, even with her talent there was a humbleness in the way she carried herself. That’s her magic."

And although it has been nearly 30 years since her death, “the Queen of Tejano Music” continues to connect with those fans: She has 1.2 million followers on TikTok. To commiserate her life, her official IG account — with 1.7 million followers — posted a simple black-and-white photo of a rose caught in perfect bloom, with the message: To all of Selena’s fans across the world you have our most heartfelt love and gratitude for continuing to love our Selena.

Scroll through the comments, and you can feel heartbreak as fresh today as in 1995:

“We miss you queen” ”Por siempre Selena” “Forever in our hearts” “She’s gonna be our FLOR for evaaaa”

“We will never stop missing, loving and celebrating her and her beautiful legacy”

Watch one of Selena's music videos. Granted, there aren't the slick music video editing that we've come to expect, and no signs of our smart phone-driven culture. But aside from that, her videos feel precisely of the moment.

Selena, you were so ahead of your time.