Is Chris Perez being erased from Selena's legacy? Fans call him 'most beautiful chapter' in her life
In April, it was reported that the story of legendary Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla is being adapted into a series on Netflix, titled 'Selena: The Series'. The cast is set, filming is well underway and the late Spanish singer's family is associated with the development of the project, with her sister Suzette Quintanilla serving as executive producer. Christian Serratos of 'The Walking Dead' fame portrays Selena in the series.
When news about the series broke out, Selena's widower Chris Pérez took to Instagram to upload a picture of Jesse Posey, the actor cast to play him and captioned it: "Here is a pic I just saw of the actor playing me in the Netflix series. For the record, never met him, haven't seen the script, and I have NO idea what is going on... But, I'd love to find out.”
He later took to Instagram again and posted a photo of Selena and him and captioned it: "I heard they were trying to make me nonexistent to Selena's legacy..... Go for it."
Fans reacted to his latest Instagram post. One fan said, "That family is something else. Time and beautiful karma will reach up to them." One sympathized with him and said, "I’m so sorry Chris you truly don’t deserve this and should have the right to be a part of your wife’s life." Another commented, "They can’t erase the memories." A fan advised, "You’ve tolerated them for a while now. Chris, Selena was part of your life. Don’t take the BS!" One said, "I'm sure you were THE most beautiful chapter in her life! How disrespectful to her and her memory!" One wrote: “Everyone saw and knows the love she has for you!!!"
Pérez was the guitarist for the Tejano queen's band Selena y Los Dinos and subsequently became her husband. Pérez and Selena dated for several months before eloping in 1992. The Quintanilla family, especially Selena's father, was against their relationship. Despite the disapproval, the couple made their marriage work and Selena's father came around sometime later and approved of their relationship. There was a time when divorce rumors caused a rift between the couple but they worked through it when they realized they wouldn't want to be with anyone else.
The two had a blissful marriage that was cut short by Selena's unfortunate and untimely death, three years later. The Tejana singer was fatally shot by her own boutique employee and fan club president Yolanda Saldivar who was later tried and sentenced to life in prison.
In 2012, the artist wrote 'To Selena With Love', a memoir about his romance and marriage. He spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about getting his father-in-law’s approval. Perez said, "I didn’t say anything to anyone while writing it. It wasn’t because I was afraid of the reaction, but I just wanted to be at peace when I was writing it. When I was done and talked to Abraham about it, he said, 'Son, if it’s something you feel you need to do, you have every right to do it'."
But things went the other way in 2016 when he announced that ‘To Selena With Love’ would be made into a television series. According to a Forbes report, Selena’s father Abraham Quintanilla Jr filed a lawsuit against Perez, his company Blue Mariachi Productions and Endemol Shine North America, alleging that Perez violated an estate agreement that gives Quintanilla the exclusive rights to Selena’s name, voice, photographs, her story and other rights in perpetuity. The report states that after two years of pursuing the case, Perez has lost an appeal to dismiss the lawsuit.
In 2017, Selena posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Perez told The Houston Chronicle in 2019, "Technically, I was invited via email. But I didn’t feel very welcome, and her family didn’t make it easy." He added, "I get the feeling that they were hoping by making it difficult for me that I wouldn’t show up and it would cast me in a bad light to her fans. The fans don’t understand all the hoops I had to jump through just to have a seat at that event. But I don’t want people talking about her family. I might feel a certain way about it, but what would Selena want?. . . I want to keep everything together for her."