‘Selena: The Series’ Episode 2 ‘Dame Un Beso’: Did Selena say no to Mexican music and how did she learn Spanish?
Spoilers for 'Selena: The Series'
The second episode titled 'Dame Un Beso' begins with Selena Quintanilla (Christian Serratos) singing in Spanish - a language that when she started, she did not sing in. The series showed a young Selena pose some resistance when asked by her father Abraham Ricardo Chavira (Ricardo Chavira) to sing in Spanish. "I don't know Spanish," Selena says in the series, and after her father explained that "people will pay to hear music that speaks to them", Selena had agreed to try in Spanish.
In real life, reports say that Selena actually could not speak Spanish fluently. The Tejano singer was born and raised in Texas where English was the language that was mostly spoken. It is said that Selena had learned her Spanish songs phonetically and that she had later taken Spanish classes to help her be more fluent. The singer had even conducted her interviews in English. With her Spanish, she managed to bridge cultural gaps as a Mexican-American singer with having a foundation in both American and Tejano music.
The series spoke to the singer's struggle with Spanish initially in her career - it showed her on the Johnny Canales show where she was being spoken to in Spanish but was replying in English. When asked how she painted with outfits, she said "with paint" but was asked to say it in Spanish so people in Mexico can understand. She ended up saying, "Los pintaron" and being told she needed to improve her Spanish. She promised herself (in the series) that she'd speak it better than Canales the next time.
In real life, many said that the singer learned Spanish for the sake of her career - which in part, could be true, but who knows. Chris Perez, Quintanilla's husband said in his memoir 'To Selena, With Love' that his wife "rose to the challenge, as she always did" to learn Spanish, her "ancestral tongue". He also revealed that she was afraid of being dismissed by fans if she didn't speak Spanish well, and wanted to be accepted by her Mexican fans. The memoir by Perez also read that at the start Selena had "mangled her conversations in Spanish ... but not for long. She said, "It'll be cool. You watch. I'm going to learn Spanish and surprise everybody". He also added: "Every minute we were in Mexico, Selena’s Spanish jumped up a notch. She got better and better, to the point where I’d have to ask her to slow down so that I could understand what she was saying."
The series also portrays that aspect when we see Selena (Serratos) determined to learn Spanish after the Canales show, but then also tell her dad that she would like to do some English songs. At that time, according to how the scene plays out, we see Abraham (Ricardo Chavira) tell his kids that Manny Guerra (Oscar Avila), the producer that they were planning to work with, only produces Tejano bans - "to him that's what we are," Abraham tells A.B. Quintanilla (Ricardo Chavira), Suzette Quintanilla (Noemi Gonzalez) and Selena.
'Selena: The Series' is now available to stream on Netflix.
