The exhibition will open to the public this Thursday and will remain available until March 16
Los Angeles (USA).- Outfits, awards, and intimate memorabilia of Selena Quintanilla make up the new temporary exhibition dedicated to the queen of tex-mex at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, a show that, according to her sister Suzette, is deeply personal and takes on a greater emotional weight for the family after the recent death of her father.
“Everything (exposed) means something to me. When Selena passed away, everything took on a different meaning. I just lost my father, so every little thing I have or that I didn’t notice before, now catches my attention,” Suzette Quintanilla told EFE, who faced the loss of Abraham Quintanilla Jr. on December 13th.
This is the first time personal items of the star who passed away in 1995 have left the Selena Museum located in Corpus Christi, Texas.
According to the exhibition’s curator, Kelsey Goelz, the small show titled ‘Selena From Texas to the World’ is “a kind of small version of the museum in Texas here,” she told EFE.
This includes iconic outfits such as the white ruffled blouse, the black leather jacket and the gold hoops she wore for the cover of the single ‘Amor Prohibido’, one of her most famous songs, as well as the white dress embroidered with silver beads with which she received the Grammy for best Mexican-American album in 1994, and which she would later wear in the video for the song ‘No me queda más’.
Other popular garments, such as her white ensemble consisting of a bra and pants that she wore at a concert at the Astrodome in Houston, in 1994; and another similar red one that she wore at a concert in San Antonio the same year, grace the room located on the fourth floor of the museum.
Also, the last microphone that heard her sing on a stage with a white flower and stained with her characteristic red lipstick or four decorative eggs from her collection of more than 500, among many other objects, complete the exhibition.
“The goose egg that’s there, that simple one, was the first egg he bought and he bought it right here, in Los Angeles… So I thought it was appropriate that it came here. That’s how the egg collection started,” said Quintanilla.
The Latin Icon That Resonates in Dark Times for the Community
The exhibition pays tribute to one of the most influential Mexican-American figures in music history and, although it was not conceived for that purpose, it is presented at a key moment for the Latino community in the United States, marked by the intense immigration policy promoted by the current president, Donald Trump.
“We made the decision to share a bit of Selena and ourselves here in Los Angeles, focusing more on her music and what it continues to mean to this day, but in a way, it also connects with what is happening in the world. Selena was very proud to be a Latin American, and I think we should all continue to be. Whatever happens in the world, that doesn’t change who we are,” pointed out the also CEO of Q-Productions.
‘Selena From Texas to the World’ dialogues with the rest of the museum, as on one side there is an exhibition of Michael Jackson and on the floors below the section on the history of the Grammys.
“We take a bit of everything, and also it can be seen within a broader musical context,” explains Goelz.
The museum entrance is presided over by a mural by local artist Mister Toledo, which depicts some of the most emblematic moments of the singer’s career.
