by Chris Perez
I had heard somewhere that Yolanda, a registered nurse, attended one of Selena’s concerts in 1991, and was apparently so entranced by Selena’s music that she had approached Suzette, who was in charge of Selena’s merchandising. Yolanda had proposed starting a fan club in San Antonio.
I hadn’t paid much attention to this story at the time. Selena had so many fans, and by the time Selena and I were a couple, Yolanda seemed to do a great job as her fan club president, rapidly adding members in the San Antonio area. Members could pay to belong to the fan club and receive T-shirts, posters, and other souvenirs in exchange for their membership fee. Or, they could belong for free, and receive a monthly newsletter with a schedule of where we were playing.
Yolanda seemed to live for her job as Selena’s fan club president. She was older than we were, and acted very sincere and professional. She seemed to want nothing more than to help Selena in any way she could, acting maternal toward her at first, very sweet and caring.
What none of us knew at the time is that Yolanda had first approached Shelly Lares, whom I had played with before joining Los Dinos, with the same kind of proposition. Shelly’s father, Fred, had turned Yolanda down. Shelly was the one who initially introduced Yolanda to Suzette.
We also had no idea that Yolanda had a history of legal troubles. She had defaulted on her student loan and one of her employers, a dermatologist, had sued Yolanda in 1983, claiming that she had stolen money from his business.
Why did Abraham, usually so cautious, trust Yolanda? Probably because Yolanda seemed so harmless and played her cards just right. She was sweet, very soft-spoken, and extremely respectful toward Abraham. Suzette had introduced Yolanda to him, and he liked the idea of having someone outside the family manage the fan club, since the rest of them were so overwhelmed. Yolanda proved to be especially useful in San Antonio, where we often stayed to work in the studio or play in shows. The Quintanillas and the band all came by bus, so Suzette and Selena were stranded unless Yolanda took them to run errands in her car.
For whatever reasons, Abraham, usually so mistrustful of outsiders, welcomed Yolanda into the inner circle of people who were known and trusted by the Quintanillas.
“Fan clubs can ruin you if things aren’t run the right way and people don’t get the items or the newsletter they were promised,” Selena explained to me. “I’m so glad that Yolanda is running things the way she is. The fan club keeps growing and everybody’s really happy.”
To show how grateful she was to Yolanda, Selena often gave her gifts. Yolanda seemed to have a thing for spotted cows, for instance, so Selena bought her an expensive rug with a cow on it. She also bought her a cow phone on a trip to Los Angeles. Slowly, Yolanda was becoming closer to Suzette and Selena, who both treated her like another sister. When it was time to make Selena’s big dream come true, then, it seemed natural for Selena to call upon her good friend for help.
Whether she was at home with me or on the road, Selena was always sketching fashion designs and making clothing and accessories with her own hands. She had loved fashion since childhood, and took delight in her bag of metal, glue, pliers, and costume jewelry; she was always working on a new belt or jazzing up her stage outfits at the last minute.
Things had already been going well for the band. Now, after winning the Grammy, it was like one of those lawn mowers that you pull to start, and it doesn’t want to start. You keep at it, though, and the lawn mower sputters and stops, sputters and stops, until all of a sudden you get it and the lawn mower zooms off. That’s how it felt for us. There was always something that needed to be done, and that thing would be linked to something else, which was linked again to another thing we were asked to do.
It was incredible how much we were traveling and playing, how many albums and singles we were selling, and how much everyone loved Selena. Her appeal went far beyond what she did musically. For instance, Selena recorded a Public Service Announcement for a battered women’s shelter. Every time a radio station aired this tape, “Put an End to the Pain,” the phones lit up with Spanish callers who had heard Selena’s voice and decided to improve their own lives by seeking help for themselves.
Selena never took any of this adoration for granted. She was always humble, and worried constantly that she might not be working hard enough. She was Abraham’s daughter, no question about that—she had his drive and work ethic, coupled with a creative spark all her own.
In late 1993, the Quintanilla family decided to use their new credibility and improved financial position to start Q Productions, a production company and recording studio of their own in a former body shop near the airport in Corpus Christi. Abraham had always wanted to have a world-class studio close to home, and he envisioned eventually heading up his own label. He managed that company while A.B. formed the Phat Kat Groove production company.
Both Abraham and A.B. were interested in producing the work of new artists, mainstream commercial groups as well as Tejano, and expanding the Quintanilla music dynasty. Selena soon followed with a business of her own in January 1994, when she finally opened the boutiques she had talked about for so long.
Abraham was fit to be tied when he heard about Selena’s decision. “What is wrong with you?” he asked, shaking his head. “How could you even think about opening another business? Do you know how much time that will take and how much harder you’re making your life? Why don’t you just enjoy the money you’re making?”
Selena held firm. “It’s what I want to do, Dad,” she said. “And it’s my life.”
Still not willing to give up on dissuading his daughter, Abraham pulled me aside next. “You can’t let her do this,” he said desperately. “She’ll burn herself out.”
“I get why you’re worried about her biting off more than she can chew,” I said gently. “But this is something she really wants to do, and I’m not going to tell Selena no. If anything, I’ll do whatever I have to do to help her.”
Despite his own ambitious nature, Abraham thought that Selena was making a huge mistake. He couldn’t really stop her, though. Selena and I were financially independent and, as I had already realized, Abraham never really did control Selena as much as other people thought he did, especially after she married me.
I think some people may have had the mistaken impression that Abraham dictated every aspect of Selena’s life because she often relied on him to run interference for her. If someone came to her with an idea that didn’t thrill her, she would say, “That sounds interesting, but you need to talk to my dad.”
This happened many times as Selena got more popular and more people tried to convince her to invest in one thing or another that they were working on. “I’ll have to run it by my dad,” she would say, but that was simply her way of ending the conversation.
So, when Selena came to me one night and said, “Okay, Chris. I’m ready to open my boutique. I don’t want to wait anymore. Let’s go shopping for a building,” I knew there was nothing that Abraham could do to dissuade her. As I had told Abraham, I would help her any way I could—but first I had to be sure that Selena knew what kind of work was involved.
“You’re going to be busier than you already are,” I reminded her. “And you already don’t have enough hours in the day.”
“We can do it,” she promised. “I’m not going to do all of the work. I’ll get people to help me.”
“You really want this, huh?” I asked.
“What do you think?” She made a face at me. “You’ve only been listening to me talk about this for two years, but I’ve wanted a boutique of my own since I was a little kid.”
“Okay, then,” I said. “Let’s get it going.”
Truthfully, I would have been cool just being a musician. I didn’t need or want to open another business. What I knew about the fashion business you could write on the head of a pin. But there was nothing in the world that Selena wanted more than this. I also figured that, even if Selena wound up discovering that owning a fashion boutique didn�
�t live up to her fantasy or suit her lifestyle, at the very least she would have had a chance to get the idea out of her system.
Selena and I started scoping out commercial buildings for lease or for sale all over Corpus. At last we found the right place: a 1950s frame house at 4926 Everhart. We loved the building because of its classic style. The location was perfect, too, close to Corpus Christi’s biggest shopping centers, which had been built in the past decade. The building was for sale at a good price, and there were new businesses springing up all around it.
“This area has great potential,” Selena said, and I agreed.
We went down to the bank and did the paperwork to finance the sale, then started looking around for a contractor. Once we’d settled on a contractor recommended by one of our friends, Selena began drawing pictures of what she wanted the boutique to look like.
This was one of those times when Selena most appreciated my help, I think. I had grown up around a stepfather who was very handy around the house; I’d helped him renovate rooms and do an addition on the house I grew up in, so I knew some handyman basics. Selena would describe her ideas to me as she sketched them out, and I’d help her get these ideas across to the contractor.
I had never seen Selena more excited than when she started playing around with her building plans and talking about the interior details for her boutique. She envisioned selling her own fashion designs here, and having an in-house salon where clients could get their hair and nails done.
After the contractor had finished the major part of the renovations, Selena and I went in and did some of the finish work. “I really want there to be a lot of light in here,” Selena explained, pointing out the way she wanted to place windows between the manicure stations.
To satisfy her request, I ended up installing glass block walls between the manicure stations, which were arranged in a zigzag fashion along a big table. I had to go out and buy a kit to figure out how to make the glass walls, but in the end I managed.
Her mom was the only member of the family who supported Selena’s dream as immediately and completely as I did. “Selena has wanted to do this ever since she was a little girl,” she told me. “I’m so glad she’s got you to help her.”
Marcella made these crazy-looking vines that I put up around the top of the salon. I also bought a high-end sound system so that Selena could have high-quality sound in her boutique, and ran the wires so that nothing would show.
It took several months for us to secure the building permits and complete the remodeling. Selena then did the hiring process herself because she wanted to handpick the women who would staff her boutique. She had also met a young Texan fashion designer, Martin Gomez, who agreed to help her transform the designs she visualized in her mind, and in two dimensions as sketches on paper, into exciting, three-dimensional clothes and accessories. Selena’s overall goal was to make the kinds of dramatic outfits and accessories that she liked to wear onstage or for a night out—and sell these to the public at affordable prices.
Selena even designed the tags that would be sewn into the clothing—just a small thing, a label on a piece of clothing, but again, it was her very own and it looked professional. To think of something and dream about it for so long, and then to realize that dream, is an incredible accomplishment for anyone. To Selena it was the definition of happiness.
I was constantly amazed by her energy and attention to detail as Selena got her new venture off the ground, especially because she was still performing nonstop and keeping up her contractual agreements with sponsors like Coca-Cola and Agree shampoo. At the same time, Selena never forgot where her heart was—she was still making time to do charity work, like speaking to children in schools about the importance of education in various “Stay in School” jamborees.
During one visit to a local middle school, for instance, I sat in the audience while Selena went up to the podium. Microphone in hand, she looked earnestly at her young audience—kids who were the same age she was when she started in the music business as a singer—and told them straight up not to follow her path, but to stay in school.
“Music isn’t a very stable business,” she said. “It comes and goes, and so does money. But your education stays with you.” “If you have a dream,” Selena added, “don’t ever let anybody take that away from you. The impossible is always possible.”
The kids went wild, especially when Selena sang for them. Then she went down off the stage and stood among the middle school students. She autographed anything and everything they handed her, with a kind personal word for each child.
It was an exhausting time, a truly wild ride. Yet, being beside Selena every step of the way, and watching the look of pleasure on her face as we successfully hurdled every obstacle, from gutting the place to painting the walls and hanging the neon sign with her name on it, made our efforts worthwhile to me. Together, with hard work and determination, we brought her dream to life.
“It looks awesome,” I said, putting my arm around Selena’s waist as we gazed up at that newly hung neon sign with her SELENA, ETC. logo. “Man, you’re really doing this! It’s really happening.”
“Thank you, Chris,” she said, putting her head on my shoulder and gazing happily up at her name in lights.
After Selena had opened the boutique in Corpus Christi, she decided that it would make sense to have a second salon and shop in San Antonio, the other city where we spent most of our time, and where she had another great fan base. In addition, my sister and other friends of ours would be able to staff the San Antonio boutique.
About eight months after we opened the Corpus boutique, Selena opened the second one on Broadway in San Antonio—coincidentally, about a block and a half from the apartment where I had lived with my dad while Selena and I were dating. Because we were already so busy, this venture was more businesslike than a labor of love; we hired people to complete the work we needed done inside and out, rather than trying to take that on ourselves.
At the same time that Selena’s boutiques began gaining traction, her career as an entertainer was moving at an even faster clip. She was busier than ever in 1994. Now her obligations included making music videos—the new industry standard—as well as recording vocals.
For instance, the music video for “La Llamada,” one of Selena’s biggest hits from the Selena Live! album, was shot on the rooftop of a beach house in Malibu, California, which meant that we all had to fly out there for two days.
Many of the scenes in that video are of Selena singing with a crowd of people dancing around her, as if she’s at a big party; shooting them was fairly uneventful. We just had to spend a day playing through the songs over and over again, and then Los Dinos got to leave. Selena, however, had to stay for several more hours, because they were also shooting her singing the song against a blue curtain.
At one point, I went back up to the roof to see how she was doing. I was worried because the sun was going down. The darker it got, the colder and windier it got, and Selena was wearing only a slim-fitting black dress that couldn’t be very warm.
I found her with a blanket around her shoulders between shots. Still, Selena’s teeth were starting to chatter and she was shivering. I put my arms around her, rubbing her shoulders to try to warm her up a little.
“How are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m freezing,” she said.
“Yeah, I can tell. I don’t think we have any jackets.”
“I know,” she said miserably.
“Want me to stay up here with you?”
“No, no, I’m almost done,” she said.
“Let me get you some coffee at least,” I said, and went off to find one of the assistants.
They started shooting the video again as I made my way down from the roof. When I turned to watch, I saw that the blanket had come off Selena’s shoulders and, as she sang her heart out, she looked totally happy and warm. Selena was a natural actress who was professional enough to slip into a new mood as easily as most peo
ple put on a new outfit.
Having so many obligations like that pulling at her made Selena start depending even more on Yolanda Saldivar. Yolanda had done nothing to cause us to mistrust her at this point. In fact, in her unpaid position as Selena’s San Antonio fan club president, Yolanda had worked hard to impress everyone in the family with her work ethic and commitment to Selena and the Quintanilla family.
Yolanda had even moved to Corpus Christi in 1993 and rented an apartment with a roommate in order to live closer to the Quintanillas; little did we know that her roommate had moved out within a few months as Yolanda proceeded to turn the apartment into a shrine to Selena. All I saw was that Yolanda had become a close friend to both Suzette and Selena. She had also become Selena’s personal assistant, doing everything from helping her out with costume changes backstage to running interference between Selena and overzealous fans.
The more trustworthy Yolanda seemed, the more trusting we all were with her. It was only natural, then, for Selena to offer Yolanda an official, paid position as a manager who would oversee both the clothing boutique in Corpus and the store in San Antonio. The stores had local managers on-site—in fact, my sister, Tricia, was managing the San Antonio boutique—“… but, if I can’t be there to do something, I’ll feel better knowing that Yolanda will take care of it,” Selena told me.
I agreed with her decision. Selena was trying to juggle too much in her life and Yolanda had proven her loyalty. Abraham, too, thought the idea made sense; he was relieved to have any amount of stress lifted off his daughter’s shoulders. Yolanda was put on salary, and Selena gave her a credit card and a cell phone she could use for business purposes. The more support Selena got for her new venture, the better, I thought. I was already out of my depth with the business and I just wanted my wife to be happy.
Everything went smoothly at first. If something needed to be done at one of the boutiques, Yolanda would either handle it or call us while we were on the road. Or, if Selena was in Corpus, Yolanda would help with her calendar. She seemed to diminish the intense pressure that Selena had been feeling since opening the boutiques, and for that we were all grateful.
