Although it has been 25 years since Selena Quintanilla’s untimely death, the infinite love between the Queen of Tejano music and her husband, Chris Pérez, continues to be alive and effectively.
“I’ve by no means had the sort of love that I had with Selena,” Pérez, 51, instructed The Post of his late spouse, who was gunned down at 23 by the president of her fan membership, Yolanda Saldívar, in March 1995.
“[Selena’s] approach of being made me notice the facility in being susceptible,” the Grammy-award profitable songwriter and guitar participant stated. “Like it doesn’t matter what, you are going to take your coronary heart out, figuratively, and get on one knee and hand it to that different individual. And I’d by no means executed that.”
Selena and Pérez’samor prohibido — her father initially disapproved of the connection — captivated world audiences within the 1997 blockbuster biopic “Selena,” starring Jennifer Lopez. Now, their timeless adoration is again within the highlight within the acclaimed launch this month of Netflix’s “Selena: The Series,” that includes actressChristian Serratos within the titular position.
However, Pérez, who served for six years as lead guitarist of his spouse’s household band, Selena y Los Dinos, was neither consulted nor concerned within the making of the biographical drama, produced by Selena’s father and sister, Abraham and Suzette Quintanilla.
“You can line us all up, the blokes within the band and the members of her household, and ask us to inform the complete story of all of the issues we skilled collectively, and it might be the identical story however instructed from a bunch of various views. And [‘Selena: The Series’] is their perspective,” Pérez stated, noting his exclusion from the Netflix mission is probably going because of former authorized contentions together with his estranged in-laws.
“We have not spoken because the lawsuit,” Pérez stated, referring to litigation Abraham Quintanilla filed in opposition to him in 2016. The go well with was a profitable try to dam a tv adaptation of a memoir Pérez penned in tribute to his slain sweetheart in 2012 entitled: “To Selena, With Love.”
“I’m a believer that should you really ever did love someone you do not simply cease loving them,” Pérez continued. “So, there’s at all times going to be that love and respect [for her family]. But issues are inferior to they need to be and that hurts.”
Pérez married Venessa Villanueva, who he met by means of a mutual pal, in 2001, six years after Selena’s loss of life. The couple welcomed two kids, Cassie, 22, and Noah, 15, earlier than divorcing in 2008.
Although absolutely engaged in his new life as a father, musician, and extra lately, a hot-pepper-sauce entrepreneur, Pérez continues to really feel the pangs of Selena’s passing every single day.
“When I bought remarried, that was me making an attempt to downplay [Selena’s death] in my life. It was too painful. I by no means talked about [Selena’s death],” he stated. “Getting remarried and beginning my new life was a option to recover from dropping her. I believed getting remarried would assist, and it did. But the ache continues to be there. It’ll at all times be there.”
Pérez fondly remembers being in an “amazing place” of love with Selena within the days main as much as her homicide. Saldívar shot her exterior of a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas.
“We eloped on April 2, 1992, and he or she died March 31, 1995. So she died two days earlier than our third wedding ceremony anniversary,” Pérez stated. “So, yearly round that point, I attempt to not let my coronary heart and thoughts take into consideration her an excessive amount of as a result of the sentiments are simply too intense. It’s nonetheless a relentless battle.”
Despite the agony of his loss, Pérez stated he doesn’t really feel any lingering animosity in direction of Saldívar — who’s at the moment serving her life sentence on the Mountain View Unit, a most safety ladies’s jail in Gatesville, Texas. She will probably be eligible for parole in 2025.
Forever celebrating her life and legacy, Pérez was scheduled to carry out on the SXSW Selena for Sanctuary charity live performance in Texas earlier this yr; nevertheless, the showcase was cancelled because of the pandemic.
But he nonetheless sees his late love in his desires.
“It occurs every day. She involves me … both when I’m sleeping or in a daydream,” stated Pérez, who’s open to the potential of at some point writing one other guide about life with, and after, Selena. He stated she encourages him to “hold your head up.”
“I hear her speaking to me on a regular basis,” he added. “And regardless that she was taken from us at such a younger age so a few years in the past, once I hear her spirit chatting with me, I hear who I consider she can be now, in the present day, as if she’s been right here with me, sharing my life experiences all this time.”
Source: nypost.com
