Abraham Quintanilla Jr, the father of Tejano pop icon Selena, has died. He was 86.
Quintanilla was known for managing Selena, dubbed the “Queen of Tejano Music”, and her band, Selena y Los Dinos.
His death was announced in an Instagram post today, December 13, by his son, Abraham “A.B.” Quintanilla III, who wrote: “It’s with a heavy heart to let you guys know that my Dad passed away today…”
Abraham Isaac Quintanilla Jr was born on February 22, 1939, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
At the age of 14, Quintanilla formed his first musical group, the Gumdrops. He pursued a career in music with another group, the Dinos.
In the early 1960s he was serving in the army when he met Marcella Samora. The couple married in June 1963 while living in Washington state.
Marcella gave birth to Selena Quintanilla in April 1971. Her father recognized her singing ability from a young age, after she began accompanying her brother A.B. when he played guitar. Selena’s sister Suzette was also recruited to play drums.
In 2020, A.B. told People: “There are a lot of families who think, ‘My kids are talented, they sing, they're awesome,’ but my dad, as a musician, saw something that we didn’t.”
After returning to Corpus Christi, Abraham put together a family band, Selena y Los Dinos. They signed a record deal in 1984, and within a couple of years Selena had established herself as a major voice in Tejano music, a fusion style popular in Mexico.
Selena’s 1993 album Selena Live! won the Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album, while her 1994 follow-up Amor Prohibido was at the time the biggest selling Latin album of all time.
In 1995, Selena was murdered at the age of 23 by Yolanda Saldívar, a former president of the Selena Fan Club. Saldívar, who is still serving a life sentence for the killing in Texas, was denied parole in March
In the wake of their daughter’s death, Abraham and Marcella took care to preserve her legacy and were involved in the 1997 biopic Selena that starred Jennifer Lopez.
The family also told their story in the recent Netflix documentary Selena y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy.
Selena “became representative of something so vital for me about, like, what it means to be a Latina in this country,” said the film’s director Isabel Castro. “Seeing the home video reminded me that she was just a young girl who died when she was 23.”
Abraham Quintanilla Jr is survived by his wife, Marcella, and their children Abraham “A.B.” and Suzette.
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