Remembering Selena, Re-membering Latinidad

Abstract

During the 1990s, both mainstream and marginal communities in the United States took part in conspicuously celebrating the Latina celebrity. This (re)emergence of the highly visible, hyper-sexualized Latina performer coincided with numerous legislative and discursive attacks on Latina/os and with shifting and renewed assertions of Latina/o identity, or latinidad. 1 More precisely, the Latina body was often and [End Page 63] variously celebrated both as the means through which hegemonic forces sought to occlude and thereby to ignore the political economic plights of Latina/os and as the site upon which Latina/o communities attempted to stage their presence within the nation. One of the most visible Latinas during this time was Selena Quintanilla Perez, whose popularity and eventual posthumous iconization enabled the visibility of other Latinas throughout the decade and set into motion the most recent Latin Music Boom that exploded in the 1990s. 2

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