María Celeste Arrarás - Selenas Secret: The Revealing Story Behind Her Tragic Death

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Copyright 1997 by Mara Celeste Arrars

Introduction and afterword copyright 2015 by Mara Celeste Arrars

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

This Atria Paperback edition December 2018

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Arrars, Mara Celeste, author.

Selenas secret : the revealing story behind her tragic death / Mara Celeste Arrars.

pagescm

1. Selena, 19711995.2. Mexican American women singersBiography.3. Tejano musiciansBiography.I. Title.

ML420.S458A872015

[B]

782.42164092dc23

2014049032

ISBN 978-1-9821-1751-1

ISBN 978-1-4767-6605-8 (ebook)

For you, my readers

Nearly twenty years ago, a bullet claimed the life of the queen of Tejano music, Selena Quintanilla Prez, turning the singers life into that of a legend. Her story is one that resembles, in many ways, a Spanish telenovela , one that left her fans from around the world both sad and wanting to know more about her. After her death, Selenas name spelled success: Television programs dedicated to her shattered ratings records; magazines with her on the cover sold out; her music albums sold more copies than ever before and the movie Selena produced by her father, Abraham Quintanilla, broke records at the box office. The film looks at the life of the beloved singer from the time she started in the music world at a very young age to her days as a renowned singer, and concludes with the news of her murder.

I confess that when I wrote these pages twenty years ago, I did so with Selenas music playing in the background. I did not want to lose my perspective and forget who she really was. Her voice and songs will always keep me in touch with the human side of this tragedy. While I was writing, they kept me from going too far in one direction in my struggle to remain objective. After all, Selena is no longer here to speak for herself. The music was also a shield. It protected me from Yolanda, who ended Selenas life. During our conversations, Yolanda could be charming and open, but the songs helped me to remember that it was she who silenced a beautiful voice.

This book picks up right where the movie ends and tells a much more complex, profound, and controversial story of what actually happened in the last days of Selenas life.

I know Selenas secret.

Mara Celeste

Selenas been shot! someone yelled. I heard the announcement shortly after 2 P.M. on that Friday afternoon as I walked through a hallway at Univision, on my way to the newsroom of the networks news division. That is where the offices of my show, Primer Impacto , are located. At first I mistakenly thought that the victim of the gunshot had been Selegna, a well-known Miami psychic who often appears on television. As incredible as this may sound now, my first thought was that the shooting was part of a conspiracy, an organized plan to finish off psychics and astrologers; two weeks earlier an astrologer who had a radio show had been shot to death in Miami, where our show is based. Perhaps the murderer was a serial killer unhappy with his astrological forecasts. New York City already had its own zodiac killera name assigned to him after he threatened to kill one person on the first day of each astrological cycle.

I flew into the newsroom on an adrenaline high and asked the producers to immediately contact Walter Mercado, the internationally famous astrologer who hosts the horoscope segment of our show, to get his reaction on what was happening. They all gave me puzzled looks, clearly wondering what I was talking about. But Mara Lpez, the executive producer of Primer Impacto , had been watching me and seemed to know exactly what was going through my head without my having to explain myself. I think her brain and mine work alike. She told me that I had misunderstood what I had heard and made the victims identity clear: Its not Selegna. Its Selena , the queen of Tejano music... and its looking pretty serious.

As soon as Mara finished her words we all fell into deep silence. My colleagues had found out the news just a few moments before I had and had yet to catch their breath. Selena had been a guest on our show several times. Her last appearance had taken place barely three weeks earlier. This time the victim was not a name without a face. It was someone we knew. We all liked her because despite her fame, she never put on airs of being a superstar. On the contrary, she was quite down to earth.

Within seconds we swung into action. We had to immediately interrupt regular programming to report the event. At that moment our professional commitment had priority over any of our personal feelings.

A powerful charge filled the air and took hold of our groupthat special current that flows through every journalist who realizes theyve come across a truly major piece of news. That energy becomes our fuel, allowing us to work long hours with enthusiasm, without thought of food or sleep. That day we were going to need it.

Moved by that unusual force, we leaped to our tasks. Within fifteen seconds, I was seated at the Univision news desk in front of the standing cameras. I did not have the time to run to the studio on the other side of the building where Primer Impacto is taped. With news like this, you cannot afford to waste one single second. As I hastily put on my mike and earpiece, arrangements were being made to interrupt our regular programming. The earpiece, which we call the IFB, is connected to a cable line that allows us to receive instructions from the producer and director who work from the control room. The technological magic of this little device has come to our rescue innumerable times like this one, when we receive late-breaking news and we are forced to improvise.