Selena Quintanilla-Pérez’s story has been told across films, series, and fan tributes for three decades—but the tragedy at the center of her legacy still echoes.
In March 1995, the 23-year-old singer was shot and killed by Yolanda Saldívar, the woman who ran her fan club. Saldívar remains in prison, where she is serving a life sentence after being denied parole earlier this year.
For many people, those grim details became the headline of Selena’s story. But according to The Boston Herald, her family’s newest project—Selena Y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy—is determined to shift that focus.
The documentary, directed by Isabel Castro and produced alongside Selena’s siblings, Suzette Quintanilla and A.B. Quintanilla III, hit Netflix on Monday, November 17. And unlike past retellings, this one pulls straight from the Quintanilla family’s private archive.
According to Castro, the family opened up “floor-to-ceiling” stacks of tapes, film canisters, flash drives, and raw footage—what Suzette calls “the vault.” The process required years of cataloging, cleaning, and choosing the strongest material from countless duplicates.
The newly released footage reveals personal snapshots rarely seen by the public: moments on the family’s first tour bus, Big Bertha; handheld recordings Suzette captured of her younger sister; and even a handwritten note Selena gave to her husband, guitarist Chris Pérez.
The documentary also includes a rare interview with the siblings’ mother, Marcella Quintanilla, who had largely stayed out of the spotlight both before and after Selena’s death. Her participation marks the first time she has publicly reflected on her daughter’s life.
Castro says the intimacy of the home videos helped ground Selena not just as a superstar, but as a daughter, sister, and young woman whose life was cut short. “Seeing the home video reminded me that she was just a young girl who died when she was 23,” she explains.
Suzette notes that the project intentionally avoids rehashing the murder, saying, “This is about her life, our life, and our growth.”
For longtime fans and younger viewers discovering her for the first time, the documentary also highlights key parts of Selena’s identity—her bilingual upbringing, her rise in a male-dominated genre, and her relationship with Pérez. There are no outside experts or analysts; only the people who lived alongside her tell the story.
Suzette hopes the project reinforces Selena’s significance within the Latino community and inspires new generations. “It continues her legacy, our legacy,” she says, to remind audiences of both the artist and the woman behind the icon.