SELENA
...ened her own salon and boutique, Selena, Etc., in Corpus Christi and San Antonio. Selena fan club president Yolanda Saldívar was brought in to manage the stores. * In November 1993 Selena began planning an English-language "crossover" album. * One of her TV guest appearances was on the Mexican telenovela (soap opera) Dos Mujeres, Un Camino, starring ex-CHiPs-ter Erik Estrada. * Selena had a pet python. * In April 1994 Selena released Amor Prohibido, her last album. It included the hit singles "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" and the reworked Pretenders' song "Fotos y Recuerdos." In May, while promoting the album, Selena performed at Randy's Rodeo in San Antonio, where 16 years earlier the Sex Pistols had played their second-to-last concert. Amor Prohibido went triple platinum by the end of the year. * In September 1994 Selena played Mexico City, where front-page stories proclaimed her "La Reina Tejana." * Selena's 1994 concert in Houston's Astrodome took place in front of 61,000 fans, the largest crowd in Tejano music history, and in Astrodome history second only to Garth Brooks. After her death the self-designed purple jumpsuit she wore at the record-setting concert was donated to the Smithsonian. * On March 9, 1995, under pressure from her father, Selena confronted Selena, Etc. boutique manager (and, by now, close personal friend) Yolanda Saldívar over alleged financial wrongdoing. Saldívar vehemently denied the accusations. On March 13 she finally resigned. On that same day she bought a .38-caliber revolver. A few days later she returned it. But March 26 she bought the gun back. * On the morning of Friday, March 31, 1995, Saldívar, ex-Selena fan club president, shot her former boss and onetime best friend with a .38-caliber revolver during a heated confrontation in Room 158 of the Days Inn Motel in Corpus Christi. Selena was pronounced dead at 1:05 p.m. The cause of death was internal bleeding and cardiac arrest. * Stunned fans gathered across Texas. In San Antonio 5,000 people showed up March 31 at Sunken Gardens amphitheater for an impromptu candlelight vigil. On Sunday, April 2, in a more organized event at the Bayfront Convention Center, 60,000 mourners filed past Selena's casket over an 11-hour period. Room 158 of the Days Inn was soon transformed into a shrine, covered with notes, flowers, pictures, and candles, as was Selena's boutique in San Antonio. * People magazine, in an unprecedented move, split the run of its next issue (April 17, 1995) with two covers: one with a photo of Selena, for the Southwest market (this version quickly sold out), and one with a photo of the cast of Friends for the rest of the United States. * Across Texas, letters to newspapers were full of uncomprehending, angry, and sometimes racist remarks questioning the Latino reaction to Selena's death. * On the day before Selena's funeral, radio talk-show host Howard Stern joined the fray, playing sounds of gunshots over Selena's ...