A new Netflix doc offers an intimate portrait of Selena, straight from
her family's vault
[November 15, 2025]
By MARIA SHERMAN
NEW YORK (AP) — For many, the name Selena Quintanilla-Pérez is the stuff
of mythology. The Queen of Tejano broke barriers for women in Latin
music genres of all kinds; it's easy to see the through line between her
contributions to the current success of regional Mexicana music. But
it's been 30 years since the singer known simply as Selena was killed at
23 — and those who love her are working hard to ensure her legacy
endures for decades to come.
One such example: “Selena Y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy,” a documentary
from director Isabel Castro and executive produced by Selena’s siblings,
Suzette Quintanilla and AB Quintanilla III. It hits Netflix on Monday.
“I do understand that what Selena means so many years later, to the
Latino world,” Suzette Quintanilla says. “Who better than to tell our
story other than us?”
Making the movie
The Quintanilla family, ready to share with the world never-before-seen
archival material, reached out to Castro following the release of her
2022 film “Mija,” sensing she might be the correct person to tell
Selena's story.
“Suzette, we met, we kind of immediately hit it off,” says Castro. “We
are both older sisters.”
The feeling was mutual. “She was a fan,” says Suzette Quintanilla. “She
totally understood the struggle between being Mexican American and
embracing both cultures.”
Then the work began: years of combing through and cataloging
“floor-to-ceiling, like, DVDs, VHSes, canisters of raw film, flash
drives,” says Castro. There were duplicates, too, which required
identifying the best quality footage — all the while “trying to turn a
myth into a personal story,” she said.
“We call it ‘the vault,’” Suzette Quintanilla says of their collection.
“We have everything that you could possibly think of.”
Across the footage, Selena the sister, daughter and person emerged — not
just the superstar face of her family's band, Los Dinos. The moments
that meant the most to Castro were the most intimate: Suzette holding a
camcorder and filming her sister, a handwritten letter Selena gave to
her husband Chris Pérez and scenes from inside their first tour bus, the
infamous Big Bertha.
Selena's mother, Marcella Quintanilla, had not done an interview about
her late daughter since her death — and even before, remained largely
behind the scenes. For the documentary, she opened up, sharing photo
albums and reflecting publicly for the first time.
“I love my mom in the documentary,” Suzette Quintanilla beams.
Selena “became representative of something so vital for me about, like,
what it means to be a Latina in this country,” says Castro. “Seeing the
home video reminded me that she was just a young girl who died when she
was 23.”
Selena, the cultural icon
For those who grew up with the music of Selena as a cultural touchstone,
it might seem like her story is well-mined: There is the now-classic
1997 biopic “Selena,” which helped launch the career of its lead
Jennifer Lopez, a 2020 Netflix series and much more. “Selena Y Los Dinos”
nods to that legacy, but appeals to both the loyal fan and the viewer
who might only know her name.
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This image released by Netflix shows Selena in a scene from the
documentary "Selena y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy." (Netflix via
AP)
 “The most challenging part of the
editing process was trying to thread the needle between making this
film for her built in audience — which is vast and extremely
dedicated and extremely knowledgeable — and new audiences around the
world and also new generations,” says Castro.
For those not well-versed in her music, Selena's public-facing story
often focuses on the details surrounding her death. (Selena was
killed by her fan club’s president, Yolanda Saldívar, in 1995.
Saldívar, serving a life sentence in Texas, was denied parole in
March.) “Selena Y Los Dinos” doesn't spend much time at all with the
end of her extraordinary life.
“We do not focus on the murder,” says Castro, who says her film is
about a Latina's joy and power. “I’m kind of fed up with this
expectation that Latino stories are often centered around
victimhood.”
“This is about her life, our life and our growth, and telling our
story at Selena Y Los Dinos,” says Suzette Quintanilla. “The person
who took her life and everything that has to do with her death is
off the table. This is about what we created.”
Getting personal to tell a bigger story
“Selena Y Los Dinos” also makes it a point to emphasize the
undercelebrated facets of Selena's story: Her learned bilingualism
and bicultural identity, her fight to make it to the top of the
music industry as a Latina and her marriage to Pérez, Los Dinos'
guitarist. He also appears in the doc; their elopement was
controversial in the Quintanilla family as Selena was just 20 at the
time. (“I’m glad that she did experience love,” says her sister. “I
realize now that I’m older, and now that she isn’t. ... I do realize
that life is short and we only have one life. So, you have to live
it.”) That is accomplished through extensive interviews with the
Quintanilla family and members of Los Dinos alone — there are no
critics or historians jumping in to provide additional context.
“A huge goal of mine was to try to really take this symbol and make
the film feel as personal as possible. And I felt that if it was
told from the perspective of her family and those who knew her best,
it would allow viewers to kind of have that experience,” said
Castro.
Suzette Quintanilla's hope is that Latino audiences find great
representation in the film.
Her dream is that it “continues her legacy, our legacy” as well as
furthers understanding of Selena “and what she represents to us as
Latinos and to the younger generation. It’s also hopefully to
inspire that if you have a dream, go for it.”
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