AILSA CHANG, HOST:
March 31 marks three decades since the death of Tejano music icon Selena Quintanilla-Perez. Across those three decades, Selena's legacy has lived on and even grown through the many ways her fans remember her. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the city where she lived and now rests - Corpus Christi, Texas. Raul Alonzo of the Texas Standard visited a few Selena landmarks as the anniversary nears.
RAUL ALONZO, BYLINE: I'm standing outside Times Market in the Molina neighborhood of Corpus Christi, admiring a mural to the local girl who became the queen of Tejano. A car pulls up and Vanessa Reyna steps out with her three daughters.
VANESSA REYNA: Well, I have 10-year-olds that have been asking to come out here, and we took advantage of spring break to come show them everything.
ALONZO: The family drove six hours that morning from the Dallas area to the hometown of one of their favorite singers. And it was all a surprise.
REYNA: They're like, when are we going to get there? Where are we going? So when we pulled up to the museum, they were just totally stoked.
ALONZO: Molina is the neighborhood Selena called home, after the family moved there from the Houston area when she was young. Reyna's daughters, including Jayleen, grew to love Selena's music from listening to it in the car.
REYNA: Or what do you like from Selena?
JAYLEEN: I like her outfits and the - I forgot how to say...
REYNA: The jewelry?
JAYLEEN: Yes - that she'd wear.
REYNA: (Laughter).
JAYLEEN: And I love her records.
ALONZO: Whenever y'all got to the museum, how excited were you?
JAYLEEN: A 10 out of 10.
ALONZO: The family snaps a few photos in front of the mural before they drive off. The mural is just down the street from the house where Selena once lived, in a field where the West Oso Junior High she attended once stood. It was at West Oso that the young Selena performed Michael Jackson songs during pep rallies. Carmen Tejeda-Delgado is a professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She's also a former schoolmate of Selena's who remembers her rallies. She says the singer's connection to the working-class neighborhood and the city as a whole remains strong.
CARMEN TEJEDA-DELGADO: We see her, I think, as, you know, a barrio girl - a home girl, somebody who was there with us.
ALONZO: Fans visiting Corpus Christi find no shortage of landmarks to the singer of "Como La Flor." Many stop at the Mirador de la Flor on the street along the city's shoreline. The white gazebo-like structure houses a life-sized bronze statue of Selena that looks out onto the bay. Tens of thousands visit yearly from all over the world. Many pose for photos, leaning on the rails that surround it. Before the railing was up, many visitors even wrote personal messages to the singer they so admired. Texas author Deborah Paredez wrote a book about the many ways people remember Selena.
DEBORAH PAREDEZ: She was so much kind of a symbol of promise that I think that those things make her uniquely available to us to continue to deposit our dreams for what could be and also our grief over what could not be.
ALONZO: Selena was shot and killed by a fan when she was just 23. Today, people who want to honor her memory can visit the Mirador and the mural, along with a museum, an auditorium and, of course, her resting place at Seaside Memorial Park Cemetery. But for my last stop, I dropped in for lunch at what was her favorite taqueria - the Hi-Ho restaurant, not far from her neighborhood. Photographs of the singer and her band, Los Dinos, line shelves and walls. And in a corner booth near the entrance is the spot she liked to sit to enjoy her favorite dish of carne guisada. It's one of several points of interest for fans found on maps listing landmarks around the city. And it's a place where, 30 years later, visitors can sit and reflect on Selena's influence and legacy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COMO LA FLOR")
SELENA: (Singing in Spanish).
ALONZO: In Corpus Christi, I'm Raul Alonzo for NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.