Atria Books is celebrating the legacy of singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez (known to her fans as Selena) by publishing a 20th-anniversary commemorative edition of El secreto de Selena: La reveladora historia detrás de su trágica muerte (Selena’s Secret: The Revealing Story Behind Her Tragic Death), set to be released March 3. The edition includes a new foreword and afterword by the author, Maria Celeste Arrarás, an Emmy-winning journalist and a presenter on the television program Al Rojo Vivo on Telemundo. When Atria released an English translation of the book in 1997, it became a bestseller. This commemorative edition will be published in Spanish and English in print and in e-book formats. A national media campaign is in the works, and Arrarás is to appear on several Telemundo programs.
As to why she thinks Selena is still very relevant 20 years after her passing, Arrarás says, “Selena entered the heart of all Hispanics because she achieved the American dream, but unfortunately was not able to enjoy it, because just when she reached the top, her life was cut short. The shot that ended her life also began her legend.”
Selena was a singer of Tejano (Texan-Mexican music), as well as a songwriter, spokeswoman, actress, and fashion designer. On Mar. 31, 1995, she was murdered by Yolanda Saldívar, the former president of Selena’s fan club, who had been fired for embezzlement. In 1997, Warner Bros. produced Selena, a biographical film, and more books about Selena soon followed, including Para Selena, con amor (To Selena with Love), written by her husband, Chris Perez, and published in Spanish and English by Penguin USA in 2012. In 2004, Punto de Lectura, an imprint of Santillana, published Selena: Su vida después de su muerte (Selena: The Queen of Tex-Mex Lives On), by Cristina Castrellón, Selena’s agent.
An Author You Should Know
Francisco Martín Moreno—writer, novelist, and historian—is one of the most-read authors in his native country of Mexico, having published more than 2,000 articles in various newspapers and magazines, and over a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction. He has a B.S. in law and obtained a Ph.D. from the Mexican Academy of Law. Among his awards and distinctions are Spain’s Golden Laurel Literary Award, and Mexico’s National Journalism Award for 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998.
Martín Moreno is no stranger to controversy, within Mexico and throughout the Mexican-American community. He has made a career of challenging the status quo with his writing, which takes on such entrenched institutions as the Mexican government and the Catholic Church. In Los conspiradores y las vergüenzas de México (The Conspirators and Shame of Mexico), Martín Moreno delves into the most important moments of Mexican history.
In En media hora... la muerte (In 30 Minutes, Death), Martín Moreno turns his historical gaze on his own family’s past and discovers that his mother was Jewish and a Holocaust survivor who later moved to Mexico. This spring he once again takes on conventional wisdom in a still-untitled investigative work claiming the history of Mexico as currently written in textbooks is a sham.
Martín Moreno’s forthcoming book, as well as Los conspiradores and En media, are published by Planeta Publishing and distributed by Perseus.
