Fandom Rivalry: With Selena Gomez fans, but less over their music and more at the fact nobody can really look up Selena anymore without having to clarify the last name due to the latter becoming a mega star. The irony is that Selena Gomez was named after Selena herself!
Friendly Fandoms: With fans of Aaliyah, whom like Selena, was also killed in her early 20s at the height of her career.note And both eerily died only weeks before a well-known national terrorist attack; the Oklahoma City Bombing occurred after Selena's murder and 9/11 occurred after Aaliyah's death
Sacred Cow: She is loved by the Latin community, and talking bad about her is very much a no-no. Howard Stern received heavy backlash for mocking Selena's death. Even her murderer Yolanda spoke fondly of Selena when she was interviewed by VH1 in 1998 for the television special Selena: Behind the Music.
Signature Song: "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom", "Como la flor", "Dreaming of You", "Baila Esta Cumbia".
Tough Act to Follow: For Tejano musicians after her, it's hard for them to get a popular big break outside of Texas. Averted with A.B. Quintanilla, Selena's brother who was able to start up his own career as a musician with Kumba Kings and later on Kumba All-Stars.
Vindicated by History: Although she was obscure among non-Hispanics at the time of her tragic death, her final album received widespread commercial and critical success. Today, Selena has become one of the most influential and successful Latin music singers of all time.
In the Japanese dub of the film, Selena is voiced by Rica Matsumoto, who previously voiced Rumi, the manager of the main protagonist Mima Kirigoe in Perfect Blue. Anyone who watched that movie would know Rumi impersonates Mima and she tries to kill her at the end of the film compared what happened with Selena in both this film and Real Life.
Selena talking to her mother and Chris about having children. It's sadder once you realize she died before she could ever have kids with her husband, which makes the scene where Marcella cries tears of joy more saddening rather than heartwarming.
He Really Can Act: Up until this film, Jennifer Lopez's career was mostly fanservice type of roles but drew critical raves that set her up on her future success. Even when she turned in critically panned films or performances later, fans and detractors alike would still point to this film (among others like Out of Sight, or Hustlers) of what she's capable of.
Questionable Casting: Many Selena fans had a problem with the decision to have Jennifer Lopez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, playing the eponymous musician, who is of Mexican decent. It got to the point where people started protesting to have the film re-casted. She managed to win most of her detractors over with her performance (and earned the approval of the Quintanilla family).
Values Resonance: While Abraham's speech to Selena and A.B. about the importance of being a Mexican-American was always valid, it became even more powerful over the years due to the increased marginalization of various ethnicities in society and politics, particularly Latinos, Blacks and Middle Easterners. One line that resonates powerfully with American children of immigrants is that he and his family have to be "more American than the Americans and more Mexican than the Mexicans" — a poignant encapsulation of the struggles that American immigrants face due to societal pressure from cultures both of their countries of origin and their new home country.
Woolseyism: The Mexican Spanish dub gives to all the Mexicans or Americans with Mexican ancestry characters thick Mexican accents, as this is pretty normal when dealing with movies with Mexicans in the cast as a way to differentiating them from the rest of the non-Mexican cast.
