Tejana superstar Selena Quintanilla Perez has been honored — all within the past 18 months — with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a wax figure in Madame Tussauds Hollywood, a tribute makeup line from M.A.C., and a place in the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. Now, she has her own Google doodle.
In honor of the release of her first album, "Selena," on Oct. 17, 1989, Google posted as the day’s doodle on Oct. 17, 2017, a video animation of Selena’s story. Sister Suzette Quintanilla collaborated on the details with Perla Campos, Global Marketing Lead for Google Doodles, who came up with the idea.
Two years in the making, the doodle includes specific details from Suzette that bring the drawings to life. Selena’s caricature includes red fingernail polish, her signature red lipstick — including a smear on the microphone — and her famous purple jumpsuit worn during a performance at the Astrodome in Houston.
For Campos, the doodle was personal. She told Billboard magazine that, along with her mother, Selena was one of the two women who taught her she could be and do anything she wanted in life.
“Selena has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember,” she said.
Campos is the daughter of a single mom from Mexico. She grew up in a small town outside of Fort Worth.
The doodle tells Selena’s story as a child, dreaming of being a singer, following the family through its musical development over the years from local band to touring celebrities.
“What a great way to celebrate an icon,” Suzette Quintanilla said. “I think it will bring great joy to all her fans who follow her and look up to her as a role model. Selena would be so excited. It’s such an honor.”
The Quintanilla family also provided exclusive content from their Selena collection, which the Google team put together into an online exhibit on Google’s Arts & Culture Exhibit.
A Corpus Christi native, Selena is honored in the city each year with a two-day music festival. In 2018, Fiesta de la Flor will be held in downtown Corpus Christi on April 13-14.
