NETFLIX’S gritty drama Selena: The Series documents the tragic real-life story of Selena Quintanilla who was murdered at the age of 24.
The Latina pop star’s shocking tale is detailed in the nine-episode programme on the streaming giant, with the series opener leaving fans in floods of tears in the first five minutes.
Yet despite the real life emotive appeal, the Netflix show isn’t wholly factually correct.
Selena’s sister Suzette was one of the executive producers, so it seems any tweaks to the real-life story have been done with the family’s approval.
Actress Christian Serratos plays the Mexican-American pop star on her journey to becoming one of the most successful female artists of all time before her death in 1995.
The first discrepany comes over her schooling – Selena is said in the show to have quit school aged 15, yet she was in fact in Year Nine, so 13 or 14.
In the latest series she also hits back over the outfit she’s asked to wear in a photo shoot for her debut album – yet it appears, in real life, it was her father Abraham who did not approve.
The 1996 biography Selena: Como La Flor also states Abraham was approached by Yolanda Saldivar to set up Selena’s fan club, while in the series, Abraham took the lead.
The real-life happenings may well have been a bitter pill to swallow for Selena’s father, as Yolanda is her eventual, and convicted, killer.
The president of her fan club and the manager of two of her boutiques took Selena’s life on March 31, 1995.
Selena’s father discovered that Saldívar had embezzled over $60,000 from the fan club and the boutiques through forged cheques.
After hearing shouting, a shot was heard ringing out before Selena ran into a lobby suffering from a bullet wound.
Although the young star was rushed to hospital, the gunshot proved fatal.
A major discrepancy comes with Selena’s relationship with band guitarist, Chris Perez.
The new series omits Chris’ two brushes with the law in 1991, and Selena’s consequent break up with the musician.
Instead it centres on a plot showing Abraham as a protective father and kicking Chris off the tour bus and out of the band when he is seen striking up a close relationship with Selena.
In Chris’ book, To Selena With Love, he states he chose to get off the bus.
Chris wrote: “In the middle of the argument, just like that, I said, ‘I’m out of here. Screw this. I’ll find my own way home. I don’t want to ride in anyway.”
Yet all was well as a year later, aged 21, Selena married Chris and her album Entre a Mi Mundo shot to number one on the US Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart.
Selena: The Series is produced by This is Us’ Don Todd and Selena’s family.
Suzette told how they had taken “great care” and stated: “Selena will always have a lasting place in music history and we feel great responsibility to do justice to her memory. With this series, viewers will finally get the full history of Selena, our family, and the impact she has had on all of our lives.”
A second series has, as yet, not been confirmed.
