Abraham Quintanilla, father and manager of the late Tejano pop icon Selena Quintanilla, has died. He was 86.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s with a heavy heart to let you guys know that my Dad passed away today,\u201d Quintanilla\u2019s son, A.B. Quintanilla III, wrote on his Instagram account<\/a> on Saturday. The cause of death has not been disclosed to the public.<\/p>\n As patriarch of the famous Mexican American music family, Quintanilla played a critical role in the development of his daughter Selena\u2019s career. After her tragic death in 1995, he dedicated his life to safeguarding her legacy and overseeing primary control over her estate. This included managing the rights to her image, name and likeness \u2014 at times, to controversial ends<\/a>.<\/p>\n Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1939, Quintanilla began his music career as a member of the singing group the Dinos in 1956, a Chicano rock group that was met with racial discrimination. In one instance, a club owner paid the group not to perform after realizing they were Mexican American youth; but the group was also sidelined by its Mexican counterparts for not making Spanish-language music. <\/p>\n Quintanilla\u2019s exasperation informed a real quote that was later made famous by actor Edward James Olmos, who played Quintanilla in the 1997 \u201cSelena\u201d biopic: \u201cWe have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time. It\u2019s exhausting!\u201d<\/p>\n Quintanilla would eventually step away from the group in the 1960s to start a family with Marcella Samora, whom he met in Tacoma, Wash., while serving in the U.S. Air Force. The family quickly grew following the births of A.B., Suzette and Selena. In them, he saw the potential to fulfill his own dreams of musical stardom.<\/p>\n With A.B. on bass, Suzette on drums and Selena as the tender vocalist, the trio would often perform at the family restaurant, PapaGayo\u2019s, which later closed following the 1981 recession. The family was forced to sell their home in Lake Jackson, Texas, and move to Corpus Christi. In order to make ends meet, Selena y Los Dinos would perform on street corners, family parties and other social functions. Under the guidance of their father, who assumed the position of band manager, Los Dinos eventually signed with Freddie Records in 1984.<\/p>\n Selena was met with much skepticism from an early age as a young girl in a male-dominated genre, including by their first label head, Freddie Martinez. Still, Los Dinos persevered in the Tejano music scene, hopping from label to label before the group finally released eight albums under Manny Guerra\u2019s independent labels, GP Productions and Record Producer Productions. With multiple albums under her belt, Selena was then able to dominate the Tejano Music Awards; she won the title of Female Vocalist of the Year in 1987.<\/p>\n Selena eventually caught the attention of Jose Behar, the former head of Sony Music Latin, who saw her crossover appeal \u2014 despite Selena\u2019s primary language being English \u2014 and signed her to EMI Latin (Capitol Records) in 1989. This led to the release of her most career-defining hits across five albums, such as \u201cComo la Flor,\u201d \u201cAmor Prohibido,\u201d \u201cBidi Bidi Bom Bom\u201d and the posthumously released ballad, \u201cDreaming of You.\u201d<\/p>\n Following Selena\u2019s murder in 1995 \u2014 by Yolanda Saldivar<\/a>, the former president of her fan club \u2014 Quintanilla became a fierce protector of her image, which was often sensationalized by the public.<\/p>\n Because of the grisly and highly publicized nature of Selena\u2019s death, Quintanilla felt that the film needed to be made sooner than later, in order to do justice to his daughter\u2019s legacy, said \u201cSelena\u201d director Gregory Nava in a 2025 interview<\/a> with De Los.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, as a filmmaker, I wanted to really tell a true story,\u201d said Nava. \u201cI had conflict, not really with the family, but with Abraham. Her father was very protective of her.\u201d<\/p>\n Tensions flared most when Nava began to shape the story of the singer\u2019s elopement with guitarist Chris Perez, whom she married in 1992.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t put on the screen that it\u2019s right for a young girl to disobey her father,\u201d Nava recalled Quintanilla saying.<\/p>\n \u201cIsn\u2019t it a more important point to make that she is doing what she knows is right? And [that] she\u2019s doing the right thing because she knows she loves Chris and Chris loves her?\u201d Nava responded. <\/p>\n Eventually, Quintanilla relented. \u201cI guess if I have to look bad to make Selena look good, I\u2019ll do it,\u201d Nava recalled him saying. \u201cHe has a soft heart. He finally saw that was the right thing to do, but it took hours of heated discussion.\u201d <\/p>\n