Suzette Quintanilla doesn’t play drums anymore, but she still works in music
After Selena’s murder at the hands of fan club president Yolanda Saldivarin 1995, Suzette dropped her drumsticks for good, but she looks back on her time in Selena y Los Dinos fondly. “There are a lot of special moments in my past,” Suzette told PopSugar. “Of course, being a part of an amazing band, Selena y Los Dinos, with my family has been very special to me since day one. It really kept us together as a family. Playing Tejano music helped us embrace our culture even more.” She did, however, get back behind the kit for a 2015 Billboard tribute to Selena with y Los Dinos and Jennifer Lopez. Though she doesn’t play drums any longer, Suzette is still active in the music scene, working as CEO and president of operations for her family’s Q Productions company to develop, produce and promote Tejano artists.
Suzette Quintanilla is still very happily married
Selena: The Series documents Suzette’s romance with Bill Arriaga. They’re still together and share a son, Jovan Arriaga.
She runs the Selena Museum and works to preserve Selena’s legacy
Suzette helps manage The Selena Museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. Visitors to the shrine to the late singer have reported meeting Suzette and brother Abraham “A.B.” Quintanillaon the premises. “When you walk in through that door, you feel [Selena], you get a sense of who she was, as a person, as an artist. It feels personable, just like she was…when you walk in here, you can feel her in here,” Suzette told Entertainment Tonight. The attention to detail is impressive: The museum has purple carpet (Selena’s favorite color was violet) and smells of roses, the “Como La Flor” singer’s favorite flower. The museum focuses largely on Selena’s clothing collection, much of which she designed and created herself, including her iconic purple jumpsuit that she wore for her final performance in February 1995 at the Houston Astrodome. The number that means most to Suzette is the white beaded gown Selena wore to accept her Grammy for Best Mexican/American Album in 1994. “Honestly, I think it was the only time that I really got kind of choked up because she looked like perfection,” Suzette recalled of the moment. “She looked like a true artist, it was a really cool moment.” Suzette also works with brands using Selena’s image, including Bumpboxx and HEB. View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Suzette SYLD Official Page (@suzettesyld) Suzette and the Quintanilla family also got a wax figure of Selena made for Madame Tussaud’s.
Suzette Quintanilla honored Selena at the 2021 Grammys
At the 2021 Grammy Awards, Suzette accepted Selena’s posthumous honor for the Lifetime Achievement Award. According to The Caller Times, Selena and Suzette’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, formally received the award Feb. 22, 2021.
Suzette Quintanilla is an executive producer on Selena: The Series
Suzette served as one of the executive producers of Netflix’s Selena: The Series. The show was an immediate smash, but Suzette told Entertainment Tonightthat despite the success, they likely won’t do a third season. “I’m honored at the two seasons. The fact that my sister is not here, and I’m not going to say that it’s an easy thing for you to be able to go through, it’s hard,” Suzette said. “Sometimes it’s easier than other times to be able to share [her story] and sometimes it’s not and it messes with my head.” She added, “I’m forever grateful and I’m grateful for the platform Netflix is able to give us, to be able to talk about this series. I don’t think that a lot of people realize that this type of platform is not given to everyone, especially us as Mexican-Americans. To have a platform like Netflix and for two seasons to be able to tell our story, it’s just, it’s without words. I’ll be forever grateful for Netflix and for Campanario for making this happen.”
She helped develop Selena’s makeup line
Suzette was a key part of developing Selena’s MAC makeup line. She told Refinery 29it was a particularly important project for her in terms of preserving her little sister’s legacy in creating Latina representation in the media when there wasn’t much before (especially for brunettes who were “fuller on the hips”). “When Selena passed away, one of the three things she was working on was her clothing line, a makeup line, and a perfume line,” Suzette said. “I promised myself that by the time I leave this world, I will accomplish what she started; what she held dear to her heart.” Next, find out what Selena’s widower, Chris Perez, is up to now.
