Researching Selena Quintanilla Perez.
The second project will require that you research a cultural event. For the next several days we will be exploring representations of the life and murder of Selena Quintanilla Perez through different genres as a model for the kinds of thinking and research that you will need to do once you choose a topic for the second project. (Don’t worry about choosing a topic now, we’ll get to that a little later.) We will do this by watching the movie, interacting with different websites and finally reading some articles from the New York Times.
Depending on the genre and its purpose, the information about Selena will be presented (or omitted)in different ways. This activity is a way to start thinking about how cultural events are represented in different genres and to start thinking critically about the way each genre might work to differently present information about the same event.
Here are some questions you should consider as we get acquainted with Selena. As you write your answers, remember to provide examples in order to support your statements. For example, if you say the purpose of this movie is to get the audience to feel sad about Selena’s death, name a few specific scenes that you think especially portray such emotions. Once you have completed this analysis work, you should be able to use the same types of questions to help you analyze the cultural phenomenon you will research for your second project.
You should answer to these questions in two different sheets; first as you watch and reflect on the movie, secondly as you explore the websites provided below. The reflection on the movie should be done individually. For the websites, however, you can work with a partner if you like.
1. What aspects of Selena’s life are presented?
2. Why do you think these aspects were chosen over others?
3. What content do you think is excluded?Why?
4. How is the content presented?
5. Who is the audience? How do you know?
6. How is Yolanda Saldivar (Selena’s murderer) presented? What reactions are expected from the audience? Does the portrayal of Saldivar change based on the audience or possible audience expectations? How do you know?
Hint: on this question and the next, you will want to think about both words and pictures.
7. How are Mexicans/Mexican Americans/Americans portrayed? Do portrayals of M/MA/A change based on the audience or possible audience expectations? How do you know?
8. What counts as evidence (personal testimony, facts, etc)?
9. What is the purpose of this movie/website?
10. Is this a credible source? Why or why not?
11. What are other things that caught your attention? Why?