Will you be watching Selena & Yolanda?
the true crime that's worth your time
I’m not sure how to approach Selena & Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them, the Oxygen (Peacock if you’re streaming) docuseries that makes its debut on Saturday, February 17. It’s been nearly 29 years since Yolanda Saldívar fatally shot Mexican cultural icon Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, a slaying consistently attributed to toxic fandom (after seeing Selena perform, she launched a fan club for the singer and eventually became close to the family) and shame over claims that she’d embezzled from the club and Selena’s retail boutiques.
That’s why some of the ways this show is being pitched concern me, as a person who values ethical true crime. One example might be this brief report on Deadline, which says “Members of Saldivar’s family discuss the two women and share never-before-revealed documents and recordings in an effort to show there was more to the tragedy than the public knows. … ‘I knew her secrets,’ Saldivar said in the trailer for the docuseries. ‘And I think the people deserved to know the truth.'”