Produced by the I-Lab at WBUR, Boston.

This journey begins at the border, a place in the in-between, where for a long time I felt divided in two.

Then I discovered her. Red lips, brown skin, big hoops. She was magnetic, no matter what side of the border she was on.

I was a young kid, but I remember what it felt like seeing that one of us had made it,

and she brought us with her.

Oh, how me dolead. A star faded A corpus Christi! A star faded away today.

Tejano Music Queen, Selena has been gunned down in Corpus Christi.

Then, she was gone.

Suddenly, violently, so many of us were marked by her death.

And I'll never forget the day. I was four years old. I was six years old. I was eight years old.

I remember being in my graduate dorm, hearing the news and literally just falling to the ground

and in shock. For almost my entire life, I've been thinking about why Selena matters, about what it means to love her.

Selena's legacy has shown me some of the biggest revelations about my identity, my community, my country.

You did play Selena and you did take a gunshot.

And I'm going to do it again.

And I'm going to do it 20 friggin' time. And I want you to leave my country.

No, man.

I was born in this country, home boy.

I had the same equal rights you do, Cardan.

She provides this, like, validation in these spaces that we weren't welcomed in before

and that we're able to bring her with us.

This story is personal.

...