The late Tejano queen Selena’s “Como la Flor” is one of the songs nominated for preservation in the National Recording Registry. Credit: Shutterstock / Lisa T Snow
Yolanda Saldivar, the woman convicted of shooting and killing Tejano superstar Selena Quintanilla Perez three decades ago, now considers herself a “political prisoner.”

Saldivar’s claim came to light last week when the New York Post interviewed an unnamed family member ahead of the 64-year-old’s parole hearing, scheduled for March 30.

“Enough is enough,” Saldivar’s relative told the paper. “She feels like she’s a political prisoner at this point. She’s ready to get out of jail, because she believes she has more than served her time.”

In 1995, a Texas jury sentenced Saldivar to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years for the Perez’s death. Saldivar shot Perez in the back outside a Corpus Christi motel after the singer accused her of embezzling $60,000 in funds from the Selena fan club, according to authorities.

Despite evidence presented in the court case, Saldivar still denies that she took fan club funds. She also maintains Perez’s death was an accident and that she meant to use the gun to kill herself.

To this day, Perez’s death evokes strong emotions among South Texas fans.

“There’s a bounty on her head,” former inmate Marisol Lopez told the New York Post of Saldivar in January. “There’s a bounty on her head, like everyone wants a piece of her. The guards keep her away from everyone else, because she’s hated so much.”

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This article appears in Mar 5-18, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...