[dropcap size=big]S[/dropcap]elena’s death, 23 years ago on Saturday, was the first time Patty Rodriguez had seen her father cry. The author and radio personality contemplated this memory on Saturday afternoon during a lively book signing at Local Fixture, a hip multicultural mom and pop shop in Uptown Whittier.
Rodriguez and her co-author and business partner Ariana Stein had just signed about 400 copies of their best-selling children’s book “The life of/La Vida de Selena” and were getting ready to sign 400 more.
Selena Quintanilla’s 1992 hit “Como La Flor” was playing lightly in the background--the chilling refrain, as if the pain of love was a little slice of heaven, “Ay ay ay cómo me duele”, marking the end of the 9 times Platinum song.
Rodriguez looked around the room and thought about the hundreds of little girls dressed in Selena costumes who were waiting outside the room for a chance to meet the women keeping Selena’s legacy alive. She clasped her patented “Sin Miedo” gold necklace charm and continued, “But it’s also like she never left, like she’s still here.”