Larissa Mercado-López is a professor of women's, gender & sexuality studies at California State University, Fresno. She is the editor of multiple anthologies on Latinx literature, Chicanx children's literature, and the life and work of Gloria E. Anzaldúa.

Yndalecio Isaac Hinojosa is an associate professor of English at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, where he served as the associate dean for the College of Liberal Arts. He is a coeditor of Open Words: Access and English Studies and coeditor of Bordered Writers: Latinx Identities and Literacy Practices at Hispanic-Serving Institutions.

The Selena Reader is a special and necessary volume whose contents and tone will resonate deeply with multiple generations of Selena fans, national Mexican American communities, and Tejanos who have been touched by the edges of her ripple effect. Mercado-López and Hinojosa bring together essays that analyze the impact of Selena's social presence as a Mexican American public icon who straddled cultural borders and did so embodying the grace of living a truly fronteriza life. The editors have crafted a volume that is extremely intimate but also widely useful to students and scholars of Mexican American and Chicana cultural studies.--Rachel González-Martin, University of Texas at Austin, coeditor of Race and Cultural Practice in Popular Culture

A dazzling and vibrant book, illustrating the enduring cultural and political necessities of "Selenidad" for Latinx communities and beyond. From a range of startlingly original perspectives, this collection registers how Selena's image as a star, and as a working-class Chicana icon, matters for her fans across generational divides as well as genders and sexualities.--Richard T. Rodríguez, UC Riverside, author of A Kiss Across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and US Latinidad

Readers interested in a more in-depth, scholarly approach to Selena will likely find much to admire here. Mercado-López and Hinojosa have done an excellent job bringing together a diverse range of intelligent and engaging writers.

-- "Kirkus Reviews" (12/9/2025 12:00:00 AM)

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Pub date: 2026-03-31

Length: 262 pages