Corpus Christi was the center of the Tejano music world this last weekend.  The first of, many I am sure, Fiesta de la Flor was held in remembrance of the late great singer, SELENA.  This was her home and the place she was killed.

The city was inundated with as many as 50,000 fans.  A festival venue was set up in the downtown area and rides were furnished for those who could get tickets.  Needless to say, it was a sell out.  I did not attend.

I remember the day her fan club president killed her and that, truthfully was the first time I had ever heard of her.  I have spoken to many who were in the same cloud of darkness as I was about the “Flower” of Tejano music who lived in our midst.  If we had only known.  Shortly after her death her father built a museum here in town and truthfully I had never seen a soul at the facility until Friday of last week.  People were parked for 6 blocks trying to get in to the museum.  A local benevolent had erected a statue of her down town on the water front and that has been a pilgrimage site for years.  They have to repaint the left breast of the statue about every 6 months as people seem to rub the paint off that particular spot.  I have seen the statue a couple of times but did not fondle it in any way.

Hero’s and heroine’s  are good things.  They are good for the people.  Some show qualities of leadership, love of our nation, and various traits that are beneficial.  I have never been too much in love with entertainers as anything other than entertainers.  I liked Elvis, have been to Graceland, but I didnt buy a t-shirt nor do I own a black velvet painting of the “King” of rock and roll.  My hero’s are people a little closer to home, my father, my grandfathers, men of the community who led our nation in a recovery process after WW2.  (mothers, grandmothers also).  Men and women who survived the great depression and the dust bowl days of the 30’s.  Those people are worthy of being legends.

Gary