On Tuesday (Oct. 17), Google premiered their first-ever Selena Quintanilla Google Doodle, an animated singing cartoon of the late Mexican-American singer designed to celebrate the life and legacy of one of Latin music's most formidable stars. October 17, 1989 was the day of Quintanilla's first studio album release, Selena; one that would lead to five more albums, the last of which would be released posthumously and become her first No.1 on the Billboard 200.
"I grew up as the daughter of a Mexican immigrant single mom living in a small (primarily white) town outside of Fort Worth, Texas," Perla Campos, Global Marketing Lead for Google Doodles and project manager for the Selena Quintanilla Google Doodle told Billboard in an exclusive interview. "There were always two women who taught me I could do anything and be anything I set my mind to: my mom and Selena. Selena has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember."
Both Campos and Quintanilla grew up in similar situations. Both were raised in Mexican families in small towns in Texas. Both were women who, despite the societal constraints regarding what it meant to be a Hispanic woman in a white community, managed to beat the odds. That, in addition to having fond memories of singing "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" in the van with her mother as a child on their annual road trip to Mexico (Selena, too, spent meaningful time on a bus with her family, who was also her band) and a strong recollection of the day the 23-year-old artist died, made Campos the perfect person to lead this campaign.