“We got a glimpse of what Selena and Los Dinos experienced up there on the stage and it was a ton of fun and it wasn’t easy, it’s not easy to play the bass and also dance at the same time, I give a lot of credit to A.B. Quintanilla, he’s a beast.”
Selena: The Series debuted on December 4th on Netflix and our own Dave Morales sat down to speak with Ricardo Antonio Chavira and Gabriel Chavarria who portray Abraham and A.B. Quintanilla in the highly anticipated series about the late “Queen of Tejano music” Selena.
Veteran actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira portrays Abraham Quintanilla in Selena: The Series, a role famously played by acting legend Edward James Olmos in the 1997 Selena film.
We asked Ricardo if he was able to spend any time with the real Abraham Quintanilla and get any guidance on the role. “There had always been plans for us to get together with the family and I think they even talked about the family coming out and visiting the set but those plans kept getting pushed around and then COVID hit so that just absolutely threw a wrench into the whole mix,” said Chavira.
However, the cast was able to speak with one member of the Quintanilla family. “We had a Zoom meeting with Suzette Quintanilla where she was wonderful, gracious, very complimentary and very helpful. She provided us with some nice anecdotes and stories and asked us to ask her questions. We had a really lovely time,” said Chavira.
Chavira said he was able to portray Abraham Quintanilla well even without any actual in-person interactions. “In terms of doing any work with Abraham or with A.B. prior to this no, the work that I did was all on my own you know what the research that was provided to me and the research that I did on my own.”
Like Noemi Gonzales who plays Suzette Quintanilla in the series, Gabriel Chavarria is an East Los High show alum. Chavarria commented on how he reenact performances so well. “You know we had great rehearsals, we had a lot of rehearsals and we were really prepped well, with our entire team, our choreographer and watching videos and doing our own homework and our own research.”
Chavarria added, “We got a glimpse of what Selena and Los Dinos experienced up there on the stage and it was a ton of fun and it wasn’t easy, it’s not easy to play the bass and also dance at the same time, I give a lot of credit to A.B. Quintanilla, he’s a beast.”
Ricardo Antonio Chavira is a native Texan and personally knows the impact the music of Selena has on the Tejano community. “I know the importance and the significance of this story, I know how iconic she is to San Antonio. I would express this to my castmates, people are gonna love it but in Texas, South Texas, San Antonio, Houston, Corpus Christi, these towns are gonna go nuts for this.”
“I grew up in San Antonio, you know San Antonio is still my home,” he added. “I was in high school and college when she was holding concerts and winning awards at the Tejano Music Awards at the convention center in San Antonio.”
Selena: The Series is now streaming on Netflix and look for Part 2 of the series to come out in 2021.
Article written by Michael Taggart
