CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — In a 3News interview with Abraham Quintanilla he discusses his daughters success and the controversy that has come from critics who say Quintanilla has capitalized on his daughter's fame.
Quintanilla shares excerpts from his memoir "A Father's Dream: My Family's Journey in Music," touching on the things he said are most important in his life.
"It has a lot of things in there the public wants to know," Quintanilla said. "Because there's always been, and now it's grown even more curiosity about Selena."
Quintanilla touches on the stardom that followed the family as Selena Y Los Dinos popularity entered the height of success.
"You have to understand that people have sometimes the wrong image of musicians," Quintanilla said. "But they forget one thing: that being involved in music is also a business, and for me it was a business, it became a business."
A love of music became a reality for the Quintanilla family and Abraham grew his business, propelling Selena into worldwide stardom.
"At first it was a dream and then within time it became a reality because Selena became one of the leading female artists in the world," Quintanilla said.
26 years after the passing of his daughter, Quintanilla said her memory is still being recognized with a recent Grammy nomination.
"With a lifetime merit achievement award. She's the number one female Latin artist in the world," Quintanilla said.
However with the family's success came inevitable criticism.
"You know, 'let her rest.' 'You're trying to make money off of her.' What they don't understand is there were contracts made when Selena was alive, but the contracts where never by herself. There were four partners: A.B., Suzette, Selena and Me," Quintanilla said.
With Selena's passing, the arrangement changed and finances were discussed amongst the family.
"I gave her husband, her widower, Selena's quarter earnings. So he's been receiving money for 26 years because that's the arrangement that we made," Quintanilla said.
At age 82, Quintanilla still produces music for his company and is always involved in the discovery of new artist. The message Quintanilla hopes will translate to the reader is that family is everything. He points to the successes of the Selena Movie and the Netflix series.
"The reason they have been very popular, the programs or the shows is because it involves family," Quintanilla said. "And everybody, I don't care what race you are what nationality you are, everybody can understand that about a family because at the end of the day, life is all about family."
On Wednesday night's third and final part of 3News anchor Rudy Trevino's, interview with Mr. Quintanilla, he will share what Quintanilla describes as the most compelling and heart-wrenching part of the book: the measures taken by emergency room doctors to save Selena's life.
You can watch the final part of the interview Wednesday night, only on KIII News at 10 p.m.