by Leah LeMoine | Photography by Carrie Evans
Clark Kent enters a phone booth as a journalist and emerges as Superman. Karla Pérez enters her virtual classroom at Arizona State University’s ASU Prep Digital as a high-school Spanish teacher and twirls out as Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. “I started doing the tribute [act] back in 2013,” Pérez says of Selena The Show, her nationally touring homage to the late singer. “I thought it was going to be a one-time thing for me – it was something different to put on a wig and a costume.” But she fell in love with performing the Tex-Mex cumbias of the Queen of Tejano Music. “Everyone loves Selena,” she says. “It’s an act that everyone knows the lyrics [to], even if they don’t know Spanish… She became a multicultural icon.” Pérez chatted with us about bedazzling bustiers and balancing pruebas de vocabulario with belting “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom.”
How do you manage teaching and performing?
[Teaching online] gives me the freedom to do both, to still be achieving other dreams. I think we have multiple abilities. I admire a lot of people that stick in one job forever, but for me, I know that I’m good at this and I’m good at that… That’s why I was interested in becoming a teacher at ASU Prep Digital, because I wanted to go back to teaching, but I wanted also to have the freedom to go to my gigs and not let any kids down.
I heard a student once called about his grade as you were heading onstage.
My grade book wasn’t syncing… He had an A, but in the grade book… it was an F. So, poor kid. It was a Saturday night, and he wanted to go out with his friends… My musicians are already setting up, and they’re introducing me. I picked up my phone, and he’s like, “Ms. Pérez, why am I failing your class?” And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, if you could only picture the scene.” [laughs] I’m like, “I’ll text you right now! I’m in the middle of something!”
What is your process for creating your onstage looks?
You know what? A lot of Amazon. And I do my own bustiers, because it’s hard to order something already made, and then it doesn’t fit. When I’m onstage, you gotta feel secure… If I order a jacket that has the cow [print] sleeves, then I like to redo it [to look more like Selena’s signature jackets]. I’m always trying to respect [her iconic looks], because she was a designer.
Totally. And the hats, the hoop earrings, the red lips.
Yeah. I’m also a J.Lo fan, and she always has the hoops. When I saw the movie [1997’s Selena], oh, my God. I fell in love. That’s when I learned a lot of facts about Selena, everybody learned about her. And I remember that the movie theater was packed for like three weeks… That’s when we learned about Jennifer Lopez, too. She did an amazing job.
Why do you think Selena has had such staying power?
I like that she was a very genuine artist. She became a role model in the Tejano and the Hispanic/Latino culture… I tell this to my kids: Only when you embrace what you really are will you be successful. If you really like who you are, and you portray it with respect and pride, people are going to respect you and love you. You gotta connect to your roots [like Selena did with her Mexican and American identities]. And you gotta be proud.
