While Selena Quintanilla grew up in a Mexican-American family and became popular primarily through singing music in Spanish, she didn't speak the language growing up. Instead, English was her first language. As it happens, she actually learned to sing in Spanish long before she learned to speak the language fluently. Quintanilla was determined to master it, though, and eventually began to give interviews in Spanish, as noted by CNN.

Quintanilla's husband, Chris Perez, revealed in his memoir, "To Selena, With Love" (via CNN's "In America"), that Quintanilla "rose to the challenge, as she always did" in order to learn her ancestral tongue. According to Perez, she wanted to be truly accepted by her Mexican fans and was afraid they "might dismiss her" if her Spanish wasn't perfect. In the beginning, she "mangled her conversations in Spanish ... but not for long," Perez wrote. "She said, 'It'll be cool. You watch. I'm going to learn Spanish and surprise everybody.'"