We still haven’t recovered from the passing of ‘El príncipe de la canción’ José José and we’re already being hit with more bad news. After much speculation on social media, it has been confirmed that the controversial and iconic singer Paquita La del Barrio was hospitalized this week for pneumonia and pulmonary thrombosis. 

Paquita La del Barrio changed the genre of Bolero music forever with her salty man-hating lyrics and ‘borrachera’ worthy songs.

credit Instagram @paquitaofficialb

In her over 50 years of creating music, ‘La Guerrillera del Bolero’, Paquita la del Barrio has gifted us with endless beautifully shady catchphrases to use on shitty exes; “Rata de dos patas”, “Cucaracha del infierno” and “¿Me estas oyendo inútil?” to name a few. Her man-hating words changed Bolero music for women and will be sung in tequila-induced ‘borracheras’ until the end of time. Paquita’s controversial, and sometimes salty lyrics have earned her a few enemies, to say the least, but the truth is that Paquita La del Barrio shattered glass ceilings in the genre of Ranchero, a world of male-dominated, misogynistic music, just by speaking her mind through music.

The feminist ranchera canceled a show for the first time in her career, due to health complications.

Francisca Viveros Barradas a self-proclaimed warrior against ‘machismo’ culture, canceled a show scheduled for this Saturday in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, due to health complications. Francisco Torres, her manager —also known as Paquito— said in a public statement for the press, that Paquita had complained of ongoing chest pains which eventually landed her at Hospital Angeles Lindavista in Mexico City. “Siempre te imaginas lo peor,” he said. It was later discovered that the pain was caused by a pulmonary embolism and pneumonia. The 72-year-old singer was checked into intensive care for a 24-hour watch.

Torres confirmed that Paquita’s health first raised concerns on October 8,  “She started with discomfort, her blood pressure, she said her chest hurt. That night the situation worsened, she couldn’t stand, she complained about chest pain, and the first thing that came to mind was ‘her heart’. A doctor came,  prescribed medication and administered her a sedative, we thought she’d be better by morning. But she wasn’t.”

The singer’s health is now improving and she’s no longer in ICU.

Credit Instagram @paquitaoficialb

‘Paquito’ went on to describe how the star’s health continued to deteriorate; “The next day she still had chest and back pain,” he said, “we decided to call an ambulance and take her to the emergency room.” Paquita La del Barrio’s manager explained that doctors diagnosed the singer with pulmonary damage due to the varying weather conditions the 72-year-old had been exposed to during her tour of the United States. “We know that weather conditions in the U.S. are more extreme, that was added to her condition, she resisted until her lungs collapsed,” Torres confirmed that Paquita la del Barrio was in ICU on October 10 but is now stable and her health is improving. It seems like the singer is recuperating just fine, but will still need time to heal, which is why she was forced to cancel the concert scheduled for this weekend. 

‘La Guerrillera del Bolero’ has sung against machismo for over forty years, and although she’s received a lot of criticism, her words have resonated with audiences worldwide.

Way ahead of her time, Paquita has fought machismo singing from the stage for more than four decades. At 72, the feminist ranchera has released 33 albums which have been classified by the genre as “duros contra ellos” for her harsh words against men. Amongst her many shade-throwing songs are “Tres veces te engañé”, “Las mujeres mandan”, “Viejo raboverde”, “Hombres malvados” and many more. Her most famous hit “Rata de dos patas”, which has become somewhat of a hymn against men, was the song that sky-rocketed Paquita to fame. After this song went public, she went from singing at bars in the popular Mexico City neighborhood ‘Guerrero’, and moved on to perform on stages internationally.

Paquita’s life has been far from easy, and her story has been turned into a bio-series by Imagen Televisión.

credit Instagram @paquitaoficialb

Paquita is an idol for many Latino women who were touched by her words. But her life wasn’t always so glamorous. The singer’s life has already been immortalized in a bio-series broadcasted by Imagen Televisión. Through the series, we found out that she married a 42-year-old man when she was just fifteen. She had two children with him only to find out that the ‘rata de dos patas’ had been cheating on him all along and had another family in a different town. Her love life has clearly not been as successful as her career —which is true of a lot of women in many different industries. The singer, however, is now an artist consolidated as one of the most famous feminist performers Mexico has ever seen. 

Even after her death, Selena Quintanilla’s music has lived on. The iconic Tex-Mex superstar left a legacy that is still very much alive. Her music is still being played on the radio and streamed online, her face is sold on T-shirts and other merch around the world, her story continues to inspire new TV and Movie projects. And yet, for some reason, the Quintanilla’s Fiesta de la Flor Festival —an annual music event in honor of Selena— isn’t being held at Selena’s hometown Corpus Christi, or at all.

The Quintanilla family announced that the yearly festival honoring Selena’s legacy will no longer be held in Corpus Christi.

credit Instagram @fiestaflorcc

Corpus Christi is synonymous with Selena Quintanilla. The coastal Texas city is where the singer lived and died, it’s also where her family continues to live to this day. In Corpus Christi, Selena fans can visit a museum dedicated entirely to the Queen of Tex-Mex. And for the past five years, the city had also been host to the family held festival, ‘Fiesta de la Flor’. The Quintanillas announced recently, however, that the festival will no longer take place in Corpus Christi. No word yet on where the festival might move to yet.

The news came in a media release from Q Productions.

Credit Instagram @abquintanilla

“Unfortunately, even beautiful journeys must come to an end. In Selena’s beautiful spirit, the Selena Foundation has contributed thousands of dollars to organizations in Corpus Christi for the betterment of the community. The Selena Foundation is committed to continuing Selena’s belief that the impossible is possible.” Much of the rest of the statement was dedicated to thanking a long list of organizations, including the Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau, for their support in the last five years.

No word yet on where the festival may land, if anywhere.

credit Instagram @fiestaflorcc

No further information was disclosed about where the festival might be taking place. Or whether it will happen at all. Why did they pull the plug from the Corpus Christi? Back in August, it was reported that the family had threatened to stop celebrating the festival in Corpus Christi because of money issues. It was speculated that the amount of money the city was generating from the festival was disproportionately larger than what the Selena Foundation was receiving. 

According to Corpus Christi Caller Times, this year, for the first time since the inception of the festival in 2015, Fiesta de la Flor did not bring in a profit. The festival generates an estimated “$10.8 million economic impact for the city every year,” yet the Selena Foundation has made less than $100,000 in the four years of the festival.

Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau CEO quit after being criticized for giving the Quintanillas a larger sum of money than what been agreed before.

credit Twitter @Kris6news

The Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau CEO Paulette Kluge said that the amount was unacceptable. She said that “the city is making millions of dollars.” Because the bureau is now taking $50,000 from the festival to the foundation, that concludes the festival has no profit to report for this year. “Everybody is benefiting except the Selena Foundation, and they said, ‘It is unacceptable, and if we don’t get something for the Selena Foundation, there will not be another Fiesta de la Flor,’ ” Kluge said, according to the Caller Times. “So I agreed to pay them $35,000 last year, which was all of our profits, and $50,000 moving forward.”

Paulette Kluge recently resigned to her post at the bureau after being criticized for changing the contract with the Quintanillas —raising the family’s profits for the upcoming festival by $15,000—  without input from other officials. Kluge had the legal power to rewrite a contract that she was instrumental in creating. But the CVB Board and City Council were not happy with the new terms. Kluge is credited with building a relationship with the Quintanillas which would later lead to the birth of Fiesta de La Flor.

The two-day festival celebrating the queen of Tejano, had been held in Selena’s hometown for 5 years.

credit Instagram @fiestaflorcc

The festival began in 2015 and has brought about $15 million in economic benefit to the city each year. Formerly sponsored by Citgo, the next festival had a new benefactor lined up. Hermann and Hermann, a law firm based out of Corpus Christi with offices in San Antonio and McAllen, signed on to be the 2020 sponsor.

Corpus Christi Caller Times reported that when reached for information, the Quintanilla family and Q Productions declined to comment. Which leaves us with many unresolved questions. There is no website for the foundation. A quick Google search showed a 2016 article in which it says that the foundation was formed to honor Selena’s legacy as well as give scholarships. However, the foundation has faced some tax issues in the past and is not considered a nonprofit.

And even though we don’t know for certain, why the family pulled the festival from Corpus Christi or when we’ll get to celebrate the Latina icon again, we will be looking forward to finding out where Fiesta de La Flor is going to next.