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Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez still looms large in our cultural memory, especially if you follow the influx of Latin pop music on the Billboard charts to their roots. For someone like Grammy-nominated Kali Uchis, who grew up between Colombia and Virginia, Selena was a bonafide legend. “Selena has always been one of my icons who I looked up to as a kid,” Uchis, 25, says following her performance at Selena for Sanctuary, a Selena-inspired fundraising concert series for immigrant rights advocacy that took place at Central Park’s SummerStage this past weekend. “She paved the way for all multicultural kids from the United States who can make music in both English and Spanish. She taught us to always be proud of our roots and where our families have migrated from, and to always have compassion.”
The concert, which also featured artists Helado Negro and Cuco, was organized by activist Doris Muñoz and immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York (there was also a merch collaboration with streetwear brand Kids of Immigrants). Uchis took these political underpinnings even further with her stage attire. In collaboration with the Britain-born, New York-based artist and designer Patrick Church, Uchis performed in a custom Selena-inspired set that featured Church’s signature hand-painted figurative drawings, along with Uchis’s own political messaging: no cages, no human being is illegal, no prisons, and no borders. “I also had them project ‘Fuck ICE’ behind me on the screen, which I had considered for the outfit but decided it would be more impactful behind me,” Uchis says.
Although the messaging might be timely, Church grounded the shape of the garment itself in the past. After bouncing back and forth between some old photographs of Selena, he and Uchis agreed on one particular outfit from the ’90s that found the Tejano entrepreneur in a high-waisted pair of white pants and a matching beaded bra. “To combine my admiration for Kali with a powerful icon like Selena was very moving,” says Church, whose husband is Hispanic and has fond memories of seeing Selena perform live at a country fair as a young boy.
In the end though, despite the heavy influence Selena wielded on the silhouette, the duo created something only Uchis could pull off today. “We wanted to elevate the look by adding ostrich feathers and rhinestones to make it feel that extra bit special, says Church. Adds Uchis: “I’m so proud and honored to have been a part of something so special.”