Bonus #9 Who has the right? Kathleen Paxtor

This is really a profound question because of the multiple perspectives that can come from this. Personally, I believe that if a story is being told with a non-malicious intent and stems from wanting to spread awareness then it is fine. By writing about such heavy subject and getting different perspectives of it really helps understand the event. The biggest example I could think of was the Holocaust. For years people have been getting monetary gain from retelling stories based off of their experience or what they thought what happened. The positive aspect of someone telling their own personal account is that the information is probably more accurate because the lived it; but on the other hand, emotions and feelings can get in the way of telling the ‘true’ story. One take on telling a story that isn’t yours is to do it for educational purposes. For example, The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the biggest sellers and has a museum to remember her life. Personally, I believe that this is okay because people are trying to spread awareness of the Holocaust through the accounts of Anne herself. She might have not given consent to publish her life but by others doing so the Holocaust is a subject that a lot of people know about and can sympathize with. Now if someone were using Anne’s life and changing up certain things to make it more tragic to sell more then there would be a problem.

One big story that has recently popped up in the Latino community is the story of Selena. Selena Quintanilla is a huge Mexican American icon, for years people have sold product based on her life. MAC cosmetic company has made a cosmetic line using Selena to sell their products. Because she is so popular the products sold out immediately, but who gave MAC the consent to use Selena as an advertisement? After Selena’s death her family has really milked her fame and turned it into their own financial gain. There have been movies and documentaries of what happened in her life but no one can truly know what happened except Selena. Selena’s ex-boyfriend, Chris Perez, has on many accounts denounced the movie and has refused to watch the movie for almost 20 years. Apart from the movie, Selena’s murderer has also shown up in the spotlight making accusations against Selena and telling “her side of the story”. A very famous Latina news reporter, Maria Celeste, wrote a book about Selena’s life making her seem like a horrible person and writing things that could be considered false, negative accusations. Maria Celeste was recounting the story of Selena’s murderer not of the actual facts because she wasn’t there—she isn’t Selena. In this perspective Maria Celeste wanted to tell the story of Selena because she knew it would sell; her intent was financial gain. She had already signed a contract to make her book into a TV show (which was negatively received because of people’s outrage with her perspective on Selena’s life). Unfortunately, in a society where tragedy is such a big seller we the audience must come to our own terms of when something is okay and when something is not.