See How Selena y Los Dinos Members Have Transformed from Their Band Days

A.B. Quintanilla on bass

When they were bandmates, A.B. co-wrote many of Selena’s most popular songs, like “Amor Prohibido” (“Forbidden Love”) and “Como La Flor” (“Like the Flower”). He also collaborated with his sister as a producer.

A.B. helped finish Selena’s posthumous album Dreaming of You, which was released five months after her death, and it was on the Billboard 200 chart for 49 weeks.

In the years following her death, A.B. formed two of his own bands: the Kumbia Kings in 1998 and Kumbia All Starz in 2006. The bands earned recognition from the Latin Grammy Awards, Billboard Latin Music Awards and the American Music Awards.

Today, A.B. continues to perform and produce music. In 2022, he debuted an album of Selena’s previously unreleased work, titled Moonchild Mixes, which was nominated for a Billboard Latin Music Award the following year.

A.B. has been married five times and has eight children: six sons and two daughters. He’s currently married to Argentinian model Angela Quintanilla.

A.B. was a producer on Selena y Los Dinos, and reflected on Instagram about how much the film means to him personally. “This documentary had me laughing,crying, and smiling watching never before seen footage of us from our humble beginnings,” he wrote.

Suzette Quintanilla on drums

After Selena’s death, Suzette chose to step away from music and to join her parents at Q-Productions, the family’s entertainment company, which manages Tejano musical acts. Today, she also works at keeping her younger sister’s legacy alive.

In fact, Suzette was one of the driving forces behind Selena y Los Dinos, which was made using her own videos that she recorded both at home and on the road with the latest artist.

“There’s some things that you just want to hold on to and not share with everyone,” she said at the film’s Sundance Film Festival debut, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I was always taking the pictures, always with the camera. And look how crazy it is, that I’m sharing it with all of you so many years later.”

In addition, Suzette was involved in the 1997 mononymous movie Selena and the 2020 Netflix series Selena: The Series. When Suzette isn’t behind a camera, she oversees the Selena Museum in Texas, which features the singer’s clothes, car and awards.

“When you walk in through that door, you feel [Selena], you get a sense of who she was, as a person, as an artist,” Suzette told Entertainment Tonight in March 2017. “It feels personable, just like she was. When you walk in here, you can feel her in here.”

In 1993, Suzette married Bill Arriaga and the couple welcomed their son, Jovan, five years later. She is also a grandmother to Jovan’s son, Lincoln.

Chris Pérez on guitar

Pérez gravitated toward music from a young age, having grown up playing different instruments. Although he was a fan of heavy metal bands, Pérez began working in the Tejano scene as a guitarist, eventually auditioning for Selena y Los Dinos, according to the Los Angeles.

During his time with the band, Selena and Pérez eloped in April 1992, with them later getting her dad’s blessing.

“Selena and I decided that the only way to be together…was to run away and get married (at 20 and 22 years old) in secret,” he wrote on what would have been their 25th wedding anniversary. “What a rollercoaster ride that day was.”

The couple were married for nearly three years before her tragic murder. Over the past three decades, Pérez has been active in keeping the singer’s legacy alive, including writing a 2013 memoir their relationship, To Selena, With Love.

At the Sundance premiere of Selena y Los Dinos, Pérez reflected on the pair’s relationship. “How can you not be inspired [by her] as a musician? As a person? Being that we were so close, I think that was a big part of why we evolved into what we did,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

While Los Dinos went their separate ways after Selena’s sudden death, Pérez is still close to Suzette, A.B. and Ojeda. Notably, Pérez and A.B. have collaborated on several music projects over the years, like Kumbia Kings and Kumbia All Starz.

Meanwhile, Pérez and Ojeda are longtime members of The Chris Pérez Band. Two years after founding the group with other musicians, they won a Grammy for their album Resurrection.

Still, they haven’t forgotten what originally brought them together. “This ‘Dinos’ bond rounds deep…30+ years and counting,” Pérez captioned Facebook photos of him with Ojeda in the studio.

In 2001, Pérez married Venessa Villanueva, and they had two children, Cassie and Noah. The couple divorced in 2008.

Joe Ojeda on keyboard

Ojeda came to Los Dinos as part of a package deal: he and singer/musician Pete Astudillo were in a band called The Bad Boyz when Quintanilla approached them first to open for Selena y Los Dinos, and later to join his family’s band in 1988.

The two remained part of the group until Selena’s 1995 death, not only playing instruments but also co-writing songs.

“It was such an honor to be onstage with Selena. I’m very grateful and fortunate,” he told Billboard in June 2021. “It’s a huge inspiration that I take with me. Being one of Los Dinos taught me a lot and how to go about my own music career.”

Ojeda continued, “I know she would be so proud of me and my No. 1 fan. … I feel that she’s always supporting me.”

After the group disbanded, Ojeda worked as a musician, songwriter and producer for acts like Veronica Castro and Jennifer y Los Jetz.

He collaborated also with Astudillo on his solo work, co-writing the No. 1 single “Como Te Extraño,” which also had A.B.’s mark.

In addition to co-founding The Chris Pérez Band, Ojeda has released his own music, like the 2021 song “Dueña de tu Cama.”

“I always carry music in my heart and what inspires me is my family, my two daughters, my wife, and my good friends,” he told Billboard. “I’ve always been a fan of cumbia. It’s a contagious rhythm that you can fuse with different elements so that a new sound is born.”

Pete Astudillo on vocals and guitar

A multi-instrumentalist, Astudillo sang backup vocals and played guitar in Los Dinos. He dueted with Selena on one of the band’s notable ballads, “Amame, Quiereme.”

He and Ojeda were inexperienced, but had a lot of raw talent, when Quintanilla approached them.

“First of all, it was super intimidating to me because I had no experience before,” Astudillo told Tejano Nation in February 2024. “I did what I did with Joe (Ojeda) and the Bad Boyz, but I had never been in a studio before.”

He continued, “So, everything that I learned … Selena y Los Dinos was my college, my high school, my junior high, my everything, because it was like a crash course.”

Since Selena’s death, Astudillo has gone on to have a successful solo career of his own. In fact, Quintanilla was managing his solo work while the singer was still alive.

“I’ve been given so much more than I could have ever asked for. Just to be a part of, as an opening band (for Selena y Los Dinos) would have been sufficient for me,” he shared. “And then to be part of Los Dinos. And then, to co-write music with A.B. (Quintanilla) with her (Selena) with Ricky Vela.”