White woman singing Selena Quintanilla songs sparks debate on cultural appropriation

A Dallas woman's cover of a Selena song sparked debate on social media earlier this week about cultural appropriation.

Suzanna Choffel posted a video of herself on Facebook singing Selena's hit "Fotos y Recuerdos" as a preview of her performance Thursday for a 'Selena Day' celebration in Dallas. 

"Fotos y Recuerdos" is Selena's cover of The Pretenders' 1983 hit "Back on the Chain Gang," written by Chrissie Hynde, with Spanish-language lyrics by Ricky Vela.

"Yes I know I’m a white girl. But hey, I grew up in Texas where Selena is queen and I used to write down what I heard her sing phonetically in order to sing it back," her post states. "She basically taught me Spanish or motivated me to learn it. And my goodness that voice — there is nobody like her!"

The post quickly went viral and some fans accused Choffel of cultural appropriation while others praised her take on the Queen of Tejano's hits. 

One Facebook user wrote "Culture Appropriation! A “Tejano Fest” without any Latin singers."

Another wrote, "#CulturalAppropiation at its finest."

According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary the definition of cultural appropriation is "the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture".

"It does not matter what race you are to love Latino culture ..." another Facebook user wrote. "This is a great, open minded way to love Selena and keep her memory alive."

Twenty-three years after her death, Selena's popularity continues to grow and her legacy lives on through her music. 

Abraham Quintanilla, Selena's father, told the Caller-Times he watched the video of Choffel singing and said she's doing a great job.

"There's nothing wrong with what she's doing," Quintanilla said. "If you go to YouTube you can watch so many people, a lot who don't speak any Spanish, singing Selena songs. There's nothing wrong with that."