Byline: Soraya Nadia McDonald

For at least one day every year, Selena-ness is next to godliness.

That's because March 31 marks the anniversary of the death of Selena Quintanilla-PA[c]rez, the Latin pop star and Queen of Tejano, who was murdered by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, 20 years ago.

Across Texas Tuesday, fans remembered Selena with talent shows, concerts, movies, look-alike contests, even memes that feed Selena's iconography and keep it alive. There's so much of it that University of Texas professor Deborah Paredez published "Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory" in 2009, hoping to understand what made Selena and her music so meaningful to so many, especially after her death at age 23. "Selenidad" refers to the cultish following that enveloped her.

Earlier this year, Selena's hometown of Corpus Christi announced plans for the first annual Fiesta de la Flor, a music festival held in her honor that kicks off April 17. In 2005, the tenth anniversary of her death, more than 70,000 people filled Houston's Reliant Stadium to see "Selena VIVE!," a concert which included performances from Gloria Estefan, Paulina Rubio, the Kumbia Kings -- the band led by Selena's brother A.B. Quintanilla -- and Los Dinos, the band Selena fronted. According to Univision, it was the highest-rated Spanish-language television special ever. There are smaller, unaffiliated celebrations such as the Gone But Not Forgotten Selena tribute, a celebration Saturday in Dallas's Oak Cliff neighborhood. And of course, there's the 1997 biopic starring Jennifer Lopez...