Mandy Teefey was 16 when she found out she was pregnant. Ricardo Gomez, the father, had not finished adolescence either. They met at school, in Grand Prairie, Texas, and right there, between desks and prying eyes, a story began that no one thought would be easy for them.
Selena was born on July 22, 1992. There was no graduation party or university waiting. There was a teenage mother with a newborn daughter in her arms and an entire town ready to give its opinion on her life.
“Everyone judged me”, Mandy recalled years later, in 2017, when she could look back without her voice trembling.
The marriage to Ricardo did not last. They divorced in 1997, when Selena was five. Mandy was left to raise her and took on job after job, including commercials and local theater productions, so that nothing would be lacking at home.
Nothing was lacking, even though almost everything was. Selena grew up watching her mother struggle every month, and that silent struggle was the first school for the girl who would later become Alex Russo on television screens around the world.
Years later, Ricardo started another family with Sara Gomez, and Mandy started one of her own with Brian Teefey. Each rebuilt their life separately. But the story that began with people pointing fingers ended up becoming the foundation of everything Selena built afterward.
At 16, they condemned her without knowing her. Time gave her the vindication no one wanted to give her then.
