CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. — Things seem normal at Q Productions, a former body shop turned recording facility near the airport of this South Texas coastal city. Big semis loaded with musical equipment churn up dust in the chalky parking lot. Over the roar of the engines, men yell at each other in Spanish. A \o7 tejano \f7 band is in the studio, putting final touches on an album of the accordion-based music that dominates the region.

In the front office, the phone rings constantly. Suzette Quintanilla Arriaga swivels in her chair and opens a filing cabinet drawer behind her. "Look at this," she says, pointing to a pile of brown mailers inside. "And that's only a few days' worth. They're coming from all over, and then a lot of people have been stopping by and leaving tapes. They think we're trying to replace her! It's too weird."

Two things become clear: Things aren't quite normal here and there's no replacing Suzette's sister, Selena Quintanilla Perez.

Since the shooting death of the \o7 tejano \f7 music star on March 31, the big question in South Texas has been: "Why?"

Why did she go to the motel where she met her death? Why was she shot? Why couldn't the doctors save her? Why did she have to die so young? Those questions probably won't be answered until the trial of her accused killer, Yolanda Saldivar, is concluded later this year . . . if then.

Now, fans and newcomers to the Selena phenomenon can ask themselves another question: "How far would she have gone?"

When she was killed, Selena was at work on her first English-language album, which was expected to break her out of the \o7 tejano \f7 market and make her a multicultural household name. With her tragic death having accomplished that, the posthumous album, "Dreaming of You" (see review, F4), which combines four tracks from those English sessions with Spanish material, is being released jointly today by EMI Latin and EMI Records and is eagerly anticipated within the industry.

Would Selena have become the next Gloria Estefan? The next Latin artist, after Jon Secada, to conquer the pop charts? Friends and family think so.

"She would have been up there with the Janets and the Madonnas," EMI Latin President Jose Behar says. "I truly believe this CD will supersede anyone's expectations in retail."