Selena’s Song Inspires New Nicole Simpson Campaign : NEXT L.A.: A look at issues, people and ideas helping to shape the emerging metropolis.

The sister of Nicole Brown Simpson had never heard of Selena when the popular tejano singer was shot to death six months ago in Texas.

But when Tanya Brown’s boyfriend played one of Selena’s ballads, the haunting words inspired her to link the deaths of her sister and the singer in a new campaign against spousal abuse in Spanish-speaking families.

Selena’s song “hit me hard,” said Brown, and the thousands of fans who showed up at memorials for the singer encouraged her to try to reach Latinos with the Nicole Brown Simpson Foundation’s message against domestic abuse.

Brown--accompanied by boyfriend Ricardo Fernandez Sierra--traveled to Telemundo’s Miami studios twice to speak on newsmagazine shows about Nicole Brown Simpson’s alleged abuse during her marriage to O.J. Simpson, whose trial on murder charges is nearing a close.

In Los Angeles County, the Chicana Service Action Center is one of the few domestic violence centers that specializes in helping Spanish-speaking women. The center, which runs two shelters, receives 1,200 phone calls a month--an increase of 30% in two years, said Sophia Esparza, its director.

“And 98% of those calls came from Spanish-speaking women,” she said.

The Nicole Brown Simpson Foundation, formed eight months ago, is now targeting areas like Los Angeles with large Spanish-speaking populations.

“We know we’re not going to abolish it or stop it,” Brown said. “When Nicole’s diary came out about her being abused, we as a family didn’t even realize all this existed about violence and spousal beatings.”

As a group, Latinas contend with cultural pressures, making it difficult for them to leave their families, which tend to isolate those in abusive relationships, said Jan Tyler, a program director for Human Options, an emergency shelter in south Orange County.

The foundation can’t stop domestic violence against Latinas, Brown said, but “we’re trying to make a difference. . . . All we want to do is open up just one person’s eyes.”

To reach the foundation and hear a message in Spanish, call (714) 499-9919.