Derramando comes from the verb derramar, which means "to spill". It's a much more poetic and dramatic way to describe crying than the common verb llorar (to cry).
In the song, Selena sings "tantas lágrimas que estoy derramando" (so many tears that I am shedding). This creates a powerful image of her tears uncontrollably spilling out, showing the depth of her sadness over a lost love and a fading photo. It's a beautiful word for expressing overwhelming emotion.
This song is all about holding on to a past love through a single photograph. Selena describes a nightly ritual: "Tengo una foto de ti / Que beso cada noche antes de dormir" [I have a picture of you / that I kiss every night before sleeping]. But this isn't just a sweet memory. The photo is physically wearing out from her sadness. She says it's "media rota ya se está borrando / Por tantas lágrimas que estoy derramando" [half torn and already fading / from so many tears I'm shedding]. The very thing she's holding onto is being destroyed by her grief.
Even though it's painful, the photo also brings back happy moments. It reminds her of the exact moment they met at a party and the "tĂmido beso que te di" [shy kiss I gave you]. In the end, though, she keeps coming back to the hard truth. The good times are over, and all that's left of the love are these "Fotos y recuerdos" [Pictures and memories].
Selena Quintanilla-PĂ©rez grew up in Lake Jackson, Texas, fronting her family's band, Selena y Los Dinos, with her brother A.B. writing the songs and playing bass and her sister Suzette on drums. She was raised speaking English, and her father drilled the Spanish lyrics into her phonetically, line by line, years before she was fluent in the language she sold millions of records in.
Tejano was a men's business when she took it over: she won the Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year nine years running from 1987, and Selena Live! took the 1994 Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album. "Como la Flor", from 1992's Entre a Mi Mundo, is the song attached to her name more than any other, and Amor Prohibido (1994) put four singles at number one on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart, among them "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" and "No Me Queda Más". She was shot and killed in Corpus Christi on March 31, 1995, aged 23, by the former president of her fan club. Dreaming of You, the English-language crossover album she had been recording, was released that August and entered the Billboard 200 at number one.