In Jenni Rivera’s rise from Long Beach teen mother to icon of regional Mexican music, family was a constant. She titled her first album Somos Rivera — We are Rivera. It was released in 1992 on a label her parents started in their garage.
Her five children were the center of her life on stage and off. Their antics and affection on the reality show “I Love Jenni,” broadcast on Telemundo’s Mun2 channel, had the vibe of Spanglish-speaking Kardashians. Nearly a dozen years after Rivera perished in a plane crash in Mexico, her tracks about wild nights, strong women and heartbreaking men remain popular.
But the relatives who accompanied her on the journey to superstardom are now waging familial warfare. Her children have accused their grandfather, Pedro, a Latin music legend in his own right, and an aunt and uncle of misappropriating part of their inheritance. They have alleged the trio plotted to siphon off funds from Rivera’s estate, once estimated at $28 million, in a decade-long scheme they say preyed upon their grief and industry inexperience.
“This matter provides a perfect illustration of the significant and lasting impact that money, power, and greed can have on a family,” the children’s attorneys wrote last year in a federal lawsuit against companies controlled by their grandfather. Pedro has denied wrongdoing by him or his children. His attorney blasted the younger generation in a February court filing as having “despicably tossed aside their own grandf.
