Long Beach City College\u2019s performing arts center is officially being named after Long Beach legend and LBCC alumna Jenni Rivera.<\/p>\n
Last week LBCC\u2019s Board of Trustees unanimously voted to name the new facility the Jenni Rivera Performing Arts Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis naming recognizes not just an extraordinary performer, but a daughter of Long Beach whose voice and spirit transcended borders,\u201d said Uduak-Joe Ntuk, president of LBCC\u2019s board of trustees in a press statement<\/a>. \u201cJenni Rivera inspired millions through her music, resilience, and advocacy. We are proud that future generations of artists will learn and create in a space that bears her name.\u201d<\/p>\n Jenni Rivera Enterprises will donate $2 million over the next 10 years to the LBCC Foundation, with the bulk of the funds going toward scholarships and education programs, the Long Beach Post reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOur family is deeply honored that Long Beach City College has chosen to memorialize Jenni in this extraordinary way,\u201d said Jacqie Rivera, Rivera\u2019s daughter and CEO of Jenni Rivera Enterprises, in a press release. \u201cLong Beach shaped who Jenni was \u2014 as an artist, a mother, and a woman \u2014 committed to her community. Knowing that young performers will grow, train, and find their creative voice in a center that carries her name is profoundly meaningful to us.\u201d <\/p>\n The performing arts center, which is scheduled to open in spring 2026, is the second honor the \u201cInolvidable\u201d singer has received from LBCC. Earlier this year, Rivera was inducted into the LBCC Hall of Fame<\/a> alongside actor\/activist Jennifer Kumiyama and attorney Norm Rasmussen.<\/p>\n Rivera was born and raised in Long Beach, attending Long Beach Poly High School in the 1980s, where she got pregnant as a sophomore. She later graduated from Reid Continuation High School as class valedictorian. She went on to attend LBCC before transferring to Cal State Long Beach to get a bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration.<\/p>\n She immediately put that degree to use as a real estate agent, while simultaneously working at her father\u2019s recording studio and record label. <\/p>\n Her father, Pedro Rivera, was a noted singer of corridos. In the 1980s he launched the record label Cintas Acuario. It began as a swap-meet booth and grew into an influential and taste-making independent outfit, fueling the careers of artists such as Ch\u00e1lino Sanchez. Jenni Rivera\u2019s four brothers were associated with the music industry; her brother Lupillo, in particular, is a huge star in his own right.<\/p>\n She released her first album, \u201cSomos Rivera,\u201d in 1992, launching a prolific career that was tragically cut short when Rivera and six others were killed in a plane crash in Mexico<\/a> on Dec. 9, 2012. <\/p>\n The self-proclaimed \u201cDiva de la Banda\u201d was a self-made star with a veritable rags-to-riches story. She was a true trailblazer, a U.S.-born woman who took up plenty of space in the male-dominated world of m\u00fasica mexicana.<\/p>\n