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<\/a>Officials from Long Beach City College joined Jenni Rivera\u2019s family in cutting the ribbon for the new Jenni Rivera Performing Arts Center in Long Beach on Thursday, March 26, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n\u201cMy mom\u2019s story has always been one, not of perfection, but of resilience,\u201d said Jacqie Rivera, Jenni Rivera\u2019s daughter. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t born into privilege. She fought tirelessly,\u201d she said, referencing her mother\u2019s journey through school while parenting and working for her father\u2019s record label.<\/p>\n
Jenni Rivera, a Long Beach native who became one of the most decorated Latin music artists before her death in a plane crash in 2012, left behind a local legacy. The city named a park near Chittick Field in her honor in 2015. Last September, LBCC inducted her into its hall of fame<\/a>, announcing months later it would name the performing arts center for Jenni Rivera<\/a>, who studied business at the college and went on to earn a degree from Cal State Long Beach in 1991.<\/p>\n After more than two years of construction, the state-of-the-art performing arts center opened earlier this semester, giving LBCC students access to a new auditorium and theaters, rehearsal and broadcast studios, editing rooms and classroom space. The sprawling complex, with more square footage than a football field, replaces Music Building G and Theatre Arts Building H.<\/p>\n The facility was paid for through Measures E and LB<\/a>, bonds totaling nearly $1.3 billion, which fund construction, renovation and repair at LBCC. Additional funding came from the state of California and the Jenni Rivera estate.<\/p>\n In return for naming the performing arts center, Jenni Rivera Enterprises agreed to donate $2 million to the Long Beach City College Foundation over a decade. More than two-thirds of the gift will go toward scholarships and programs at the performing arts center and across the college, according to the agreement<\/a>. Another quarter of the gift will be used to maintain the new facility.<\/p>\n<\/a>Jacqie Rivera gestures upward while performing at the opening of the Jenni Rivera Performing Arts Center in Long Beach on March 26, 2026. The center is named in honor of her mother. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n