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From 'La Chacalosa' to 'Mariposa de Barrio,' Jenni Rivera's songs live on 12 years after her death

Andrea Flores, Los Angeles Times on

Published in Entertainment News

LOS ANGELES — Jenni Rivera was grand, and her legacy shows it.

With more than 20 albums under her belt, the self-described “Diva de la Banda” relentlessly reigned as queen supreme of the música Mexicana genre, a historically male-dominated space.

After her tragic death in an airplane crash in 2012, Rivera was revered as a feminist symbol by those who knew her personally.

“Jenni spoke for a segment of the community that doesn’t often get heard — single mothers who work hard every single day, who care for their husbands and families and others but don’t get to complain,” Flavio Morales, former senior vice president of programming production for Mun2, said in 2012. Now rebranded as NBC Universo, Mun2 was the home of “I Love Jenni,” the reality TV show that focused on her family.

The Long Beach-born and bred singer often used her personal life and relationships to fuel her artistry. She was married three times and was a mother to five children. Rivera also spoke openly about her experience with domestic abuse, a snippet she included in her 2007 “Mi Vida Loca” album.

“She represented an entire community: me, my family, my friends and a whole generation of Mexican Americans who are making up the new America,” Morales said.

 

On June 28, Rivera will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Fellow Mexican singer Gloria Trevi will speak at the event, and her five children — who are embroiled in a bitter fight with their grandfather, aunt and an uncle over her estate — will accept the star on Rivera’s behalf.

Below is a look at some of her greatest hits.

“La Chacalosa” (1994)

Before there were corridos tumbados, there was “La Chacalosa.” In the song, Rivera gave the perspective of a female drug boss who indulges in an illicit lifestyle. Rivera dove fearlessly into the narcocorrido subgenre at a time when such lyrics were highly vilified by the public. Two years before the release of “La Chacalosa,” Chalino Sanchez, who recorded music under the Rivera family label Cintas Acuario and is often regarded as the father of narcocorridos, was murdered in Sonora, Mexico. The song’s title also became one of Rivera’s many monikers.

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