LOS ANGELES — 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 decadelong 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 grandfather.” Their decision to air the family’s laundry in court, the lawyer wrote, “will exist forever as a stain on the legacy of Jenni and the Rivera family.”

Tales of families battling over the estates of dead celebrities are common in Hollywood. Think Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown. But the Rivera clash stands apart because it’s playing out within a family — and a culture — that has held blood relations as sacred.

Fans who saw themselves in Rivera’s story of struggle and sacrifice have attacked her children on social media as “mezquinos y sin corazon” — petty and heartless — and “egoístas,” selfish.

“They knew they were going to be called all kinds of names,” said Laura Lucio, Rivera’s longtime friend and producer. “This is the Latino community, where grandpas and grandmas are respected and whatever they say goes.”

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