Jenni Rivera Quotes

We never told on each other. That was an unspoken rule.

I waited so long to see if you'd change. And you didn't even look at me.

Whatever you do, Mija, do your best. Be different from everyone. Stand out.

In my family they always called me "unbreakable", and I never wanted to shatter this image of myself. On the outside I kept my head up and maintained my tough girl image. However inside I was dying.

I vowed that I would never tell anyone of my shame. They say that when you kept a secret, it eats you up inside, but I felt it was better that way. I wanted to appear strong in front of my children and my family. I didn't want anybody to know. And I would maintain my persona as Jenni, the Rivera Rebel who had never lost a fight. But deep down inside I knew I had lost a piece of myself that I would never recover. My soul had been shattered, but to the outside world I did just as I had been taught since I was a little girl; I kept my head up and continued forward. It is, after all, the Rivera way.

You can always trust me. I will never judge you.

I wasn't going out easy. I was the gangsta bitch frrom Long Beach. The Rivera Rebel who never lost a fight.

If he hits me, I'm going to hit him back.

Whenever I took a step forward, it seemed as though life was pushing me five steps back.

With or without my man, I was going to make them proud to have me as a mother. And I was going to make my parents proud, once again, to have me as a daughter.

The key to success in life is getting up early.

I ain't scared of you, you little bitch! I'll fuck you up!

My mother never let on that anything was wrong. She kept her chin up and acted as if everything were just fine. So we did too.

There was not just one American dream, in a nation of immigrants, there are countless versions of the dream; the Mexican American dream, the African American dream, the Cuban American dream, etc. I've always thught that was such a beautiful lesson and I've carried it with me throughout my life.

That night I couldn't sleep. I sat there in the darkness, all alone, shattered inside. I didn't feel like the same Jenni anymore. Ever since I was a little girl, I was a fighter. I could go toe-to-toe with any of the boys from the neighborhood. But my will had been taken away. I was no longerthe tough, brave, invincible girl my father and brothers had raised. I had lost my first fight.

I like to watch Peter when he doesn’t know I’m looking. I like to admire the straight line of his jaw, the curve of his cheekbone. There’s an openness to his face, an innocence--a certain kind of niceness. It’s the niceness that touches my heart the most. It’s Friday night at Gabe Rivera’s house after the lacrosse game. Our school won, so everyone is in very fine spirits, Peter most of all, because he scored the winning shot. He’s across the room playing poker with some of the guys from his team; he is sitting with his chair tipped back, his back against the wall. His hair is still wet from showering after the game. I’m on the couch with my friends Lucas Krapf and Pammy Subkoff, and they’re flipping through the latest issue of Teen Vogue, debating whether or not Pammy should get bangs. “What do you think, Lara Jean?” Pammy asks, running her fingers through her carrot-colored hair. Pammy is a new friend--I’ve gotten to know her because she dates Peter’s good friend Darrell. She has a face like a doll, round as a cake pan, and freckles dust her face and shoulders like sprinkles. “Um, I think bangs are a very big commitment and not to be decided on a whim. Depending on how fast your hair grows, you could be growing them out for a year or more. But if you’re serious, I think you should wait till fall, because it’ll be summer before you know it, and bangs in the summer can be sort of sticky and sweaty and annoying…” My eyes drift back to Peter, and he looks up and sees me looking at him, and raises his eyebrows questioningly. I just smile and shake my head. “So don’t get bangs?” My phone buzzes in my purse. It’s Peter. Do you want to go? No. Then why were you staring at me? Because I felt like it.

Unos de los dilemas de perseguir el sueño americano es que uno sacrifica la posibilidad de alguna vez volver a ver a los amigos y familiares que se quedaron atrás.

Me encontré rodeada de gringas que se preocupaban más por su apariencia que por ser chingonas.

Tiene demasiados huevos como para hacer algo normal en esta vida.

-Fuck that, nana. si él va a pegarme, me lo voy a chingar yo también -le dige.

me dio un beso dulce, suave y sincero. A veces eso es todo lo que necesitas de un hombre: algo sencillo de comer y un oído para escuchar todas las babosadas que traes en la cabeza.

The people in the industry tried to make me change. If you want to make it in this genre, they said, you have to do this or that. A lot of women had to do sexual favors to get played on the radio. Fuck that. I wouldn’t do it. I wanted to make it based on my talent or not at all.

I was not a girl who picked fights. I was a nerd, a straight-A student. I usually got along with everyone, but if a boy touched my butt, it was on. I would turn right around and sock him in the mouth and then get him down on the ground and start punching. Nobody was going to touch my ass and get away with it.