Communication and journalism professor Josh Kun was interviewed on KPCC’s Take Two about the late Mexican-American artist Jenni Rivera.
Rivera, a hugely successful artist in the Mexican Banda scene, was killed in a plane crash in a remote area of Mexico on Sunday.
She was known for being one of the first female artists to break into the male-dominated Mexican music scene, essentially changing the “macho image” of the male artist, often referred to as La diva de la banda.
“She’s one of the most important, both commercial and cultural, figures in, certainly, Southern California popular music of the 1990s and into the 21st century,” said Kun, also the director of the Popular Music Project at USC Annenberg's Norman Lear Center. “Somebody who’s had massive successes at mainstream levels.”
Rivera’s personal life, however, brought more struggle than success.
She was a single mother of 5 children, giving birth to her first child at 15 years old. She and her children also endured domestic abuse from several of Rivera’s husbands.
“I think that what, in part, endeared her so much, especially to her female fans, not only throughout Southern California, but throughout the U.S., was her lack of fear in speaking frankly about the abuses that women suffer, but not ever wanting to settle in to a victimized role,” Kun said.
Rivera was also known for being smart about the business and media branding side of her career. Last week, it was announced that Rivera would be starring in a new ABC sitcom based on her life as a single mother.
“I think this is testament, not only to her business skills and her storytelling skills, but also the extent to which she had become a kind of emblem of the Mexicanization of American popular culture,” Kun said.
