Her Name Was Dolores Read online

  And her genuineness was reflected even better on stage. She was an amazing communicator, and that’s what made her music so compelling and moving. She internalized each and every lyric so that when she sang about heartbreak or sorrow, she usually had someone specific in mind. She channeled her emotions through those lyrics, and that’s what drove her performances, bringing forth those powerful deliveries of each song that moved the depths of our souls. And that’s why some of Jenni’s biggest hits weren’t originals. For example, when she recorded “Ya lo sé,” it had already been released as a banda song by another group, so Jenni turned it into a ranchera and she owned it. After a while, even mariachis thought it was a Jenni original, which only goes to show the extent of her powerful interpretations. She made each story come to life and sound like it was one of her own experiences.

  Jen was an incredible communicator and performer, and she was primed and ready to take on bigger stages. It was time. She had already played the Ford Theater in L.A., but her dreams and aspirations went way beyond that stage: she wanted to reach the Gibson Theater, the place to play in L.A., but she wasn’t quite there yet. I believed in her, and I needed Que Buena, the leading authority in Los Angeles radio for Mexican Regional music, to believe in her too and give her the support she deserved and needed to make her dreams a reality. I reached out to a friend who put me in touch with Eddie León, one of Que Buena’s main programming directors. I had an in, so now I had to convince them to give Jenni a shot. Her brother Lupillo had recently criticized the station publicly over a business arrangement he had with them, but I was ready to prove to them that Jenni would be well worth their time and support. I knew she was on the cusp of becoming huge and was hoping they would get on board the Jenni train and help us see this through.

  We finally got a meeting with the station directors, and I brought Jen because I wanted them to hear from her directly. Program director Pepe Garza, who became a big part of her life and career, had been hesitant to give her his full support, never imagining that the woman he knew as Lupillo Rivera’s sister would turn the tables on everyone and jump to unthinkable heights of stardom. But he finally agreed to give her a shot, not before warning her, “Jenni, I can make you famous, but I can’t unfamous you once my work is done. So what you do with that is really going to be up to you.” If she managed it well, he said it could be a priceless investment in her career and life. She never forgot those words and he never forgot her. From that day forward, he became her mentor, one of the few people she’d turn to for honest feedback. She’d take her albums before they were released and play him every song, taking notes of his critique and suggestions. And he did so gladly, seeing that she was putting her heart and soul into her music and her career, quickly realizing that she was going to make it regardless of the obstacles she had to overcome to get there.

  Great, Que Buena was finally fully supporting Jenni, but they knew she didn’t have the draw to make it to the Gibson Theater just yet, so they suggested we aim for the Kodak Theater first. It was slightly more manageable with 3,500 seats and appropriate for where Jen was at in her career, while still being a prestigious venue. Being the ambitious woman that she was, Jenni wasn’t too sure about this midway deal, but then they said the magic words: “You will be the first Mexican Regional artist to hold a concert there.” Done. If Jen knew she was going to be the first at something, that was it, she was in, the deal was a go.

  The Kodak Theater was a relatively new venue, the Oscars were held there, but it wasn’t exactly Latino-friendly; however, Jen had faith that we would make it work. So we set the date, October 14, 2005. Regardless of how many times Jen had been knocked down, she was always filled with faith. She was a very spiritual woman and always had hope and faith accompanying her every step of the way. That meant all the way to her performances too. She never touched a stage without a prayer, and at every show, be it a bar or a stadium, she always took a moment of silence to visualize the stage and what she was about to do, kind of like a quarterback right before heading out to the field for a big game. She always had butterflies, she always was worried and wondered if they were going to like her, so this moment of prayer and visualization helped her focus and put her in the right frame of mind to go out and give it her all. And that’s exactly what she did on that night at the Kodak Theater before hitting that stage and performing to a sold-out crowd.

  Yeah, we did it, our first sold-out concert at the Kodak Theater! We were all on cloud nine. She had done smaller outdoor amphitheaters, but never anything like this. This was a full-on production with stage props and lighting, the whole nine yards, and she was involved in every single detail of the show: from the choreography, to how she would walk on and off stage, to the hard and soft lighting. And it worked. She owned that concert as if she had been playing those types of venues for years. She owned that stage. We were all so proud! It was like watching our young child graduate from kindergarten. From a management perspective, to have a venue like that in L.A. as a reference helped us book her at other places, and it kicked off the national tours. After seeing her handle that concert, I knew that we were well on our way.

  Years later, I was talking to one of the Kodak Theater’s head of security, and I was asking about some of the craziest moments they’ve experienced at the theater. Not knowing that I had been a part of it, he said, “One year, we had this Mexican lady and, man, all the audience members were women, and they were all drunk, and we not only sold out the show but also all of the liquor. I’ve never seen so many women drink as much as that woman’s fans!” I smiled because I knew exactly what he was referring to: Jen had not only been the first Mexican Regional act to perform at the Kodak Theater, to a sold-out crowd no less, but her concert also still holds the record for the most alcohol sold during a performance. That October 2005 night was such a fantastic milestone: it was the beginning of a career of sold-out concerts at prestigious venues and her launch to stardom. As if that night wasn’t enough, that same month her album Parrandera, rebelde y atrevida debuted at number 20 in the Billboard Latin Album charts, grabbing the number 10 spot only a week later. Jen was on a roll with her music career, she was in love, and after all the heartache and hard times things were finally looking up. Maybe 2005 was God’s way of giving her a break and letting her build the strength and happiness she would need to fall back on the following year, a year that would be filled with trials and tribulations. Who knows? All we knew back then was that we were at an all-time high and the time to conquer Mexico had finally arrived.

  Chapter 5

  La Gran Señora Conquers México

  If making it in the United States had been difficult for Jenni, Mexico would prove to be an even steeper uphill battle, but she was ready to reach the top, and she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Her sights were set on Mexico, her parents’ homeland, a place rooted in traditions she had learned to know and love while growing up in Long Beach. And now she wanted to represent the perfectly imperfect woman in this macho world that demanded women to reach unrealistic standards of perfection. In the United States, she was slowly becoming the female ambassador of telling it like it is and keeping it real, and she was adamant about bringing her music and message to the ever elusive Mexican audience, one that was hard to win over as a Mexican-American artist from across the border, but Jen was willing, able, and ready to make this happen.

  Gabriel Vázquez, her road manager, had connections in Mexico, so he started knocking on some doors to see what he could come up with; however, he was met with reluctance and skepticism. It was like starting from scratch all over again. Lupillo Rivera already had made a name for himself in Mexico, so Jen was once again only being seen as Lupillo’s sister, regardless of all the headway she’d made in the United States. That counted for nothing in Mexico. Nevertheless, Gabo was persistent, and he was finally able to book a few dates in Nogales, Sonora, a city bordering Arizona where Jen’s music had already managed to cross over, so they were eager to have her play there. That’
s when it hit Gabo—he could combine gigs in Arizona with this one in Nogales to make the most of this trip, and he could do the same with other towns along the border. That was their “in,” that was how they would slowly make their way into Mexico, by literally crossing over and playing on both sides of the border.

  The gigs in Mexico were small ones at first, which meant the budget didn’t allow Jen to bring her own band, but Gabo was ready with a plan. He could book a local band to learn her music and play her gigs, but she’d have to arrive a day early to rehearse, which meant one less day at home. However, she knew that was the price she had to pay, so she was game. Her focus was on Mexico, and nothing was going to stop Jen from befriending this audience, no matter how tough it got. Like the time she was set to play one of her first small gigs in Tijuana, and hardly anyone showed up.

  Gabo had booked her at a venue called El Rodeo and had managed to have a local radio station sponsor the gig, but when the doors opened, the venue remained practically empty. Only a few loyal fans circled the room, but that was about it. Regardless, as was Jenni’s style, she left her heart and soul on that stage, because even if there was only a handful of people, she wanted to show them how grateful she was for their loyalty and their presence, and she wanted to make sure they had a good time. Like in the United States, it was all about keeping her followers happy so they would help spread the word and bring more friends to her next appearance. Gabo felt embarrassed with the radio station for the poor turnout, but this only made Jen and him want to work harder; it was a challenge they were ready to take on, but in order to come out on top, they needed more fans to follow suit. At the end of the night, Gabo turned to Jenni and said, “You’ll see, next time we come to Tijuana, it will be a very different story.”

  Gabo knew Jen needed more exposure in Mexico in order to garner more fans, so he decided to get her gigs at free events hosted by radio stations, called macro eventos, which featured big-name bands like La Arrolladora, Valentín Elizalde, El Recodo, and even Lupillo Rivera, who drew larger crowds, averaging ten to fifteen thousand people in one day. The lesser-known bands were booked as their opening acts; however, the later they got to play, the more exposure they would have. Gabo managed to get Jen into three of these macro eventos: Mexicali on a Friday, Ensenada on a Saturday, and Tijuana on a Sunday. Although these were all-day events, it got unbearably hot in those cities during the day, so most locals would wait till sundown to hit these outdoor concerts, also knowing that their favorite bands usually closed the shows. Gabo was familiar with how they thought, so he kept pushing to get Jenni one of these coveted nighttime slots. However, Antonio Zermeño Naranjo, aka El Pony, a local radio personality and also the man who produced these three events, was reluctant to give Jenni a better slot because he wasn’t sure the audience would like to see a relatively unknown artist sandwiched between their favorite bands. He wanted to keep his people happy, but Gabo knew that Jen would be able to win them over. She just needed a chance.

  Finally, that shot came on Sunday in no less than Tijuana. Jen had already played her set earlier that day, but Gabo had asked El Pony if they could stick around backstage just in case a slot opened up. He agreed, but said he couldn’t promise anything. So that evening, as they checked out the other bands and waited around, El Pony approached Gabo and asked him, “Is she ready to go back on stage now?” Turns out one of the acts was running late, so suddenly there was a slot to fill, and it needed to be done in a hurry. Gabo said yes, quickly let Jen know, and in a blink of an eye, she was standing at the bottom of the steps, ready to take the stage. The announcer prepped the audience and asked for a big round of applause for … “La hermana de Lupillo, Jenni Rivera.” Jen darted around and cast Gabo a steely eyed glance and then went on and did her thing. Gabo often says, “Had that look been a loaded gun, I wouldn’t be here to tell the story.” She couldn’t believe she had to deal with that label all over again, Lupillo’s sister, but rather than giving up, it only fueled the fire of her desire to make a name for herself in Mexico once and for all.

  As expected, she owned that stage like nobody’s business. With just the three or four songs she was allotted for this event, Jen not only managed to get her audience’s attention, she was able to hold them captive throughout her set, ultimately winning them over because she mastered the art of communication. Regardless of how big or small the stage or audience was, she always managed to infect them with her authenticity, her magic touch. And El Pony, who was standing next to Gabo watching her in action, immediately picked up on this and said to Gabo, “You’re going to have a great run with her, you’ll see.”

  “Oh, I know,” said Gabo. “One day she’s going to make it real big. One day you’ll see that all of these people will be here to see her and only her on stage.”

  Jen had such a great performance and was so ecstatic, that by the time she left the stage, she’d forgotten all about being announced as Lupillo’s sister. Gabo recalls that day as if it were yesterday because of what an incredible job she had done, and also because it marked the beginning of her slow and steady rise in Mexico. However, there was still a lot of ground to cover to get this plane in the air.

  In order to get more Mexican fans, Jen needed more local airplay, and in order to make this happen, we needed a healthy push from her record label, so we set up a meeting with José Behar, then president and CEO of Univision Music Group. As we sat in his huge corner office admiring the walls filled with plaques of artists who had been our inspiration for years, José walked in, greeted us, and started singing Jenni’s praise for her rising career, but she cut him short and went straight to the point, as always, “José, I need to break into Mexico.” He smiled and explained that it was a difficult market, different from the U.S. industry. So she replied, “If I don’t break into Mexico, I’ll have to become a stripper, and you don’t want your artist to be a stripper, right?” There she went, flaunting that charm that made it so hard to say no to her. Like so many others, José caved. To this day, when I have a cafecito with José, he still says, “That woman just wouldn’t take no for an answer. She would look at you with those child-like eyes, and it was just impossible to say no.” So he promised to back her in Mexico and ask his team to start promoting her there, but that didn’t mean it would be easy. For this whole move to be worthwhile, she would have to go on a promotional tour throughout Mexico, visiting each and every radio station, going on local TV shows, whatever needed to be done to help promote her work in person. José took a chance on Jenni, and we really needed his support and we got it. Now it was her turn to grab this opportunity and turn it into another success.

  By then, we also had Arturo Rivera on our team, who replaced Yanalté Galván once their business relationship had run its course. Based in Mexico, Arturo was the guy in Mexican Regional music who had handled all of the big artists and had all the who’s who connections and media influence to create Jenni’s backstory and make sure she was known for her songs and her message, rather than for being Lupillo’s sister. Breaking into this sexist market wouldn’t be easy, and even less so as a woman trying to break into it through a machismo-laden music genre, but Jen had been dealing with the machismo deeply embedded in our Latino culture her whole life, so she knew how to be sexy and firm, and had the balls to handle it all like a pro.

  Much like rock and roll, the competitiveness in banda music is palpable, and it was even harder for a woman. Everybody was looking at Jenni and thinking, “Yeah, okay, what are you gonna do, get naked to get attention?” And Jen was like, “No, watch me. Watch what I do.” Jen didn’t want any special privileges; she just wanted to be treated like one of the boys. She could drink like them and hold her own in their presence with her wit, charm, and straight-shooting ways, and she knew she could go head-to-head with them in this music genre too, because she had thick skin and a target audience none of them could compete with: women. Her songs, her story, her message was to and for women, an underserved audience who was ready to lap up all s
he had to offer because she wasn’t just a celebrity, she was one of them. That ability to communicate with women on such a personal level had been crucial to her success in the United States and would also prove to be crucial in Mexico because with the women on her side, she’d also inevitably win over all the machista husbands, fathers, boyfriends, and that’s exactly what happened.

  Gabo and Jen set out on their first big promotional tour in Mexico, starting with Tijuana, Baja California, then moving on to Sonora, Sinaloa, Jalisco, Guadalajara, until they finally landed in Mexico City. And this was no joke, they were driving city to city and hitting each and every radio and TV station lined up on their promotional push. They needed to expose the media and public to Jen’s wit and talent, and the only way to do so was to have her show up in person and charm their socks off.

  Meanwhile, back at home, Jen was smack in the middle of her divorce with Juan Lopez and doing all she could to balance her work and family life and be as present as possible for her kids, so she decided to take her youngest child, Johnny, on this promo tour, to keep him close, comfort him, and spend some time with him. Johnny was only around three or four at the time, full of life and restless, like any other child that age, and there were no nannies or babysitters in sight, so it was a challenge for Gabo, to say the least. While Jenni did her promo interviews, Gabo would take on the role of babysitter, but sometimes Johnny would escape his watch and barge into the room interrupting the interview and sometimes even hogging their attention. He wasn’t afraid of the mic or the spotlight, so much so that the hosts sometimes tried to interview him directly, but his Spanish wasn’t good enough to carry a conversation, which didn’t mean he didn’t try. Gabo recalls that the only way Jen could manage to settle him down was by saying, “If you don’t behave, I’m gonna have to go out and buy you a new dad.” And he’d reply, “No, Mom, please, no!” That would quiet him down instantly because he adored his father.