More than 6,000 fans, friends and family paid tribute Wednesday to Mexican-American diva Jenni Rivera, at a funeral ceremony in Los Angeles for the star who died in a plane crash this month.
A mariachi-style band played next to the red coffin at the ceremony, while the youngest of her five children, 11-year-old Johnny Lopez, fought back tears as he remembered his mother.
“Through those short 11 years, she tried to set the best example she could …It’s a real honor to say that Jenni Rivera, the person that everyone is talking about, is my mom, that she still lives in me,” he said.
Born in Long Beach, California to Mexican parents, Rivera was a star in the northern Mexican music genre known as banda, selling 15 million records and winning Billboard Latin Music awards.
The 43-year-old was among seven people, including two pilots, killed when their small Learjet plane crashed in rugged terrain in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon on December 9.
Dubbed the “Diva de la Banda,” the soulful singer had given a concert in the industrial city of Monterrey and was heading to Toluca, near Mexico City, to participate in a Mexican television singing contest.
Her brother Pedro Rivera Jr led Wednesday’s two-and-a-half hour ceremony, billed as a “celestial graduation,” which opened with a video tribute flashing the words “mujer” (woman), “caracter” (character) and “fuerza” (strength).”
After the public memorial in a concert hall in Universal City, north of Los Angeles, she was buried in a private ceremony in Long Beach, where her family lives.
Fans say farewell in LA to Mexican-US diva Rivera
