Several hundred fans gathered for the grand opening of Jenni Rivera park in Long Beach Thursday, a fitting tribute to the hometown legend.
Rivera's family members joined Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and several other city leaders on what would have been the singer’s 46th birthday to dedicate the Jenni Rivera Memorial Park, located at 2001 Walnut Ave.
"I know my mother is so happy today, I can feel it," Chiquis Rivera, Rivera’s daughter, said at the ceremony. "This is our city, this is where we grew up."
Friends and family members memorialized 43-year-old Latin Grammy-nominated singer by planting a tree in the park, unveiling a 125-foot-mural painted by her son, and releasing butterflies, which Rivera is often associated with.
Rivera died in December 2012 when a Learjet plane carrying her and four members of her entourage crashed in the mountains of Northern Mexico. All seven people aboard died in the wreck.
She was a beloved singer of banda style music, a genre of regional Mexican-American music that is largely dominated by male performers, was lovingly nicknamed by fans the "Diva de la Banda."
A mother of five children and grandmother of two, Rivera was well-known in California and Mexico not only for her music, but also for her Telemundo reality show, activism against domestic violence, and openness with fans about the challenges she had faced in her life.
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"She was an inspiration worldwide," Congresswoman Janice Hahn said at the ceremony. "Even if your struggles were not identical to Jenni's, you were inspired by her."
