Her Name Was Dolores

by Pete Salgado

  To top it off, Esteban was a calm, stable, agreeable guy who shied away from confrontations, someone who represented what Jen had come to believe she needed in her life. Yes, she was attracted to him, but in all honesty, neither Gabo nor I believe she was ever head over heels in love with him. We’d seen her experience an all-consuming and profound love with Fernando, and this was very different. To her, Esteban represented the ideal husband and father to her children, a man who could provide warmth and stability, someone who didn’t need her money because he had his own, a decent guy and good father figure. She knew she’d made extremely bad choices in her previous relationships, and she wanted to get it right this time. It wasn’t really about being in love. It was about evolving to a more mature chapter in her life for the sake of her children and her parents, who hoped to see her settle down with a good guy for a change.

  Jen thought Esteban was the right choice, but it wasn’t a choice that necessarily filled her with joy. It was more about what she was supposed to do, kind of pitting la Gran Señora against the Diva. La Gran Señora was responsible, she made sound decisions, and chose stability over love. La Diva was passionate, she let her heart guide her, and love would conquer all in her world. In this case, La Gran Señora was winning, at least for now.

  A month after meeting, they made their relationship public. I always thought it was a bit rushed, but Jen seemed so in love with the idea of this perfect man that she didn’t want to wait it out. She just went ahead and took the plunge. As they found their footing as a couple in 2009, unexpected tragedy hit Jenni’s family: death came knocking on the door.

  Jenni Rivera’s Ex-Husband Dies

  Even though their divorce hadn’t been pretty, once the dust settled, Jen made sure to maintain a good relationship with Juan Lopez for the sake of their kids, and that meant not only communicating with him, but also taking them to visit him in prison after his sentence. In 2009, Juan had been serving year two of his ten-year prison sentence when he was suddenly afflicted with pneumonia. As soon as Jen heard about his condition, she moved mountains to get him transferred to a hospital to receive proper treatment. However, by the time he arrived at the hospital, he had begun suffering complications due to the infection, and his health quickly deteriorated. It wasn’t looking good for Juan, so Jen made sure to take her kids to the hospital to see him and be with him, and she even sat by his side, singing to him on what was quickly becoming his deathbed. Jen was tough but she had a heart of gold. She didn’t forget, but she was big on forgiveness, especially if you owned up to your mistakes, because she knew that she wasn’t perfect either. That’s why she was able to remain by Juan’s bedside wholeheartedly in this time of need.

  Those first two weeks in July were agonizing. Jen wanted to keep the faith, but she could see Juan was only getting worse, until finally, on July 14, 2009, she got the dreaded call. We were in a white hummer limousine coming back from Delano, California, where a high school arts department had just been named in Jen’s honor. I was there with her together with Esteban and her kids. It was a celebratory day that suddenly took a tragic turn. María, Juan’s sister, was on the other line when Jen answered her phone. As Jen listened to María, her expression changed instantly. She looked at me, then she quickly glanced at her kids, and I knew something was wrong. “Okay, I’ll call you as soon as I get home. We’re almost home, we’re almost home,” Jen said, right before hanging up. “It’s Juan,” she whispered to me, and I got it. Then, she gathered herself and observed her children, as they continued celebrating the day and laughing, knowing that what she had to tell them would change their lives forever. Juan Lopez had passed away. Jenicka and Johnny no longer had a father on this earth.

  The Big Engagement and Its Pitfalls

  As Jen helped her children mourn Juan Lopez’s sudden passing, her relationship with Esteban continued to flourish. By January 2010, a year after they met, they were engaged. Esteban had carefully planned this moment so that he could pop the question in front of the people Jen loved the most on this planet: her children. They had all gone out to dinner that night together, and as they sat around the table, satisfied by the delicious meal and about ready to dig into their dessert, Esteban took a deep breath and launched into his big speech. He looked around at everyone and said that he wanted to be a part of their family. The children glanced excitedly at their mom, who, oblivious to what was about to go down, kept chowing down on her dessert. Then suddenly, Esteban turned to Jen and said, “Baby, if I were to ask you to marry me, would you say yes?” And she replied, “Yeah,” without taking her eyes off the plate, still unaware that he was going for it right then and there. Her children stood up and started clapping, he fell on one knee, and she suddenly dropped her fork and turned toward him, finally getting the picture of what he was trying to do. Tears began streaming down her face as she saw the box in his hands, but she was so caught off guard, she didn’t give him an immediate answer. Realizing she still hadn’t uttered a word, her kids said, “Mother, say yes!” and she snapped back to reality and blurted out, “I said yes,” and they all burst into celebration. When she later recounted this story to María Celeste on the show Al Rojo Vivo, she poignantly said, “I didn’t know what to say,” and then followed it with, “Well, I wasn’t going to say no.” Jen was shocked, moved, she’d never seen a ring like that, she’d never been proposed to before, but ultimately it was clear that her “Yes” was more for her kids than for herself.

  Esteban had managed to sweep her off her feet, and they were married within two years of meeting, but the relationship was not without its premarital glitches. After the engagement came their first big crisis as well as red flags that we should’ve paid closer attention to, but we didn’t because he really seemed like the whole package. Jen and those of us closest to her honestly thought he had his shit together, but much to our dismay, we’d soon be proved wrong.

  As they jumped into wedding planning mode, Jen was taken aback when Esteban’s mother asked her to sign a prenup. It bothered her somewhat because she was a self-made woman, took great pride in her work and making her own way in this world, and was far from money hungry, but she went with the flow and agreed. One day, as they reviewed different drafts of the prenup at her house, Jen was utterly shocked and dismayed by what she discovered.

  “Hey, this draft says you have a daughter in San Diego. Why didn’t you ever mention that to me?” asked Jen, baffled, hoping it was some sort of mistake, unable to wrap her head around not knowing such an important fact about the man she was about to marry.

  “It’s not like she’s in my life. It was just a fling I had early in my career. I send her money, but it’s not like she’s my daughter,” he said nonchalantly.

  Jen’s heart dropped to the floor. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was one thing to find out he had a daughter through a prenup, but his quick dismissal of her existence was completely outrageous and unacceptable. She looked at him in disbelief and called me and her friend Elena, asking that we come over ASAP. Tears were spilling out of her eyes when I arrived. She hugged me and sobbed bitterly. Once Elena arrived, she took us to where Esteban was sitting and, pointing toward us, glared at him and yelled, “Tell them, you piece of shit!” My first reaction when I heard her say that, the first thought that crossed my mind, was, If he laid a hand on her, Imma gonna screw him over. Dumbfounded by her reaction, he quietly explained that he had fathered a child early in his career and never told her or us about his daughter.

  “How can I marry the man that I have spent my entire career criticizing and defending women from? It goes against everything I stand for! I can’t marry him!” Jen wailed.

  Esteban did everything in his power to make his actions sound logical, but to no avail. They broke up then and there. It seemed like that would be the end of their relationship for good, but it wasn’t. A short time later, they met at Elena’s birthday party and spent the entire night talking it all out, so much so that Jen missed a morning interview s
he had scheduled with Raul Molina from the show El Gordo y la Flaca. As the sun rose, and a new day came to light, they had managed to reconcile.

  The wedding was officially back on, but Jen still wasn’t completely sold on marrying him. Gabo recalls a particular incident that made her sentiment crystal clear. They were at a hotel in Chihuahua, Mexico, after one of Jen’s performances. Gabo’s room was right next to theirs and, as Gabo was getting ready for bed, Jen’s sudden loud and angry voice caught his attention. She was arguing with Esteban. “But why did you do that? Why did you make me look bad? Why?!?”, she shouted furiously. She continued going at him, stronger by the minute, the argument escalating to a full-blown fight until she finally exploded, “And you know what? Grab your checkbook because I’m not going to spend a dime on the wedding! I don’t want to get married. Do you hear me? I don’t want to get married! My children are the ones who are excited about this wedding, not me! So grab your checkbook because I don’t want to pay for any of it. If you’re so crazy about getting married, then you pay for it! I don’t want to get married! If I do, it’s just to give my children a father, but not because I want a husband, got it?” Gabo was shocked at what he overheard. He knew Jen wasn’t madly in love with Esteban, as did I, but he hadn’t heard her express herself so adamantly about it before. Suffice to say they eventually made up and the wedding was still on, but it was a far cry from an honest and joyful engagement.

  Nevertheless, Esteban and Jen went on to have their nationally televised fairy tale wedding on September 8, 2010, without a hitch. What no one knew was that earlier that day, while flying on the chopper that was transporting her to the venue, in a moment of clarity and panic, she picked up her cell phone and dialed Fernando’s number.

  “Guess what?” she said when he picked up. “I’m getting married!”

  Fernando didn’t believe her, he laughed it off, thinking she was just bullshitting him as always, so she said it again.

  “I’m on my way to get married.”

  It was Jen’s one small cry for help to the man she was still emotionally attached to, the one she felt was her soul mate, someone she would never forget, even though she knew she couldn’t be with him. But nothing came of that call. He honestly thought it was a joke, so he did nothing, which he regrets to this day. He wishes he would’ve believed her. If he had, he would’ve totally tried to talk her out of it, but that’s not what happened. As she hung up and put her cell phone away, Jen dismissed any doubts from her mind, gathered herself, stepped out of the chopper, and headed to her so-called “happily ever after.”

  The wedding was perfect, she seemed like she was glowing with joy, and every one of us believed she was finally getting the happy ending she so yearned for and deserved, completely unaware of the debacle she would have to face only two years later. However, before her husband’s charade crumbled before her eyes, another drama was about to unravel, this time involving her son, Mikey.

  Jenni Rivera’s Son Arrested for Having Sex with a Minor!

  As was common in Jen’s bittersweet life, every happy moment, each celebration, was somehow always followed by a dramatic turn of events. When Jen and Esteban got married, everyone was allowed to bring a guest to the wedding. Mikey chose to invite a longtime friend from Corona, who in turn asked him if it was cool if he also brought his aunt and cousin. When Mikey checked in with Jen to see if that was okay, she said, “Sure, no problem,” so they were all set. At the wedding Mikey and his friend’s cousin hit it off, they talked for a while, and finally decided to exchange numbers and stay in touch.

  The wedding came and went and everyone went back to their own lives, except for Mikey and this girl, who continued texting, talking, and making plans to hang out again. They finally set a date, and Mikey drove over to Corona to see her. They spent a while together, messed around, and had consensual sex. Then, days turned into weeks, and this casual hookup began to fizzle, so Mikey turned his attention elsewhere. Upset, the girl ran to her mom to tell her what had happened, and they came up with a plan. First, the girl’s mother had her take a DIY rape kit so they could accuse him of rape. Then, the mom contacted Mikey directly and began threatening him. Here’s the clincher: the girl was around sixteen years old, and Mikey had just turned nineteen, so technically, even though they were still both teenagers, he was past his eighteenth birthday and now considered an adult. So the mom had the perfect ammunition. She not only threatened to press charges for raping her daughter, but also for having sex with a minor.

  Scared shitless by the sudden accusations, Mikey turned to his sister, Chiquis, for help. Chiquis quickly stepped up to the plate and tried to talk some sense into the mom, who finally showed her true colors: she said she wouldn’t file any charges if Jenni paid them $300,000 and helped her daughter with her musical career. Now, stuck between a rock and a hard place and unable to respond to such a request, Chiquis had no choice but to get Jenni involved. After filling her in, Jen called Mikey into her office and blurted out, “What the hell did you do?” If Mikey had really done something wrong, Jen was ready to let his ass rot in jail.

  “You tell me what happened, and don’t you dare lie to me, you hear me?!”

  “No, Mom, it wasn’t like that at all,” said Mikey, terrified, and he went on to explain it all play by play and showed her the text messages to back up his story.

  I had been sitting in the office all along, as Jen and I had been in the middle of a business meeting when the shit hit the fan. As I watched Mikey tell his side of the story to Jen, Chiquis walked back into the office, cell phone in hand, and tells Jen the girl’s mother called back and was on the line. Mama Bear Jen grabbed that phone and took control of the situation in one fell swoop.

  “Hi, how are you? This is Jenni Rivera, Mikey’s mom. So, what’s going on?” Jen listened patiently, then replied, “If anything has happened to your daughter, I will make sure that she gets all the help and treatment that she needs. If she was taken advantage of by my son, I will make sure to help her. But there’s no way you can put a price on your daughter’s mental well-being. Asking me for this money sounds a lot like blackmail to me. If you think you’re going to get a dollar out of me this way, then I think you’re better off filing charges and we’ll have our day in court.”

  As time went by, we figured the problem had gone away, until one morning Mikey was arrested in Corona. Anthony Lopez, Jen’s lawyer, and I went to bail him out, while the media, which was already swarming the place, had a field day plastering his photo across their platforms, and comparing him to his father, since he too had had sex with minors. It got real ugly real fast, and the whole thing shook the family to the core. Jen knew her son wasn’t innocent—he did have sex with this girl—but he was far from the monster the media was making him out to be. She was once again devastated.

  Ultimately having faith helped Jen through this event. She prayed, she cried, she gathered the strength she needed to prevail, and she went to court with her head held high, and Mikey by her side, prepared to go to war for her kid, but with great faith that justice would be served. In the end, the truth conquered all. Even though it was finally agreed that the sex was consensual and not rape, he was technically still an adult in the eye of the court and she was a minor, so the case could not be dismissed, but they managed to strike a deal. Mikey was put on probation with no jail time, but there was absolutely no financial gain by the other party, and Jen once again had defended her family and herself victoriously.

  It was hard for Jen to understand why people acted with such malice in their hearts, going to such lengths to take advantage of her because she never saw herself as the big celebrity she had become. She always remained grounded, and that was part of her beautiful essence. It was part of her magic as a human being. The trial helped her open her eyes to her kids’ reality. She suddenly realized they had been living a very sheltered life, and it was time to teach them some responsibility. So, aside from being on probation, she got Mikey a job as a dishwasher at a seaf
ood restaurant. It was time for a reality check, and she wasn’t afraid to give it to him. After the dishwashing stint, she had him working as a valet parking attendant. That was Jenni all the way, learning from life’s lessons and doing all she could to make sure her children grew up understanding the value of a dollar, something she thought Esteban knew, but man was she still in for a big surprise.

  A Dwindling Marriage

  Jen took marriage very seriously. As rebellious as she was in many aspects of her life, she was also quite the traditional lady. She would never intentionally mess with a married man, and as a married woman she knew she wouldn’t break that marital vow. But goodness was she ever conflicted. On one hand, she thought that this was what she needed, someone stable for her and the kids. She saw how happy we all were for her, rooting for that fairy-tale marriage she so deserved, so she carried on. It was for the best, or so she thought, something she was supposed to do; however, her heart and soul were dying a slow and tedious death. The man lacked passion, ambition, drive, and that was quietly killing Jen inside, but she continued to play the part of the good wife.

  Hoping to spark that go-getter she fooled herself into believing Esteban had in him, Jen came to me many times asking me to find him some work, be it a baseball clinic, working with city youth, anything to keep him active. Jen thrived on the hustle and when she married Esteban, she thought he was a hustler like her, but it turned out he was a total homebody. He liked waking up late, while Jen had always been an early-morning riser. To Jen late was 6:00 a.m., so waking up at 11:00 a.m. was just unacceptable. These little things started to add up and get under her skin.