We’re still reeling from the tragic loss of our beloved Jenni Rivera, who died in a plane crash on December 9, 2012. Mainstream news outlets will tell you she was a multiplatinum recording artist who sold millions of records and toured the world. True, and we couldn’t be prouder. But we also know her as the badass mama you saw on Mun2’s “I love Jenni”: strong, brutally honest, and ready to take over the world. That spirit is on full display in her memoir: Unbreakable, which hits the stands today, July 2, which would have been her 44th birthday. In the raw confessional, most of which she wrote by hand months before her death, she discusses her sexual abuse, machista exes, and difficult childhood con lujo de detalle. Below: our exclusive interview with her younger sister Rosie Rivera on what it was like to edit her sister, “Chay’s” words and how they got past unspeakable tragedy. Check out an excerpt of her book here.
Read Related: Latin Billboard Executive Editor Writes Jenni Rivera Bio
How did you preserve her voice?
Jenni left so many things set, in her manuscript she even put chapter titles and what song she wanted. I’m hoping one day we can share the manuscript, but eventually you’ll see she had notes everywhere. She left it almost completely done because she was always writing, it was easy to know how she felt; we included that and put it in her own words. You only had to do a bit of punctuation, but the very end is what I helped complete. I asked myself how do you end her story, its almost like it has no end, Jenni used to say the same thing. Thank God she left everything ready so we just had to put it together and make it pretty.
You knew Jenni had some cojones, but how hard was it to read about the ugliest moments in her life? What was the hardest time for her?
As her little sister and confidant we told each other almost everything. In the book how she described the rape and the aftermath, and that’s how I knew how hard it was. She never let us be depressed, but she was and she didn’t let us see it. But even then I love how she overcame it and found a source to help her daughter and me. It was heartbreaking for her sister and her daughter to go through that.
Read the full article on Cosmo for Latinas.
