Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born in the Castle Hill
section of the South Bronx on July 24, 1969. The
middle of three musically inclined sisters, Leslie,
a homemaker and Lynda, an entertainment consultant
for New York's Channel 11, Jennifer always dreamed
of being a multi-tasking superstar. Jennifer's
parents Guadalupe Rodriguez and David Lopez were
both born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, the second largest
Puerto Rican city. The two were then brought to the
United States in their childhoods, and eventually
met while living in New York City. While Jennifer is
of Puerto Rican descent her paternal grandmother's
parents were Europeans who settled on the island of
Puerto Rico. As a child Jennifer enjoyed a variety
of musical genres, mainly Afro-Caribbean rhythms
like salsa, merengue and bachata, and mainstream
music like Pop, Hip hop and R&B.
Although she loved music, the film industry also
intrigued her. Her biggest influence was the Rita
Moreno musical West Side Story (1961). At age five,
Jennifer began taking singing and dancing lessons.
Aside from being a budding entertainer, Jennifer was
also a Catholic schoolgirl, attending eight years at
an all-girls catholic high school named Holy Family,
located in the Bronx, before graduating from Preston
High School after a four- year stay. At school,
Jennifer was an amazing athlete and participated in
track and field and tennis. At age eighteen Lopez
moved out of her parent's home. During this time
Lopez worked at a law firm while she took dancing
jobs at night. Her big break came when she was
offered a job as a fly girl on Fox's hit comedy "In
Living Color" (1990). After a two-year stay at "In
Living Color" (1990) where actress Rosie Perez
served as choreographer, Lopez then went on to dance
for famed singer-actress Janet Jackson. Her first
major film was Gregory Nava's My Family (1995) and
her career went into over-drive when she portrayed
slain Tejana singer Selena Quintanilla Perez in
1997's Selena (1997).
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