Telemundo celebrated the premiere of its 90-episode musical biopic “Jenni Rivera: Mariposa de Barrio” with a private cast screening last week in Los Angeles.
Among the audience: Tucson native Angélica Celaya, the star of the series that explores the late ranchero/banda singer’s life from childhood to her 2012 death in a plane crash outside Monterrey, Mexico.
And Celaya’s special guest? Her mother Lupita, to whom the Pueblo High School alum — class of 2000 — dedicated the role.
The show, which also stars Samadhi Zendejas as a young Rivera, airs weeknights at 7 . on Telemundo. It is expected to continue through early December, leading up to the fifth anniversary of Rivera’s death on Dec. 9.
Celaya, who attended the University of Arizona for three years after high school before leaving to pursue an acting career in Telemundo telenovelas, had initially planned to bring her mother from Tucson to Miami, Florida. That’s where the show was filmed and where they had planned to hold the screening party, but the location was switched to Los Angeles, where Celaya has lived for the past several years.
Rivera’s family members also were in the audience of the June 27 screening at the Grammy Museum’s Clive Davis Theater, including her sister Rosie and brother Juan. In an interview with the Star, Celaya said the Rivera family’s support and openness allowed her to get to know Rivera on an intimate level that went beyond the script.
