Jennifer Lynn Lopez was reared in the Bronx’s Castle Hill district after being born there on July 24, 1969. David López and Guadalupe Rodrguez, her parents, were both born in Puerto Rico but were raised on the mainland of the United States.

After serving in the army, David worked for Guardian Insurance Company as a computer technician. For the first 10 years of Lopez’s childhood, Guadalupe cared for him at home before going on to work as a Tupperware salesperson and a kindergarten and gym teacher.  After 33 years of marriage, they were divorced in the 1990s.

What ethnicity is Jennifer Lopez?

Lopez is of Puerto Rican descent.

What race is Jennifer Lopez?

The Bronx, a borough of New York City, is where Jennifer Lopez was born and raised.

The traditional Puerto Rican home had “plenty of music,” and Lopez and her sisters were encouraged to perform plays they had written for family gatherings. The young Lopez was particularly affected by West Side Story, and she knew she wanted to be an artist from a young age.

She started taking ballet classes at Ballet Hispánico on the Upper West Side when she was five years old. She worked as a part-time secretary at a law company after high school and spent one-semester studying business at Baruch College in New York.