JLo Credits a Special Person for Making Her ‘Tough’ Enough to ‘Survive’ The Entertainment Business

From a young age, Jennifer Lopez developed a strong sense of discipline. The actress and singer talked about how her relationship with her mother, Guadalupe Rodriguez, helped her "survive" a career in the entertainment industry in a cover story with Rolling Stone from 2022. "Listen, my mom was also a fun mom. My mom was also the mom who got me into musicals and introduced me to all kinds of music. I am an entertainer because of my mom," the star, 54, told the outlet.

"But I'm also able to survive the things I've survived in this business because my mom was tough. I don't think she could realize what she was preparing me for, but she did." 

Lopez said that despite her accomplishments, growing up the way she did in a modest Bronx home with no prior business experience has occasionally made her feel like an "underdog." The singer reveals that she always felt "like I was scraping from the bottom. Always."

The actress explained that as a Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx, she "always felt like I wasn't the one that was supposed to be in the room." The Jenny from the Block singer said, "That's part of being Puerto Rican and from the Bronx and a woman." She added, "You know what I mean? All of that stuff. Not being born into a family with money. Not knowing anybody in the business. I just went out there and said, 'F— it. I'm going to just try. I'm going to try to get in here.'"

Mamá Lupe is 74 years old and artistic, and she has influenced JLo in more ways than one, as per PEOPLE. "I get my dance moves from her. My mom is really the person who instilled the love of music in me and all of my sisters," Lopez shared. As the mother-daughter duo starred in a Coach holiday campaign together in 2020, Lopez opened up about her beautiful relationship with Guadalupe. "Everything I do with my mom is really fun, even though she drives me crazy like all our moms drive us crazy."

Rodriguez was a kindergarten teacher when JLo was growing up, and she pushed Lopez to dream big and become as big as she is today. "She wanted us to be independent. She never wanted us to ever have to depend on a man for anything because that's what she was taught when she grew up," the Marry Me actress said.

When Lopez was growing up, Rodriguez was really young. "She was a young mom, she got married when she was 20. She had my sister when she was 21. She had all of us by the time she was 26 so we all grew up together. It was like living with a teenager, to be honest," Lopez revealed.

References:

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/jennifer-lopez-marry-me-interview-cover-1294974/

https://peopleenespanol.com/chica/jennifer-lopez-mom-guadalupe-rodriguez/