Rosie and I have known each other for about 9 years. Yea, I didn’t realize how long ago that was until I actually wrote it down now. We met back when I lived in Los Angeles and we started the same job within months of each other. We worked as claim adjusters and worked in the same office for a few years before we moved buildings and were relocated to different floors and then we rarely saw each other. We both left the company the same year, again within months from each other.

I remember when Rosie began working at the company she didn’t really want to be known as part of that Rivera family and rarely talked about it. Not because she was ashamed of it, but because she didn’t want to be a part of the artist life they had. She was concentrated on studying Theology to go into the ministry and start preaching. Her older brother who happens to be a pastor, had recently been at my church preaching so I decided to approach her and ask her if that in fact was her brother and chat about his visit to my church. I remember her initial reaction when I asked her if her brother was…I think she assumed I was gonna ask her if Lupillo was her brother. I think she was both surprised and relieved that I asked her for her older brother Pedro and not Lupillo.

During the first couple of years we worked together, her family was in the eye of the storm because the sexual abuse trial was about to start and the case actually took place during the time we worked together. I still remember the day she left early because they would be reading the verdict in court. I texted her and wished her the best and told her I was praying for her and her family.

After we both left the company we worked for, we each went about our lives and lost contact. Her sister then passed away and I texted her with my condolences. That was it. No more contact until I read she’d be coming to Miami as part of her media book tour for her newly released memoir, My Broken Pieces. With me living in Miami now and having a blog in which I could interview her for, I decided to reach out. We were looking forward to seeing each other since it had been 5 years since we last saw each other, even though my interview wasn’t 100% confirmed. It actually wasn’t confirmed until that same morning because I had a prior engagement that conflicted with her interview time slot. I was able to make it after all and she was surprised to see me since I hadn’t confirmed to her I was going to make it after all.

After our interview and chatting with her off the record, I realized that she’s still the same Rosie from when we worked together but with many more responsibilities now. Of course, she’s changed in a sense because of what she has gone through since then, but her essence remains the same. She strives to make her sister proud and also strives to make sure her legacy continues. During these years, there was a question I had wanted to ask her but hadn’t had a chance to do so until now. Watch her interview below and see what her response was to that one specific question I had.

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