📍Castle Hill, The Bronx, New York, NY 10462, USA
1969 – 1988“Jennifer Lopez was born in the Bronx in July 1969 and grew up in a two-storey house in Castle Hill, a working-class, largely Puerto Rican neighbourhood on a peninsula in the south-east Bronx, near the end of the 6 train. Her parents, David and Guadalupe, had both come from Puerto Rico; her father worked nights as a computer technician for an insurance company, and her mother taught kindergarten and sold Tupperware. She was the middle of three sisters, and the girls shared a bedroom. Home was strict, Catholic and full of music. Her mother encouraged the girls to put on shows for the family, singing and dancing in the living room to salsa, merengue, Motown and hip-hop. Jennifer began dance and singing lessons at five, and she was inspired by watching Rita Moreno in West Side Story. She went to Holy Family School for eight years and then to Preston High School, an all-girls Catholic school, where she ran track, played tennis and performed in school shows. The Bronx, its block parties and its ambition, became a lifelong part of her identity. After school she worked in a law office and briefly attended college, but she wanted to dance. At eighteen, after an argument with her mother about her plans, she left home and slept on the couch at a Manhattan dance studio while taking every audition she could. In 1991 she became a Fly Girl dancer on In Living Color, and she went on to become a film star and pop icon. Her 2002 hit Jenny from the Block celebrated the Castle Hill neighbourhood where she grew up.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today