Chita Rivera (born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero on January 23, 1933 in Washington, D.C.) is a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical actress dancer, and singer best known for her musical theater roles. Rivera who is of Puerto Rican heritage, is the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award. Early years She was born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero in Washington, D.C. to a Puerto Rican father who played clarinet and saxophone for the Navy band and a mother of Scottish and Italian descent. Rivera was seven-years-old when her mother became a widow and went to work for The Pentagon. In 1944, Rivera's mother enrolled her in the Jones-Hayward School of Ballet. Later, when she was 15, a teacher from George Balanchine's School of American Ballet visited their studio and Rivera was one of two students picked to audition in New York City; she was accompanied to the audition by Doris Jones, one of the people who

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