She was taken in by the local community of drag queens, who gave her the name Sylvia. Īs a result, Rivera began living on the streets in 1962, just shy of her 11th birthday and was forced to work as a child prostitute. Rivera was then raised by her Venezuelan grandmother, who disapproved of Rivera's effeminate behavior, particularly after Rivera began to wear makeup in fourth grade. She was abandoned by her birth father José Rivera early in life and became an orphan after her mother died by suicide when Rivera was three years old. Rivera was born and raised in New York City and lived most of her life in or near the city she was born to a Puerto Rican father and a Venezuelan mother.
