BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) – A mother of eight children, who teaches at SUNY Broome, owns her own business, sells real estate, all while battling a deadly disease, is somehow finding the time to go back to school for her doctorate.
Ellie Rivera is the youngest of nine sisters, with Puerto Rican roots, hailing from the Bronx. She is the Senior Staff Assistant at the Entrepreneurial Assistance Center in the Koffman Incubator, helping small businesses get their start.
She says when she moved to the area ten years ago, being a person of color made it that much harder.
“Because when you’re rompiendo barreras, when you’re breaking barriers, it’s pretty lonely. And we’re lonely in a community, where being of color, being a BIPOC person, you’re the minority of the minority. And it makes it that much more difficult, but then it makes it that much more necessary,” said Rivera.
Gladys Brangman teaches an entrepreneurship class with Rivera and says Ellie approaches everything in life with 110% effort.
“I have never had a colleague like Ellie. She always starts out with ‘how are you doing’? She brings love to every single situation. She brings humor. She brings knowledge. But you always know when you’re working with Ellie, when you’re talking with Ellie, that she cares,” said Brangman.
Rivera battles with lupus, an autoimmune disease, and 75% of those diagnosed are Latina, Black or Asian.
Rivera wanted to start a family, but was told she couldn’t have kids. But she didn’t take no for an answer. She’s adopted eight kids, the most recent was one of her former students at Broome. All of them come from different backgrounds, and Rivera raises them to celebrate their heritage, but also warns that not everyone will.
“We still have to smile sometimes for that paycheck. Sometimes you’ve got to pick your battles right. Not everything has to be a race war, not everything you have to throw out the race card but, this is what we are living every day. I don’t just wake up one day and say you know what, I’m not going to be Latina today,” said Rivera.
Rivera says she is African, Spaniard, and Taino, the indigenous people of the Caribbean.
“We are the forgotten indigenous, because we were erased by a census. They took us off the census one year, and then people started believing that there are no more Tainos. Well, we’re still here. We exist,” said Rivera.
She already has two master’s degrees, one in science and fine arts, but just added another thing to her plate, getting her doctorate from Marymount University.
Because, as Rivera put it, you should never stop achieving.
News 34 will air a half hour Hispanic Heritage special on WBGH NBC-5 on Friday October 11 at 7 p.m. and again on WIVT News 34 on Sunday October 13 at 1.
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