User:Rene Rivera 300

René Rivera as born and raised in East Harlem in Early 1972. He is the grandnephew of of Catherine "Catolina" Sanches, who owned a small bodega on East 104th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues. To date, an image of Catherine can be viewed on the side of a residential tenement building on the corner of 104th Street and Lexington Avenue.

After graduating from College in his late twenties, René enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve, where he served for a period of six years. During that time, René served over two years of active duty, which included six months in Iraq in support of Operation: Iraqi Freedom. René currently resides within the same square mile in which he was born in Upper Manhattan. He is currently working on a script for a film that will be shot in East Harlem by 2010.