The block that Jennifer Lopez grew up on doesn’t seem like the kind of place where stars are born or raised.
Her old neighborhood of Castle Hill is constantly bathed in the hum and the fumes of traffic from the Cross Bronx Expressway. Mom-and-pop stores and bodegas line the main streets, and the residents — many of whom are Hispanic and have known each other for years — still stop to talk to each other on corners.
But when the subject turns to Jennifer Lopez — now a worldwide celebrity, who, according to Forbes, earned $52 million in 2012 alone — the chatter is less than enthusiastic.
In the lead up to the release of her latest album “A.K.A.,” out today, the 44-year-old diva has made a concerted effort to reconnect with The Bronx, from shooting a music video there to holding a giant free concert at Orchard Beach earlier this month — her first ever in her home borough.
“If you want your community to support you, you should show more face. She should have come back much sooner,” says 42-year-old crossing guard Syndi Chaluisan.
Many Castle Hill residents have grown tired of Lopez still using her old nabe as a way to cash in.
“Talk is cheap,” says Joe Djombalic, the 59-year-old proprietor of the Cross Bronx Pizzeria, referring to J.Lo’s ’hood-referencing lyrics. “A lot of people complain — I hear them in here all the time [saying] that she doesn’t do enough for the community.”
Djombalic’s establishment is barely two blocks away from the 2210 Blackrock Ave. house where Lopez grew up. It’s an unremarkable two-story building, now almost completely surrounded by white fences that look they were designed to keep fans out.
Police officer Eddie Falcon, 48, has lived his whole life in Castle Hill and remembers Jenny when she actually lived on the block.
“Jennifer Lopez came to my 13th birthday party,” he tells The Post, as he stands on a Castle Hill street with his 11-year-old daughter, Ariana.
“As a kid, [Lopez] would stand in the corner while everyone else was dancing. She was a wallflower, and you’d never think she would go on to do what she has.”
And while Falcon remembers his childhood friend with obvious warmth, he admits he’s in the minority.
Lopez lived on Blackrock Avenue with her parents and sisters Lynda and Leslie throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Mom Guadalupe was a Tupperware saleswoman while her father, David, was a computer technician.
J.Lo recently told W Magazine that her decision to pursue dancing meant that she and Guadalupe would often argue about her career choices: “I didn’t want to go to college — I wanted to try dance full-time. So she and I had a break.”
That break involved an 18-year-old Lopez briefly crashing on a sofa in her dance studio instead of sleeping at home.
But it paid off. In 1991, Lopez landed a spot as a “Fly Girl” dancer on the comedy sketch show “In Living Color.”
She then moved to Los Angeles and picked up roles in several low-level movies until 1997’s “Anaconda” garnered her a genuine box-office smash. In 1999, she finally expanded her career into pop with her debut single “If You Had My Love.” That same year, her family finally sold the house on Blackrock Avenue.
By the early aughts, J.Lo was at the peak of her fame.
Her music career was in full bloom and she had no trouble landing movie roles. She was dating Ben Affleck, and her extravagant demands were already legendary, including the 2002 occasion when she reportedly insisted her dressing room be decorated with white muslin while performing in England.
But in 2003, she released “Jenny From the Block,” positioning herself as just another Bronx girl — albeit one with an army of stylists, designer dresses and a Hollywood boyfriend.
This attempt at authenticity didn’t sit well with locals, and the sight of her frolicking with Affleck on a boat and in a convertible didn’t help. Instead of helping her to reconnect, it further alienated Lopez from her old neighborhood.
In 2010, Claire LaTempa, the principal at the Holy Family School, which Lopez attended, called out the star for failing to send her old school even a CD. Bronx blogger Ed Garcia Conde also criticized her last year for failing to point out that the so-called Boogie Down Bronx is not the burned-out borough many still think it is, and for playing up the hardships of her upbringing.
Still, not all Castle Hill residents want to stick in the knife.
“She’s a go-getter,” says Irwin Mueses, a dapper 32-year-old screenplay writer, as he sits in a local barber shop. “When you’re up there, you represent the block, even if you’re not on the block all the time.”
Rapper Styles P, who collaborated with Lopez on “Jenny From the Block,” also thinks the criticism is shortsighted.
“We actually need her to go further and further,” he tells The Post. “There are a lot of people from the community — especially young girls — who need to see her up there to show that you can get there. She needs to be the hope and the light.”
During the past few months, Lopez’s has made a concerted effort to make her presence on the block felt.
She shot her video for the track “Same Girl” there late last year, and last month, she spearheaded a healthy-eating drive, complete with a $250,000 donation to the Montefiore Medical Center.
The show at Orchard Beach was also designed with Bronx residents in mind. Locals were given first dibs on tickets, and VIP packages were available, with proceeds going to local causes.
But is it too little, too late?
The show was sponsored by State Farm, reducing the impact on Lopez’s personal coffers. Meanwhile, the soon-to-open Throgs Neck Shopping Center is set to carry one of Lopez’s VivaMovil phone stores, which will enjoy a boost of publicity.
In the end, The Bronx voted with their feet, and the concert turned out to be an anticlimax.
They expected 25,000 fans, but despite the fine weather, less than half that number actually showed.
The show contained numerous nods to her childhood including one ridiculous moment when Lopez and her dancers sat on a staircase as though it were a stoop. Following the inevitable climax of “Jenny From the Block,” giant screens provided a helpful reminder of “A.K.A.’s” release date.
The low-charting first singles from the album indicate that Jenny from the block is about to become Jenny with the flop.