Rivas has won several awards including the Princess Grace Foundation Grant and has composed fifteen musicals and hundreds of songs.
Rivas composed for Sesame Street for singers including Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan and Cyndi Lauper, and sharing two Emmy award wins with the music team in 1994 and 1995.
In 1997, along with Luis Santeiro, he received the Richard Rodgers Development Award for the piece Barrio Babies, which was produced by the Denver Center Theatrical Company.
Rivas also composed a musical, Selena, Forever, with author Eddie Gallardo, based on the tragic life of the renowned Tejano singer, which premiered in San Antonio in 2000.
[3] Rivas appeared in federal court on November 21 to dispute the charges of making and distributing child pornography, despite initially admitting to taking the pictures and emailing them to two other men when he was first taken into custody.