Rivas' family later moved from Escondido, California to Watsonville, California where he attended Watsonville High School. Spurred and marked by the events of the Watsonville Canning Strike, the Gomez v City of Watsonville Supreme Court voting rights decision, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, he deferred college for several years to remain involved as a community organizer and voting rights activist. He later enrolled at Cabrillo College, where theatre classes prompted him to get involved with theatre in general. In 1993, after having interned with El Teatro Campesino for nearly two seasons, Rivas along with three other classmates (Manuel Montez, Leonard Maestas and Renee Sola) founded Chicano TheatreWorks, a company created in response to the passage of California Proposition 187.