Jessica Alba

by ethnic


Birth Name: Jessica Marie Alba

Birth Place: Pomona California, USA

Date of Birth: April 28, 1981

Ethnicity: Mestizo Mexican, French and Danish

The exotic looking actress was born to a second generation Mexican-American father and a half French and half Danish mother. However she has created quite a stir in the Latino community for making statements about her Latino heritage.

Alba has described her father as very dark and her mother as very fair. According to Alba her grandfather never spoke Spanish at home because he wanted the family to assimilate into the American mainstream. As a result Alba’s father didn’t learn to speak Spanish.

Alba said that she always used to get script breakdowns as a stereotypical Latina girl but she doesn’t speak Spanish and she regards herself as an American girl rather than a Latina.

Source:

http://www.mediatakeout.com/

http://www.independent.co.uk/

Photo by PR Photos

{ 613 comments… read them below or add one }

flower rose January 16, 2012 at 1:42 am

I don“t get why is she so worried about being mexican when she just is!
is sad to see she is narrow minded when it comes to her own ethnicity
nothing wrong with having Mexican roots there are lots of beautiful Mexican girls .. see where you get your looks from, she should be proud .

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zoe January 15, 2012 at 1:19 pm

well she’s native american and white, (people of mixed European and Native heritage or descent. they started to call themselves mestizos when they became dominate in latin america. ) French and Danish.

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sierra January 14, 2012 at 5:54 pm

haha wtf shes all tryna b anerican gurll u look brown af of course your mexicann you aint no americann

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Misaaaaaaa January 14, 2012 at 5:55 pm

You cannot look American. It is simply a nationality, and if she was born here, yes, she is American.

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mee January 14, 2012 at 5:51 pm

it doesnt matter if she says she doesnt consider herself latina .. shes looks more latina than american and thats how many see her plus her name jessica alba sounds spanish too. her last name isnt smith or anderson its alba which is a latin last name so dhe should stop trying to deny some of her latin roots cause it doesnt matter what she says her ethnic aint gonna change

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Misaaaaaaa January 14, 2012 at 5:54 pm

You cannot look American nor Latina.

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DoctorBob January 13, 2012 at 2:32 pm

Good for Jessica! She considers herself FIRST to be an American! That’s how everyone born and raised here should consider themselves. Whatever her racial makeup, she’s gorgeous inside and out, and that’s ALL that matters.

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rose January 13, 2012 at 12:49 pm

she’s Mexican and denies her latino roots. She even looks like a mexican idk whats the big deal… she will NEVER be white

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Reitaa 'Latina' Rodriguez January 17, 2012 at 11:10 am

Well she is white… im latina, she does look mexican but not full. i can definitely see the white. in fact more than mexican. mexicans are usually quite dark, especially compared to Jessica.

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BRAZIL March 14, 2012 at 5:13 am

she is not white

-
she is mixed with native mexican

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Bela March 14, 2012 at 9:46 am

to brazil:

she is over 80% white, how isn’t she white then?

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I love you, Roger Scientist March 14, 2012 at 11:07 am

She is a mestizo. That test probably overestimated her European ancestry and underestimated her Native American heritage. There is no way Jessica is whiter than Larry David, an Ashkenazi Jew.

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Lady Avarice March 20, 2012 at 2:36 pm

Yes not to mention she doesn’t look white.

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Ashley January 25, 2012 at 1:33 pm

I am not a latina, but before she even stated her ethnicities, I would have never guessed she was part Mexican. She doesn’t look it at all to me. She looked more Puerto Rican and Caucasian to me. I’m looking at her features and she has more European features, but I do understand why she identifies more with one side. Me being multiracial myself, it’s our experiences that will allow us to decide which side we feel more comfortable in identifying with.

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BRAZIL March 14, 2012 at 5:14 am

WATCH THE MOVIE HONEY

BOTH OF HER PARENTS WERE HISPANIC

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BRAZIL March 14, 2012 at 5:25 am

WHY DID SHE PLAY AS A

BLACK GIRL IN THE MOVIE HONEY

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lopac March 14, 2012 at 12:30 pm

she wasn’t playing a black gir.l she was playing a latin dumb ass.

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Donnamaria January 8, 2012 at 8:38 pm

SHE DOESNT LOOK LATINO AT ALL, SHE FAVORS THE WHITE SIDE,SHE IS AN ATTRACTIVE GIRL, DONT BE ASHAMED OF YOUR CULTURE,ITS ALL GOOD

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Jimenez January 12, 2012 at 12:06 pm

There’s no single Latino look, Latino is cultural, so how can you say that “she doesn’t look Latino at all” – that’s a meaningless statement. Latinos can be “white” (By which I mean European descent, because there really is no such thing as racially “white”) and Latino and white are not mutually exclusive.

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metusa January 7, 2012 at 4:24 pm

I see jessica alba as a mestiza always have and will even if she dont like been called latina.

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mac11 January 7, 2012 at 10:03 am

What some people dont know is that Mexico stiil has a significant caucasian population. A census and genetic studies where done recently in Mexico and about 15% of the people are caucasian and about 10% where american indian. The rest of the population is mixed or other which could mean biracial or triracial. The genetic studies done showed that in the mixed population the highest african gene contribution in the south was about 10% and in the north the highest was about 2%. The group labeled “other” consists of more full black and maybe asians. I dont have any problem with any people but simply some people are just not black. I do believe all humans have contributed to history whatever color they may be.

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Aztec January 1, 2012 at 9:09 pm

if we take the time to really research the mexican heritage most will actually figure out that the aztec indians spoke Nuhautl, which is a language that very few speak now & that the Spaniards (europeans) brought over with them black slaves when they came to invade South America. So there is a possibility that african american blood could have made it into the mexican blood line. Please take the time to read before commenting. All of our blood lines are Mixed & I believe that is what a lot of us seem to forget sometimes. If born in America, We Are American.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec

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Jimenez January 14, 2012 at 6:50 pm

Genetic research has confirmed that there is an African heritage in Mexicans in general. Not all Mexicans have this ancestry, but many have. It’s not a big part, but it varies a lot. I don’t mean people from Veracruz or anything like that, but regular Mexicans from all over Mexico. The average was around ~4-5%, but that was just an average.

This research is not comparable with the test Alba took, as in this case we’re talking about hundred people or more, and so the statistical validity of the results is far better, and therefore it does show with reasonable confidence that African ancestry in Mexicans is prevalent, but not at a significant level in the individual, except for a small percentage of the cases – unless you consider 4-5% significant.

I couldn’t find the original study, but here’s another one which includes Mexico city. It doesn’t have the nuance of the other study, only averages, so it doesn’t really show the variation in the admixture rates. It does show the average African admixture in the people from Mexico City who were tested:
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1000037

I’m sorry I couldn’t find the study I mentioned above, but a similar one is here – this is not specifically about Mexicans, but their results are included:
http://www.pnas.org/content/107/suppl.2/8954.full

As you can see, it’s undeniable that Mexicans have a little bit of African ancestry, which varies individually. In these studies, the majority of Mexicans have some African ancestry. That doesn’t mean that Alba has it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a little bit (even though it did not show up in the Ancestry By DNA test she took on he Lopez show.)

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