Eva Mendes
Mendes in 2011, CarlaVanWagoner / Shutterstock.com
Birth Name: Eva de la Caridad Mendez
Place of Birth: Miami, Florida, U.S.
Date of Birth: March 5, 1974
Ethnicity: Cuban [Spanish, some African, possibly other]
Eva Mendes is an American actress, model, and businessperson. Her films include Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror, My Brother the Pig, Urban Legends: Final Cut, Exit Wounds, Training Day, All About the Benjamins, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Out of Time, Stuck on You, Hitch, The Wendell Baker Story, Guilty Hearts, Trust the Man, Ghost Rider, We Own the Night, Live!, Cleaner (2007), The Women, The Spirit (2008), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, The Other Guys, Last Night (2010), Holy Motors, Girl in Progress, The Place Beyond the Pines, and Lost River. She has been an ambassador for Calvin Klein, Cartier, Reebok, Pantene shampoo, Morgan, and Peek & Cloppenburg, has designed for workwear retailer New York & Company, and is creative director of makeup line CIRCA Beauty.
Eva was born in Miami, Florida, to Cuban parents, Eva Perez Suarez, who worked at a movie theatre and an aerospace company, and Juan Carlos Mendes, who ran a meat distribution business. She has said that she has African-Cuban ancestry. She speaks Spanish fluently. Eva was raised mostly by her mother in Los Angeles’s Silver Lake neighborhood.
Eva has two children with her partner, Canadian-born actor, writer, director, musician, and producer Ryan Gosling.
One of Eva’s grandmothers was named Amada.
Mendes in 2008, photo credit: Thierry Caro
Like someone said above, a lot of the Spanish community in Cuba came from the canary islands. The population there was originally more Portuguese than Spanish, so many names there are converted to their Spanish variation. Not to mention that the north of Portugal, where her last name is from, has not always been part of Portugal. At times it was part of Galicia or Asturias; depending on what period in time it was.
To me, she looks like she might have a little Taino indian in her as well as African. But in very small amounts.
She took a DNA test found out she was like 80% European. I always knew it because when i looked at her she looked European spaniard, not like one of those ugly Indian/metizo looking “Hispanics” if you can really call them “Hispanics” the real ones are in Spain.
Again faker, if your going to steal my name at least be intelligent,I wouldn’t say the crap you wrote
I agree.
Mestizos are not ugly …. She is obviously mix with something because she has tan skin, full lips and curves which white women do not have..
Angelina Jolie? Don’t be daft, many white women have those features. You’re American, how do you know what white women look like? You don’t know Europeans, the white people you’re used to are only part of the equation. TRAVEL. Before you make stupid comments.
Although Denise mispoke about white women with curves. I think she meant to say some white women don’t have the “thickness” of curves that most ppl of African descent have. Angelina Jolie has pouty French lips but no butt, yet a lot of “white” women have great curves. Eva Mendes is definitely a great mix of Euro, African and Native. Many Tainos were wiped out or greatly mixed during colonization. Ppl often forget the huge mix of Afro Chinese and Chinese population that is part of their DNA.
Most are Americans are white of European descent…. LOL
Most Americans*
how can you be that stupid and racist ? seriously ?
You’re a racist dumbass. You say she is “80% European”, ok then, what’s the other 20% huh numb nuts? Who said she was Mestizo anyway? I’m pretty sure most Cubans do not have much, if none at all, Native ancestry. I could be wrong, but from what i’ve heard, most were wiped out by the Spaniards. Mexico on the other hand, has a lot of pure Indigenous and Mestizo people. How can you say they’re all ugly? Look at Eva Longoria, Jessica Alba, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez! Eva Mendes may be 80% European, but the other 20% is most likely Black, and African genes are dominant. So she doesn’t look European Spaniard, she looks mixed!
No, she changed the spelling of her last name for SAG purposes…I think.
Anyway, she’s definitely Cuban. She has African blood in her (like many other Cubans), but it is a small degree.
No not like most cubans. There are blacks, mulattos and whites and they stay white until they become mulattos.
she might b white
she also has african blood to. She had a mulatto grandparent but she is mostly spainish with a little african blood.