Jessica Alba
Alba in 2010
Birth Name: Jessica Marie Alba
Place of Birth: Pomona, Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Birth: April 28, 1981
Ethnicity:
*father – Mexican [including Spanish, Indigenous Mexican/Mayan, and distant Sephardi Jewish]
*mother – Danish, Welsh, English, Scottish, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, French
Jessica Alba is an American actress, model, and businessperson. Her roles include the films Camp Nowhere, Idle Hands, Honey, Frank Miller’s Sin City, Fantastic Four (2005), and their respective sequels; Good Luck Chuck, The Eye (2008), Meet Bill, Valentine’s Day, Machete, and its sequel; Little Fockers, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, and Mechanic: Resurrection, and the series The Secret World of Alex Mack, Dark Angel, and L.A.’s Finest. She has co-founded consumer goods company The Honest Company, which sells baby, personal, and household products. She has also been billed as Jessica Warren, her married name.
Jessica is the daughter of Catherine Louisa (Jensen) and Mark David Alba, who was in the Air Force. Her father, who was born in Los Angeles, is of Mexican descent, including Spanish, Indigenous Mexican/Mayan, and distant Sephardi Jewish, roots. Her mother, who was born in Virginia, has Danish, Welsh, English, Scottish, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, and French, ancestry. She was raised partly in Biloxi, Mississippi; Del Rio, Texas; and finally Claremont, California, traveling for her father’s career.
Her brother is actor Joshua Alba. Jessica is married to producer Cash Warren, with whom she has three children. Cash’s father is African-American and his mother is white. Jessica’s third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano.
Jessica has described her father as very dark and her mother as very fair. According to Jessica, her grandfather never spoke Spanish at home because he wanted the family to assimilate into the American mainstream. As a result, Jessica’s father did not learn to speak Spanish.
A DNA test whose results were displayed on the show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2014) stated that Jessica’s genetic ancestry is:
*72.7% European
*22.5% East Asian/Native American (Indigenous Mexican)
*2.4% No Match
*2.0% Sub-Saharan African
*0.3% Middle Eastern/North African
*0.1% South Asian
Jessica has stated that she identifies with her Mexican-American heritage. DNA tests on the show indicated that Jessica’s direct patrilineal ancestor was Indigenous. These DNA tests also displayed that Jessica’s father’s direct matrilineal ancestor, Maria Carmen Carrillo/Carillo, was of Sephardi Jewish descent. They also showed that Jessica’s father likely has at least 2.1% Sephardi Jewish ancestry in total. DNA matches listed him as 0.7% Ashkenazi; they also listed him as 0.6% Italian, 0.4% North African, and 0.4% Middle Eastern, all of which were or likely were Jewish in his case according to DNA matches.
Jessica’s 0.1% South Asian DNA is evidently from Jessica’s mother’s side.
Genetically, Jessica was found to have a common ancestor with attorney Alan Dershowitz.
Alba with husband Cash Warren in 2011, s_bukley / Shutterstock.com
Jessica’s paternal grandfather is José Sánchez Alba (the son of Catalino Morones Alba and Francisca/Frances Sánchez). José was born in San Bernardino, San Bernardo Co., California, to Mexican parents. Catalino was born in San Dimas, Durango, the son of Ambrocio/Ambrosio Alva/Alba and Maria Morones/Morence. Francisca was born in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, the daughter of José Hipólito/Polito Sánchez Hernandez and Refugio/Refugia Cisneroz/Rangel.
Jessica’s paternal grandmother is Ysabel/Isabel Martinez (the daughter of Daniel Fernandez Martinez and Guadalupe Nieves Miranda y Lares). Isabel was born in San Bernardino County, California, to Mexican parents. Daniel was born in Purépero de Echaíz, Michoacán, the son of Eugenio Martinez and Pascuala/Pasquala Fernandez. Guadalupe was born in García, Zacatecas, the daughter of Juan Miranda and Silveria Viramontes/Miramontes y Lares.
Jessica’s maternal grandfather was Harry Christian Jensen, Jr. (the son of Hans/Harry Christian Jensen and Sarah/Sara Evelyn Rhys). Jessica’s grandfather Harry was born in Rockford, Winnebago, Illinois. Jessica’s great-grandfather Hans was born in Illinois, to Danish parents, Mads Hansen Jensen and Johanna Jensdatter. Sara was born in Minnesota, to a Welsh father, Samuel H. Rhys, and to a mother, Evaline/Evelyn/Eva Walbridge, who was born in Rochester, Monroe, New York.
Jessica’s maternal grandmother was Louisa Harrison Tebault (the daughter of Paul Miars/Myers Tebault and Catherine/Catharine Louisa Nichols). Jessica’s grandmother Louisa was born in Washington, D.C. Paul was the son of William Paul Tebault and Julia S. Catherine was the daughter of Albert Nichols and Loula Harrison Wharton.
Sources: Genealogies of Jessica Alba – https://www.geni.com
https://famouskin.com
Family histories of Jessica’s father – http://familyhistoryinsider.com
http://familyhistoryinsider.com
Jessica’s maternal grandfather, Harry Christian Jensen, Jr., on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Jessica’s maternal great-grandmother, Sarah/Sara Evelyn Rhys, on the 1880 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Sarah/Sara Evelyn Rhys on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Genealogy of Jessica’s maternal great-grandfather, Paul Miars/Myers Tebault (focusing on his father’s side) – http://www.findagrave.com
LOS ANGELES – APR 1: Jessica Alba at the Victoria Beckham For Target Launch Event at Private Residence on April 1, 2017 in Los Angeles, CA, photo by kathclick/Bigstock.com
Mestizos can have very light skin and blue eyes. This can leave big confusion amongst people that think if you have light skin and blue hair, you’re 100% White. Hell, no. I’ve met at least 3 mestizos in my life that look like typical English girl – have light brown hair and even freckles. Funny is, when I understood that the father of thir girl whom I met was Native American, I was simply shocked. She didn’t look like Mestiza to me. She looked White, and even Whiter than Southern Europeans. So, being mesiza is something that can confuse everyone
sorry but this girl does not look white in any way when you see her you know shes latin yes shes kind of fair skinned but its because shes a mestizo just like me and mestizo are mixed with spanish from spain and indian. and shes so stupid in trying to act like shes white when shes mixed. she should be proud of her race I know I am i am super proud of being a mestiza
I’m pretty much exactly what she is, mestiza, French and Scottish. I understand how she feels about just being American. I’m 5th generation American and would feel so lost if I were dropped in the middle of Mexico. How can you be proud of what you were born? You can be proud of accomplishments but there’s no effort in being a ethnicity. I identify with the so called “white culture” have children with a white man and all my children look “white”. They all have light brown to blonde hair and some even have blue eyes. When I was in high school, I wasn’t “Mexican enough” to hang out with Mexican girls. They called me a coconut! Ha ha! Brown on the outside white in the middle.
Naca
Hispanics are not Latins, they are Indiani or Latin Americans not Latins, Latins are the original inhabitants of Lazio(Latium) the birth place of the Latin people and Rome is its capital. try to remember this and get people to term these people right once and for all!
Yes they are Lationos.
Nope they are the descendants of Romans and as Roman owned mixed with most of Spain and the rest of Europe etc. as they believed in conquering through miscegenation. Something they learned from Alexander The Great himself. Romans even referred to them as citizens of Roman and built cities and had children with the native population who became free citizens of Roman. The culture of Spain it’s self is deeply rooted in Roman culture. The ancient Visigoth, Celtic Spain but a memory. The Basques are the last hold out of an Ancient culture of Spain.
So in every meaning of the word they ARE Latinos as they are descendants of Spaniards and other Central and Southern Europeans…. ie. Italian, French, Portuguese etc.
She’s the most beautiful girl on the planet.
Sooo she’s Danish – French (“White!..right!?”) and from a 2nd generation of Mexican immigrants ( now “americans” which now presumably called
semiwhite “! …right!?) …. Ok she born here, got raise here a la american way! But it doesn’t means that she looks like ( all american white girl). With out her celebrity status, people from China, Germany,Sweden or other white country will see her as a Hispanic woman!
PS. Her blonde looks on (fantastic 4 movies) didn’t work at all so cheesy and fake. This time make up didn’t work.
What does it matter if she looks “typical white”?
Yes, she looked off-ish in the second Fantastic Four movie (because she had weird looking blue contacts) but she’s not the first who has looked off in a role.
She looks white enough to pass as white, in my opinion, as long as she doesn’t try to pass as a “Nordic” kind of white.
I mean, there are other actresses, like Jennifer Tilly, Meg Tilly and Phoebe Cates, who are more non-white than her, but they still play white characters.
Ps. but when I say “Nordic”, I only mean “stereotypically Nordic”, of course, not true Nordic people like Swedish actress Rebecka Liljeberg (from the movie “Show Me Love”) who looked just as dark as Alba when she was young.
Recbecka:
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4026/rebeccaea.jpg
being nordic doesnt mean being more white, the laplanders who are of asian ancestry in finland thoroughly mixed with the whites there but technically they are not white. same goes with hundreds of thousands of germans, poles and russian who were invaded by the mongols and for a number of years intermixed with the white women of these conquered lands. their offspring are officially non-white. edward schevardnadze and russian leader breshnev obviously had asian ancestry and they are both fair-skinned but not caucasian. being fair skinned, like many chinamen are doesnt mean you are white or caucasian. Nordic people are not more white than any other type of caucasian people.
I never said anything about anyone being more or less white than anyone else, and I really don’t care about it. I only wrote about her Fantastic four role, where she looked a bit weird when she tried to play a (stereotypical) Northern European type.
Hey, Isn’t 75% mono race? Charles Barkley is 75% Black and he’s considered Black. She’s 88% White. She’s not Mexican. She only has 7% Native heritage. She could be decendant from Spain which would make her a Spaish-speaking White Latin. (Like Greeks and Italians; infact. she looks part Greek.)
uhm do you not know math? if she 88% white then that makes the rest 12% mexican indian not 7%
greek people are not latin, and she DOES NOT look greek. i live in an area full of greeks and romanians too and i can always tell them apart. greek people tend to have wavy hair and long noses [known as the greek nose] some even have very tight-curled hair. she does not look greek whatsoever
greek people are at least partially Latin even though they speak greek because they were part of the Roman empire for nearly a thousand years and thoroughly Latinized. there was much intermixing between the Latin speaking rulers and colonists and the native Greeks. the Romans gave the name Greek to the Greek people as a matter of fact.
Are you serious?? Greece’s empire came before the Roman, hence why they call it Greco-Roman. Greeks don’t even use the word “Greek” they use “Hellenic”. So it’s irrelevant who made the term up.
It’s rare for anyone in this day and age who doesn’t live in some secluded village to be 100% of one ethnicity. Who really cares? Unfortunately racism seems to come from looks anyway not ethnicity. The more ethnic you look, the more racism you’ll cop. It’s sad but true. Can’t really see someone like Cameron diaz being discriminated against…
No, they are not. The Roman empire never seriously colonized Greece, which is why they do not speak a Latin language unlike France (Gallo-Romance, a mix of Gallic and Latin), Spain (which has Gallo-Romance languages in the north), Romania, formerly Etruscan Italy, the Italian islands, Portugal etc.
She cannot be a Spanish speaking white Latin if she doesn’t speak Spanish.
Actually, she does not look completely white at all. There’s something not white about her. It’s not a single thing, but an overall impression, especially when she goes au naturel. Makeup can make her look more white, by hiding her true features (for whatever reason) .There may be some Southern European individuals who look equally as none-white, but they are still white. Alba on the other hand, looks non white because she’s not completely white.
She has features which slightly resemble mixed South East Asian features, and it must be something which comes from her Native American ancestry somehow. It was much more noticeable when she was younger.
There’s no absolute correlation between the percentage results of a DNA test and the looks of people. The test she took claims she was 13% Indigenous American and 87% European, but all those testing companies have a very dubious set of reference data, especially considering her ancestry is from Mexico, not North America, so her Native “markers” may not be completely identical to the ones they use as a reference, and therefore it may fail to detect her true ancestry accurately. The fact that most DNA tests are 3 or 4 race based shows how simplistic they are, and they often fail completely, when testing certain ethnic groups. (Like East Africans who tests as Asians, or JEWS WHO TESTS AS NATIVE AMERICANS. Lopez Tonight – Larry David.)
I think she shouldn’t have taken the test in public. Now regular Joe thinks that she is exactly 13% Native American and 87% white, because regular Joe is an idiot, like 90% of people, who never question anything they see on TV such as this bullcrap test!
She doesn’t look Greek – she looks more Danish – and Greeks are not Latin either, as they are Hellenic or … well … Greek.
She doesn’t look Greek – she looks more Danish – and Greeks are not Latin either, as they are Hellenic or … well … Greek.
She’s less than quarter Danish, because her Danish ancestry lies far back. She would stick out in every Northern European country. She looks like a Native American/European mix, which is what she is.
Just look at her in one of her earlier movies:
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7466/jessicainthesleepingdic.jpg
Promotional photoshoot from Dark Angel, the series:
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3034/youngjessica.jpg
Maybe her Northern European ancestry has made her light, as she has relatively light skin and hair, but other than that it’s just not immediately apparent in her looks, in my opinion.
We all come from the human race, and we all try to make our way through life , Jessíca Alba she’s talented but she doesnt take herself to seriously , she’s down to earth and her hard work pays off through her movies!