Jessica Alba has a feature in the new issue of Parents Latina magazine. This interview actually made me go back and do some research and Alba’s history of first denying then embracing her Mexican-American roots. Back when she first hit the scene and started getting some heat, she said in an interview that she did not want to be identified as a Latina and that “I’ve never felt connected to one particular race or heritage, nor did I feel accepted by any.” She tried to do damage control on-and-off over the years, even covering Latina Mag and declaring “I always took pride in being Latina.” My guess is that she was originally trying to make a point about not wanting to be typecast as “the hot Latina girl,” but it just came out the wrong way. I feel like I’m more than meeting her halfway there. Anyway, as for this Parents Latina interview, she talks about her parenting style and whether her daughters speak Spanish and more.
On how her Mexican heritage influenced her as a mom: “My heritage is all about family, which always comes first. And respect for yourself and for your elders is something that I’m passing on to my daughters.”
On why her kids might not identify as Latina: “I grew up around my Mexican-American grandparents. My grandmother was an incredibly strong woman a great influence on me. I was also surrounded by tios and tias at a lot of family events. My kids don’t have the same constant proximity. I make sure they know where they came from and that they spend time with their relatives, but they’re not surrounded by it all the time. We have different cultures in the house.”
On whether or not her daughters speak Spanish: “They know how to ask for besos and leche! They are going to be global citizens and will need to understand many languages, including Spanish, to make a difference in the world.”
On the best advice you can give moms who want to start their own business, like she did with The Honest Company: “Don’t get overwhelmed trying to do everything at once. Lay out what you can get done now and what will take longer.”
How she handles ‘mom guilt’: “Don’t be hard on yourself. Doing your best to be present wherever you are is what’s important. Make time to eat healthy and stay active. It’s worth it to recharge once a week: Get sleep, have a date night or girls’ night in, and drink some wine!”
On how to feel sexy when you’re a busy mom: “Being sexy is about confidence. So be proud of what you accomplish, be amazed at what your body can do, and give yourself props. When all else fails, put on a bright red lip! (I hope it’s one by Honest Beauty.)”
I feel like some people are going to attack Alba for what she says about her kids not really being raised in the kind of inclusive Latin culture she grew up within, but I get it. I’m half-Indian and half-white, and that’s how identify racially but not really culturally, in that I wouldn’t say that my upbringing was particularly or even partially representative of Indian culture or Indian families. I didn’t (and don’t) speak Bengali or any Indian languages, so I get her view of not teaching Spanish to her kids too. Alba probably barely speaks Spanish at home because she and Cash speak English to each other. Just my take! While I hope her children embrace their Mexican-American heritage, I totally understand her point about being “global citizens.”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I think she is right to embrace her heritage while making sure her children understand their role as global citizens. Best of both worlds.
I wonder if her kids know anything about their African American culture since their paternal grandfather is Black((Michael Warren from Hill St.Blues)
Well their father is also Black, though bi-racial, he is still Black.
I referenced their grandfather because the article referenced her Mexican American grandparents.I don’t know if Cash identifies as Black but I know their grandfather Michael does.
@V4 Real
How do you know what Cash Identifies as ? He is just as much white as he is black.No one has the right to insist that he is “black’ when they dont know how he identifies
That always confuses me. Even a little black heritage can make black in USA (of course most people are nice enough to stop doing that if you asked them to). In South Africa, there is no way a bi-racial man could be black. Obviously my country is not the place to look up to when it comes to racial stuff but the USA situation rings a bit of “one-drop rule” to me.
Right Colette? I couldn’t have said it better myself. Jessica’s girls are ethnically 50% Caucasian/European (both Jessica and Chash’s mothers), 1/4 Mexican-American (Jessica’s father) and 1/4 African American (Cash’s dad).
I wonder where this idea came from that they “should” be culturally any one thing more than anything else particularly when said thing represents just 1/4 of their cultural history and genetic background?
Yeah – I think the girls can grow up and decide to identify as or take pride in whichever parts of their heritage appeal to them the most – they aren’t obliged to be proud this or that to please anyone else. And as they’re being raised to be ‘global’, maybe they won’t really identify particularly with any parts but all. Or none. It’s their business.
Agreed wholeheartedly.
What about her children’s African-American heritage? Alba is still flaking out on culture if you ask me. She could have mentioned that, or the piece could have.
Just saw your post @Colette. Lol. I think the girls look a lot like Michael Warren, who was incredibly handsome in his day. Much better looking than her husband (sorry Cash,lol) though he’s no slouch.
She was specifically asked about her latina heritage and her side of the family. She answered to that. And it’s Latina magazine… it’s a no brainer.
I read Latina magazine they often talk about Black culture ,Native American culture etc because many Latinos are Black,Asian,American Indian,etc .I’m actually surprised Latina didn’t bring up her kids mixed heritage they usually do.
@Mimz and Colette I think the piece said Latina Parents magazine, which is different.
Luckily it has nothing to do with you!
How can she start commenting on the kids’ African heritage when she wouldn’t know that much about it? It should be her husband’s responsibility to educate on that segment as it would be more genuine. Like if I have a mixed race child (I am white) I won’t be blabbing on about Asian or Black or African culture and heritage like I lived and experienced it. That would be odd and disingenuous – pretending I know what it means to grow up in a certain culture. That would be my partner’s thing and I could learn as well.
It reminds me that I don’t understand why americans still use the word/concept of “latino” the wrong way.
They always will; it’s as if they’re unable to use it properly.
Americans don’t know anything.
@cassie – they seem to know a lot, just stuck using different definitions and stereotypes.
@Kinnakee, Cee, Cassie: Americans use Latino to describe anyone with roots in Latin America. I think many Americans know it’s a problematic descriptor. How is it used where you all are from?
It’s used to describe people born in LatAm, it has nothing to do with their race/ethnicity. I’m a White (European) Latin American because my ancestors are all from Europe and settled here after the World Wars. If my kid is born in, for example Europe, s/he would not be described as Latin.
IDK how it is in Brazil but I suspect it’s the same. We just refer to ourselves as South Americans, to be perfectly honest.
It drives me crazy… Latin refers to the origin of the language… There are Latin American and Latin Europeans when you put the origin of the language along with geography…
My problem with Alba is not that she doesn’t identifies with Mexican culture, I can understand growing up differently and thus not being culturally close to it. The thing is that she seems to be Latina or feel “proud” of her heritage when its convenient for her…
Also I dont get the “global citizen” thing, we are not all walking Mexican clichés
I don’t get the global citizen stuff either. As a Nigerian from one of many tribes living in Europe, I don’t understand the practicality of it. Seems like a buzzword.
Jessica Alba does not speak Spanish.
I was just coming here to say this. I’m not sure if she’s slightly embarrassed by that fact, because it was slightly glossed over in the interview. I think she has a minimal understanding of it which is why she uses basic words, but not enough to teach her children and be conversational.
@HH Yeah, but she’s rich enough to hire a Spanish-speaking nanny, tutor, governess, etc. who can teach them. I think she’s also part-French, but in LA, Spanish is much more useful.
Why should she have to hire someone to teach her Spanish? Maybe she doesn’t WANT to speak it or teach it to her kids.
It’s interesting that when mom speaks a foreign language, it gets past on alongside the local one, and when it’s dad, it often doesn’t.
As a mother to a mixed race child myself and a person who also grew up speaking two languages, it’s sometimes tough to get kids to use more than one language with equal frequency. Kids will use whatever language their friends favour, in some cases may feel shy to use another language for various reasons. A friend of mine who recently moved to the states mentioned that her oldest son refuses to speak her language and only uses English now. It’s nice to have ideals but you can’t force kids to communicate how you want them to. You can lay the groundwork but it’s their choice in the end.
As @Gatinha pointed out, she can’t lay much groundwork as she doesn’t speak Spanish fluently, if at all. Again, it seems Alba is self conscious about culture and langauage – why not come out and say, ‘I’m not fluent, neither are my kids, but it’s a goal.’
I know J.Lo is also another one who reportedly couldn’t speak Spanish. I remember Salma Hayek calling her, and a couple nameless others out, a long time ago for not knowing Spanish. I think Lopez has studied up in the intervening years (between her $panish language album, ex Marc Anthony, and her mom -she has no excuse) but it was well known several years ago that she didnt speak it.
Not only JLo, Eva Longoria too. They made an effort to learn it and JLo can actually speak quite nicely these days, and I’m sure she does speak to her kids too. I carry some shame myself for not knowing to speak my native language, but hey, it’s not easy. My parents never took the time to teach me and my sisters, and when I was born we lived in a foreign country for 6 years, so we had to learn to speak french, a little portuguese (my home language) and when we got back, we just got fluent in portuguese and that was it.
Do I wish I could speak some of my native languages? Yes. But at this point I need to take the time to get classes or something, because Life goes on and I honestly I don’t even think about it.
But in my head, French is my first language – it was the first language i learned to speak.
But if your friend’s son refuses to speak his mom’s language that speaks to more than just a casual tendency to use English because his friends do. It sounds more like he feels shame or at least aversion to part of his culture and that should not be overlooked. Confidence and self-esteem come from knowing that you, in totality, are good enough because of everything you are and everything you are bringing to the table. Hiding part of who he is will not help him mature in a healthy way, imo.
^^ consider this co-signed. I’ve done and known the language avoidance thing first-hand, and it’s a real shame. Sometimes it takes kids time to come around to accepting who they are and their heritage, and time and positive reinforcement are the only things that work.
I grew up multilingual myself (no English until kindergarten), but the fact that I retain the ability to speak my native language is entirely down to the fact that 1) my parents speak it to each other, even if they address me in English, and 2) my grandmother can’t speak English, so if I want to speak to her, there’s no other way.
And there were definitely several years of my childhood/early adolescence when my reluctance to speak it in public, or even acknowledge that part of my heritage to the point where I didn’t even like pronouncing my surname, came from the fact that I wished I was ‘like everyone else’ and didn’t speak a weird-sounding foreign language at home. It’s not that kids can’t be naturally fluent in several languages at once – I ended up with four languages once I started school – but the reluctance to speak one or more of them might stem from more than just shyness.
Yeah, I remember when Jessica was trying to claim she was everything but Latino, she’s not the only one. It’s funny how some celebs push to be seen as whatever ethnicity appears to be the come-up.
No mention of her black heritage either so eh. It’s a typical Alba interview.
I always thought she was half Mexican, half Caucasian? Her husband is half African American, have Caucasian.
@ Eternal
Alba does not have any recent black heritage White European mom , Mexican dad , whilst some Mexicans have recent black ancestry she does not . Her Ancestral Dna done on George Lopez show came back like less than 3% black which is within the range for many non black individuals as it refers mainly to the fact that most modern day ethnic groups originated in Africa at some point hundreds of years ago.
That what I was coming to ask. Isn’t this the same woman who got upset by being linked to her own Latin American heritage?
Eh, it’s tricky. I’m Latina, but I didn’t really grow up with the culture and don’t identify with it now. It’s a weird thing, other Latino’s don’t really accept me or involve me but at the same time they dislike me for not embracing that culture. It’s hard to embrace something when you’re not wanted!
Ha, I was once told I was not latin enough (in the US) because I’m white, my surname is German and my spanish is different (hello, I’m from Buenos Aires!). All this while I was the ONLY ONE in that conversation BORN and RAISED in South America. The rest of them were 3rd generation americans. But no, I’m not latin enough, so I get your point, Kate. My advice – be yourself.
I had the same experience as you with few major differences.
I’m Brazilian and White with an Italian surname who is fluent at Spanish who lives in the USA, it’s a mess here.
Well, that’s exactly my point. Gisele Bündchen, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Monica Bellucci are all latinas. Latin people come from societies heavily influenced by Roman culture and language. Latin people don’t necessarily look like Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Eva Mendes, it’s not about looks. Christina Aguilera’s father is ecuadorian and I don’t see anyone calling her latina or saying that she should teach spanish to her kids and be in contact with her latin origins. So if Jessica Alba doesn’t feel like she’s latina, maybe it’s because she isn’t?
@Kinnakee Monica Belluci? Marion Cotillard? I do believe Latin is what we call people from Latin America, in this context at least. These two wonderful women have no ties with the America’s. Latin America might be a term for countries once occupied by France, Spain and Portugal, but culture in Europe and the America’s developed independently and I doubt anyone from France or Italy would “identify” (I hate that term) as Latino.
@Mieke As I said, latin people come from societies influenced by Roman culture and language, which means Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Romania and all Latin America. My point is the misusage of the term by people from USA specifically, and that’s exactly why people from Europe wouldn’t identify as Latins, because it was so wrongly used to define people from Latin America that it’s lost its real meaning.
It’s interesting because I think she’s touching upon the fact that the “melting pot” has melted a lot in the last couple of generations and a lot of families don’t have a single strong culture anymore. My mom is 100% German though her family has been in the US for a while and had a pretty strongly German upbringing. She passed some of it on to us kids but more just token things. My husband’s mom is 100% Hungarian, same thing. But two generations removed, now our kids aren’t more than 25% anything so they just don’t have that kind of link to any country in particular. There don’t seem to be the same pockets of, for example, German communities within big cities that there used to be even 50 years ago.
ITA – grew up with different cultures at home, plus my country’s, and it was tough identifying with one. Right now I identify with different aspects of my grandparents’ cultures. I’m more german (personality wise) than anything else, but I still appreciate French Basque traditions and Gaelic food/music. My grandparents settled in a country mostly populated by Spanish and Italian inmigrants, so assilimating into those cultures was hard enough (and learning spanish)
I see the same thing as well. I grew up in a melting pot city — all of my friends were no more than third generation. My dad’s parents were Scandinavian and my mom’s were Eastern European. All of my grandparents spoke with an accent, lived in ethnic neighborhoods, and went to churches that had services in their native languages. My parents can understand a bit of their parents’ languages, but for us kids it’s down to certain words and foods and traditions from both sides. My son and his cousins, on the other hand, have grown up with American grandparents. I try to make sure that my son knows his heritage — and we keep those foods and words and traditions, but he just doesn’t have the direct memories of my grandparents and neighborhoods associated to them that I do.
Now, I live in Colorado, and there are many Mexican-Americans who have been in this region for generations, if not several centuries — far longer than my European family. Their families are much like mine — they are proud of their heritage and keep traditions, but don’t necessarily speak fluent Spanish in the younger generations. (A friend and I have a joke that she speaks Spanish like I speak Norwegian.) There is a lot of public discussion here about the differences between this group and more recent immigrants from Mexico. They are both “Mexican-American” but it’s a different subcultures. Just like being Polish-American where I grew up in Chicago can mean that you emigrated to the US 5 years ago or it can mean that you’re third or fourth generation American.
I don’t think Jessica herself can speak Spanish.
Gisele Bundchen’s kids can speak Portuguese pretty well and they are still learning. I think her kids will learn Spanish at school and will practice with her mother’s friends who are from Spanish speaking countries.
It’s a pity Jessica Alba does not try harder to not let her Mexican heritage to jump out a generation.
Gisele is Brazilian, she grew up speaking portuguese… Jessica Alba seems to not have learned spanish when growing up. Anyone can learn any language if they want to, it doesn’t mean Alba is not Latin.
But if she wanted her kids would never learn Portuguese. They were born, being raised and educated in the USA.
For way too many Americans GIsele is not Brazilian, she is German so they get very confused when they learn she is 100% Brazilian.
Jessica’s generation did not grow up learning Spanish because the adults thought it was not necessary according to what Jessica has said in interviews.
Jessica is Latina. But she has some weird ideas about it according to her interviews for Latina magazine.
@Cassie – I find it hard to believe Americans consider Gisele German when in fact she is Latin. I’m not saying you’re wrong! But I’m German too and people still tell me I’m Latin and not white.l just because I was born and raised in Argentina.
My grandparents never spoke to me in German, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t raised in their culture.
Americas’s need for constant labeling is doing more harm than good, especially for people like Jessica Alba. Let her be who she wants to be irregardless of the fact two of her grandparents are/were Mexican American. It’s like Eva Longoria said: she’s 9th generation American and she’s still not considered “American enough” and she doesn’t really speak Spanish either (saying some phrases is not speaking Spanish)
She was raised by a white mother, what do people want her to do? Her mom probably raised her the way she knew how, it’s not like the mom could pass on first hand knowledge of Mexican culture. From the sounds of it her parents split early on and her exposure to Mexican culture was only through her father’s side, I don’t think it’s surprising that she doesn’t relate (although denying her roots is shameful). Also PSA: Latino is not a race; it only refers to countries that were once claimed by either Spain or Portugal, you can be black, white or brown as a Latino. Latino is akin to referring to all former English colonies as Anglos; imagine calling all Americans, Canadians and Australians “Anglos” regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity or culture.
I’m pretty sure her parents are still together.
I hate when people, Americans especially, talk about being ‘global citizens’, that’s double speak for busybodys and warmongers who believe themselves entitled to inflict their personal ideology/interests on the rest of us. The middle east has exploded thanks to that nonsense from interfering outsiders and now even Europe’s being destabilised. We need people to take care of their own countries and stay out of other peoples business unless invited.
She did an ancestry DNA thing which was revealed on George Lopez a little while ago. She is 87% European (read: white). She was not happy with those results. There is a clip of the whole reveal and discussion they had on youtube.
This is not at all unusual among third-generation children. My ex-hisband’s aunt and uncle raised their 4 children in NYC but insisted that Spanish be spoken at all times in the home. All four children grew up bilingual. Then they grew up and had kids of their own. The grandchildren understand Spanish from hearing their grandparents speak it, but they don’t speak it themselves very well. And the little great-grandchildren who are coming up now don’t speak it at all. Assimilation comes at the cost of losing the language and the culture.
Oh gosh
Why do Americans obsess over their ‘roots’ and ancestry from hundreds of years and so many generations ago? If she was born and raised in North America then she is American! Yes she can acknowledge her ancesters nationality/race but she is an example of a modern melting pot of races who was raised in AMERICA by an AMERICAN. She has acknowledged that she identifes racially as white and Latino but culturally as American!!! Stop trying to push a culture or identity on her when clearly its not one she was raised with or identifies with.
Perhaps…just perhaps…Irish Girl, because many of us who were raised in America by Americans still have aunts and uncles and cousins in our “root” countries who we know still. I am third generation. I went to Norwegian school. We sure don’t eat lutefisk though here in America. Thankfully. Tusen takk!
So maybe we should start calling ourselves Nordich Irish as our ancestors were Vikings……….