Jessica Alba: "I Want My Baby to be Brown"

11.20.09

ENTERTAINMENT

Jessica Alba: "I Want My Baby to be Brown"

by admin | 02.15.2008 | 7:07pm | 103 Comments

In Latina's March 2008 cover story, Jessica Alba gets personal with Editor-in-Chief Mimi Valdés Ryan and directly responds to the rumors that have resulted in her now-commonly used nickname, "Jessica 'Don't Call Me Latina' Alba." Check out some of her revealing answers below, and don't forget to pick up the full story when the issue hits newsstands on February 19!

On her reluctance to walk the red carpet at Latin events: "I'll support those shows, but I can't go on the press lines and have people make me feel bad about myself. Life is too short. I can't change how I grew up, and I shouldn't have to apologize for it. I know I feel close to the Latin community, because that's what I grew up with."

On claims that she's proud to have cut loose from her Mexican roots: "I never said that. Cut loose from what? What the hell are they talking about? Why would I want to cut loose from the only family I know?"

On not learning to speak Spanish as a child: "I wish to God that my dad spoke Spanish to my brother and me, but he didn't grow up with it."

On confusing other men for her dad as a kid: "When I was little, I used to go up to black men and hold their legs, thinking it was my dad all the time. I'd wrap my arms around them, then look up and be like, 'Oh my God!'"

On being accepted for who she is in Hollywood: "I was always trying to figure out: How the hell am I going to be mainstream? How are people going to accept me? When are the going to get a clue that I am American, that this is what America looks like--people like me who are mixed, have different blood, mixed with different ethnicities? When are the people who are hiring for these jobs and writing these screenplays going to realize that?"

On what she wants her baby to look like: "I'm excited for my baby to be brown. I just have to believe the dark gene is going to survive. Cash and I are like, please!"

103 Comments

LaColochitaRica
01.19.2009
5:31am

I was sooo happy when i read this article. I am mixed too, I'm half Costa Rican and Half American. I grew up eating rice and beans, i know how to dance Latin music, cook costa rican food, i've been to costa rica, i have C.R. friends AND family in C.R., and i speak pretty good Spanish. But because i was not BORN in costa rica, and of my two ethnicities, i happen to look more white, people automatically assume that i'm just some White girl. They then ask me where i was born, why i look light skinned, why i'm not fluent in Spanish...They put all these labels on me that i'm not Latin enough, or C.R. enough. Not to mention that i do answer all these haters' questions IN SPANISH, they still refuse to believe that i'm Latina. When i read Jessica Alba's article, felt so much weight lifted off my shoulders. In that moment i was not the only one who felt excluded from the Latin community, and reading all these comments, confirmed it! Just cuz i'm not fluent in Spanish and born in C.R. does not make me any less Latina. I understand 100% what Jessica Alba is trying to say, although, unlike her, i AM going to school to learn Spanish the proper way! Jessica Alba IS Latina, as so are ALL of us who were born here in the States. I am proud to be American & C.R., and no one can EVER say that i'm not Latina just cuz of my color, the language i speak, and where i was born. In a Latina Magazine article, Dolores Dice once said: Being Latin is not a race its a culture!

lovingwhoiam2009
01.11.2009
11:52pm

LET THIS WOMAN LIVE HER LIFE IN PEACE, THE SAME TREATMENT YOU ALL WOULD WANT IF YOU WERE IN HER SHOES. SHE HAS TO DEAL WITH WHATEVER COMES HER WAY, NOT YOU, SO STOP ALL THE HATIN AND AS I ALWAYS SAY LIVE YOUR LIFE FOR YOU

lovingwhoiam2009
01.11.2009
11:47pm

I would just like to say that I think Jessica Alba has the right to feel however she wants just like every other American. If she was not famous she would not be recieving all this flak from the rest of us about her not speaking spanish or wanting her baby to be brown. Everyone should just leave her alone and let her live her life, because if they were in her shoes they would not like to be treated this way. Let the woman live, Please!!!!!!!!!!

EstrellaMartinez
01.11.2009
2:22am

I've always thought that Jessica Alba was very beautiful and a talented actress. She's also a PERSON people!! someone else commented that we dont know whats going on in her personal struggle, so why do we put so much pressure on people to have an explination for who they are???! Nobody chooses what they're going to be, and we cant choose how our parents decide to raise us. so what if she doesnt speak spanish? i can understand why she's reluctant to walk the red carpet at latin events, with all this speculation. I am P.R. mixed with Mexican, Irish and German and my spanish is more like spanglish...but who cares! i dont have to defend why i'm not fluent or why i prefer floutas over taquitos! thats my buisness, what matters is that she's out there doing her thing making movies for us all to enjoy. i do think that the comment about having a "brown baby" is strange though. but maybe she just doesnt want to pass on her struggle to her baby and therefore feels that if she is "brown" and bilingual people will leave her alone

Sake
01.04.2009
10:56pm

i signed up partially so i can post a comment. first off, i;m not saying what jessica alba is saying is 100% correct. however, we do not know what she is going through on a personal level with her heritage. i to have and still go through alot with my heritage. i'm am mixed (cuban, afro-american, white, and native american) you can simple break it down by cuban-white-native american since cuban is spanish and african anyway. with that said i know how it feels to have a part of your culture lost. thats what's happened with the cuban side of my family, no one speaks spanish anymore and my great-great grandfather took his wifes name when he married so i have no idea what his last name was when he moved to the states from cuba. however, over the past several years i have been re-connecting with my heritage to secure the culture for my daughter. i dont think she means anything mean or ignorant by saying she hopes her child is brown. that brown skin is simply a symbol of our heritage and its fine to hope that. i doubt she will love her child any less if the child has fair skin! stop jumping to conclusions people. we do not know what's going on in her personal life. P.S SINCE SHE HIT THE SCENE I HAVE HEARD HER REFER TO HER MEXICAN HERITAGE AS WELL AS FRENCH AND DANISH. theres an old issue of jane magazine from about 2006 that i had where she points it out just as plain as the beauty mark on my face!

dara-chara
12.31.2008
7:27am

I registered in order to post a comment. While I have always known that Jessica Alba was a gorgeous woman, I always thought there was a brain to go along with it. I didn't want her to be just another pretty face so I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I am sorry to say that she has just lost that respect. I completely understand not growing up speaking Spanish, but at this stage in her life, that is no excuse. She is a grown woman, and if she wanted to get in touch with her culture, it would be fairly simple. Even as little as using Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish would help her when it came to attending Latin functions where she might feel uncomfortable about not knowing what is being said. Plus, going so far as to say that she wants a 'Brown Baby' makes her sound horribly ignorant. If she was Asian, would she want a yellow baby? No, she would want her child no matter what. Is she implying that if her child is lighter, it will not be Hispanic? Her child is going to be part Hispanic, no matter what color it is. She needs to step up and take charge. Either embrace your heritage and learn what it means, or deny it and be happy with her decision either way.

caramel_swagga
12.30.2008
2:08pm

I think she has issues she needs to deal with one minute she dosent want to be associated with or acknowledge her mexicazn heritage now since latinas are making major moves in music/entertaiment as a whole she wants to a ct like shes so proud of her mexican heritage she dosent want to walk the red carpet at latin events because she know what people will be saying and how they will be looking at her she basically put her own foot in her mouth I think she knows how its hard for latin people so she decided to dismiss her mexican ancestry but again this is just my opinion BUT on the other hand alot of people of puertorican dominican etc.. descent dont a cknowledge their african/black ancestry because in the islands they look down upon those of black ancestry and here in the u.s.a blacks get looked down upon more so then almost any other ethic race so we really cant be mad or angry with jennifer when alot of latinos do the same thing as her

marssy4life
10.02.2008
5:47pm

I registered so that I can provide my opinion on this whole Jessica Alba issue. I will admit that I didn't read all the other posts so pardon me if I reiterate what other women might have already wrote. First, of all why are we "hating?" like Alba says, why not respect her as a working women, regardless her ethnicity, race or age. She has proven that she has what Hollywood wants, young, sexy and talent. We need to support that. But we also have to expect these role models to speak up and do it well. Please don't us slang so that you think you're connecting with your readers. Latina, has a diverse group of intelligent women that would prefer a better straight forward answer rather than street-smack. Therefore, instead of getting on Alba for saying she wants a 'brown-baby' allow her to explain what does that mean to her. Does it mean having a child that will be considered a minority, due to its color or white regardless or white because its being raised with third generation Mexican-American parents? Let's tackle the real issues at hand, such as that. This all I have to say for now. Thank you, M

TeresaJ
08.29.2008
11:50am

It really bothers me when people place parameters on what it means to be "truly Latina." Jessica Alba IS Latina, whether she wants to be or not (and it seems as though she IS proud of it), and whether this magazine's readers want her to be or not. Being Latina in this country means a million different things and can encompass a million different experiences. I'm Puerto Rican, was born in New York, and grew up speaking Spanish and eating rice and beans. But I spoke primarily English at home (I spoke Spanish mostly with my mother, and even she wanted me to speak English to her most of the time so her English could improve), I hate pasteles, I have mostly English-speaking friends, and of all my cousins, my family is the only one in which the kids speak Spanish. Yet we are ALL Puerto Rican. No one here has any right to criticize how Latina Jessica Alba or anyone else is, just because she doesn't conform to your narrow view of what being Latina means.

ebollarsaba
05.30.2008
4:34pm

yo, why does anyone pick on her. its her life. she can do as she pleases. is one person on a cover of a magazine going to make you stop reading that magazine all together?? be serious. in all fairness, Jessica Alba could be one of many women who now, all of a sudden, claim to be Latina. but she's not. before this latin craze hit- where was anyone? she's being real about herself so much she's not gonna lie about how she was raised. she's BEING HONEST WITH HERSELF... how can anyone knock her for that. we have bigger issues than to pick on ONE CELEBRITY about her choices and the way she chooses to live her life. granted, you may have different beliefs... realize.... that is exactly what makes us, US! not one of us is exactly the same. if you're gonna hate on anyone... hate on Beyonce who magically, looks like a LATINA in everything she does. or Rihanna... or frickin' anyone else who isnt what they were before the hispanic craze hit. yo, we have immigration issues that NEED to be worked out. we have families who cant send their children to school because they can get better jobs. focus that energy into something useful, more productive. UNITE. why bicker with eachother.