The actor is Irish and Puerto Rican. When asked how she identified on the Highly Relevant podcast, she replied, “The first thing I usually say is that I’m half Puerto Rican. The Puerto Rican portion is usually what I lead with because that’s how I was raised culturally. I probably identify with my Puerto Rican family more than anything else. … The Puerto Rican side of my family, that was just my home.”
The actor is of Afro-Panamanian, Mexican and European descent. During an interview with Remezcla, she said, “I’m someone who talks a lot about representation. It’s important that we see more black women on screen. Sometimes there’s not necessarily a conversation about what kind of black woman “I mean, we’re not a monolith. I feel encouraged when a young woman sees a film that I’m in and says they identify with me I also understand that there are black and black women who see me in a film and don’t feel seen. That’s real and true.”
“My grandmother came to the United States from Panama – from Colón – to get an education when she was a young woman in her 20s. She met my grandfather, a black man from Oklahoma. They had my aunt and then my father. Then she basically lived as a black woman in the United States — because people assumed she was, but her first language was Spanish. She didn’t learn English until she was in her 20s and already in She had a rich cultural experience that was really full but in a way erased because she came to this country and had to assimilate.
The actor is Mexican, Danish, English, French and German. “Growing up in California at my grandmother’s house, surrounded by Tías, Tíos and all my cousins, I always felt a deep connection to my Mexican-American roots,” she wrote in an article for Pop Sugar. She recalled her family’s history, from her great-grandparents’ immigration to the United States, to the segregation they faced, to her love of the performing arts.
“I always thought our ancestors were Spanish, but through genetic testing I found out that they were Native Americans, possibly with roots going back to the Mayan civilization. We were there from the start!”
The singer is Trinidadian and Dominican. “I always feel like I represent the Dominican Republic because I love the Dominicans, I love being a Dominican,” she said during an Instagram Live. “The fire in my heart when I act is because we are like that.”
The singer is Ecuadorian and Irish. In an interview with Latina Magazine, she addressed criticism that she wasn’t “Latina enough”. “I’ve been dealing with it my whole life. I am not fluent in the language. And I’m split down the middle, half Irish and half Ecuadorian. I shouldn’t have to prove my ethnicity to anyone. I know who I am.”
The actor is Mexican and Honduran. During an interview with Latina Style Magazine, she said, “I’m half Mexican, half Hondurena, first-generation American. Being latina is my life. I didn’t realize I was American until maybe I was in high school, but I didn’t know anything else until I was 3 or 4 years old. I spoke one language at home. I ate some kind of food. I heard some kind of music and then I went to school and suddenly it was a completely different language and they gave me food without tortillas. So navigating both worlds was my life and I still do it to this day.”
The singer is Puerto Rican, Ashkenazi Jew, Filipino and Hispanic. He told Latina Magazine, “There’s a lot of people from that mixed background who are in that gray area. A lot of people think, ‘This is great. You’re in that gray area, so you can walk away for anything damn you want.’ But it’s not like that at all. It’s the exact opposite. What we’re trying to do is educate people how that feels so they never make anyone feel that way again. which is difficult. Because no one can see what we see and no one can grow up with what we grew up with.”
The singer is Mexican and Italian. During an interview with Dazed, she said: “I’m always very vocal about my background as far as I’m talking about immigration and my grandparents having to cross the border illegally. I wouldn’t have been born (otherwise). I cherish my last name so much.”
9.
Michaela Jae Rodriguez
The actor is black and Puerto Rican. In an essay written for the Emmys website, she wrote, “I grew up under a roof of driven individuals who were African American. From an early age, I knew there would be some steep climbs for me as a young Afro-Latina.”
“Within the Black and Hispanic communities, there is simply not enough being done in terms of representation behind and in front of the cameras. Diversity has always been encouraged in my household, so it breaks my heart not to see it fully exhibited and embraced. I do feel that our identity as people of color is getting a lot of attention, but there is still work to be done.”
The actor is Mexican and Irish. “I’m proud to be Latino,” he said in a Ones to Watch video. He recalled a moment when a fan told him how much it meant to see a Latino star on a show like Teen Wolf. “It really grabbed me and impressed me. I have moments where it erupts in a way I didn’t really expect. And I love it.”
The actor is Puerto Rican, Afro-Cuban, Irish and Native American. She told Latina Magazine, “I think being Latina means being proud of your heritage. Although I’m not fluent in Spanish and I can’t prepare every dish without a recipe, I’m 100% Boricua and I’m proud of that.”
The actor is of Puerto Rican, English, German and Irish descent. “I’m half Puerto Rican. My mom’s entire family is full Puerto Rican,” she said in a Teen Nick video. “To me, being Hispanic means being able to be a role model for kids, someone on TV who can represent who they are.”
The actor is Colombian, French and Cherokee. Discussing the difficulty of growing up mixed race, she told Glamour, “My problem [was that] I looked white but I come from a Colombian family. I think my struggle was trying to convince people that I’m Hispanic. In my own culture, I had trouble fitting in because I wanted to be this Colombian girl, but instead they’re like, ‘You’re so whitewashed.’ It’s like, ‘Well, I live in the States!’ But that’s my culture, that’s me. We’re all about food and family and love.”
The actor is Afro Latina (Dominican and Puerto Rican). “There’s something really beautiful about being first generation,” she told Glam Belleza Latina. “You are in the middle and you have to get your parents and grandparents to the other side. But when you’re on the other side, you want to preserve the beauty of tradition. I feel like I grew up there in a very balanced way. My mother always wanted us to be who we are, but she used to tell us fables and stories about where we came from.”
The actor is Cuban, Italian and Irish. In an Instagram post, she wrote, “Honestly, I wish I looked Hispanic so I could feel more Hispanic, so I could feel closer to my dad and be more proud of my heritage…wearing my heritage on my skin.” It’s just so hard sometimes when no one thinks you are who you are… and everyone wants you to be something else :/ I LOVE MY CUBAN HERITAGE.”
The singer is black and Mexican. In an interview with Remezcla, he recalled that early in his career the music industry struggled to understand his intersectionality. “It was definitely a point of ‘Huh? We don’t really get it.’ A lot of my listeners didn’t know I was Mexican.”
The actor is of Mexican and European descent. “Later in life I learned to speak Spanish. I learned it after I was 10,” she told the source. “I have family from Mexico and I wanted to be able to communicate with them and my father is Caucasian so we never spoke at home. And then in a way it was a really great skill, because actually now with television that it’s covering the range that it’s covering, it’s a good skill.”
The actor is Dominican and Puerto Rican. Throughout her career, she has been careful about the roles she plays because she doesn’t want to contribute to the typical Latin American stereotypes in film. She once said, “I stay away from sexually subversive content because it’s the most exploited facet of filmmaking and television for Latina women.”
The singer is Jamaican, Puerto Rican and Irish. During a 2021 interview with People Chica, she said, “My paternal grandmother was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She’s still there. My father never learned spanish and he never taught me and I want to learn. I haven’t been to Puerto Rico since I was 16, but it’s a big part of my childhood. I remember that she came to us and cooked plátanos for us.”
The actor is black and Mexican. During an interview with Refinery 29, she shared that she grew up inspired by Afro-Latina actors like Tessa Thompson and Zoe Saldaña. Now young girls look up to her. “It’s such an honor to be a part of it [Never Have I Ever], let alone this representation. It was really eye-opening and humbled and inspired me so much.”
21
And finally Oscar Isaac
The actor is Guatemalan and Cuban. He told NBC News, “I was born in Guatemala to a Cuban father but left when I was a little baby, an infant. We moved to Baltimore, lived in Louisiana for a bit, and then settled in South Florida. I just got back from Guatemala which was a lot of fun. I was allowed to travel around to Lake Atitlán and Antigua.”
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