15 Latinas We Love!

By Latina Staff | 09/12/2011 - 08:00 | 0 Comments

A year ago, we sat down to begin thinking about who should be on the cover of this, our historic 15th anniversary issue.

As we started brainstorming celebrity names—Salma, Shakira, Selena—it occurred to us that, for the first time, there were lots and lots of stars worthy of an anniversary cover.

So while we had turned to Jennifer Lopez for our first cover and our 10th anniversary one, this time around we really wanted to capture the Latino evolution. For just as Latina magazine has grown through the years to now exist online and on TV, so, too, has the role of our stars grown to include shaping every aspect of American culture.

Thus, the idea was born to create a cover with 15 of the Latina celebrities we are most proud of from throughout our 15-year history.

Turns out, coming up with a killer idea was the easy part. Actually pulling it off? Well, that would take 9 months, 7 photo shoots, more than 100 red dresses—and upwards of $10 million in jewelry!—to create the triple gatefold cover—the first of its kind in Latina history!

Here, the 15 Latinas We Love!

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NAME: Salma Hayek

AGE: 45

ROOTS: Mexican-Lebanese

Beauty Transformation: Salma Hayek

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Salma Hayek on Sharing Traditions with Valentina

WHY WE LOVE HER:

The most powerful Latina in Hollywood didn’t rise up the ranks overnight. She defied the sexpot stereotype by creating opportunities for herself and other Latinos through her production company, Ventanarosa, eventually reaching the type of triple-threat status (actress, producer, director) that shatters glass ceilings. Ugly Betty, which she executive-produced and aired in over 130 countries, introduced many around the world to their first Latin family—now that’s progress!

Passionate about everything she does, Hayek fought for almost a decade to tell the story of Mexican surrealist Frida Kahlo, displaying the same indestructible spirit as the uni-browed artist until finally producing and starring in Frida in 2002. What’s more, to prepare for her dream role, she learned to paint, read every biography out there and grew a mustache. The result? A Best Actress Oscar nomination, of course.

Who can forget the image of Hayek breastfeeding a starving African baby during a UNICEF trip to Sierra Leone in 2009? Or her on-camera appeal to the Mexican government to end the violence against women in Juárez in 2006? Salma is a fearless crusader, always ready to stand up for females around the globe.

Conventionality can stick it, because no matter what society dictates, Salma lives by her own rules (and is always reinventing them!): The proud mama had daughter Valentina, 4, later in life at the age of 41, maintained a long distance relationship with her baby daddy, French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, got engaged to him, called off the engagement and finally married him when she was good and ready in 2009.

A regular on the “most beautiful” lists, Salma’s finally sharing the beauty secrets passed down from her abuela—who reportedly lived till 96 without a single wrinkle—through her Nuance cosmetics line for CVS. Made from anti-aging ingredients found in Mexico, such as tepezcohuite and concha nacar, the products are purposely inexpensive so that we can all drink from her fountain of youth.

ON CONSTANTLY CHALLENGING HERSELF: “I believe you have to dream with courage and with imagination. Then you have to see the dream and follow it wherever it leads you. But you have to pay attention when you’re going toward the dream, because it’s usually the journey on the way to the dream that is most interesting. And then, once you accomplish the dream, you have to let it go and dream something new.”

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