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

11.21.09

ENTERTAINMENT

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

by admin | 02.15.2008 | 7:07pm | 104 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!"

104 Comments

cbracmmr
07.05.2009
12:01am

Selma hayuck, please as soon as she could she ran off with a white boy, infact since she's been an actress in america that's the only men she's been with, she's not proud, neither is jessica, not rosario, not any of them they all want blue eyed babies, ha fat chance these ignorant indias should take a biology class and learn how genes work and mutate. If you are brown and have no one with blue eyes or green in your genetic make up, you will not have blue eyed babies. Indias tontas, fantasiosas. You hate your skin color, your eye color and your native blood no wonder us brown men(non black) leave you for white women, they want to have our babies, you malinches hate yourselves.

jeana-story
02.09.2009
9:48am

who's gvng mz alba ahard tm.....WHO? her movies r evry where! As previously stated:(para) the baby's hers no matter what color. ALso add; it's nice to see so many loving and supportive responces!!!!

qq11
02.07.2009
2:21am

I can kind of see what she's saying for wanting a brown baby. She wants her child to look like her and her husband. I feel the same way. My daughter's father is white (blonde hair blue eyes) but I wanted her to look like me w/ dark hair, dark eyes, and "brown" skin. Even if my child doesn't get tanned like me ( everything else looks like me) it doesn't mean I'll love her less. She's my world, and yes my first hope was that she was healthy. After that came my selfishness that she look like me. Oddly enough her father and their family said they hope she is tanned and short like me as well. Mixed people in any culture community don't really have it easy. They're never enough for anybody. I have cousins who are mixed like Jessica Alba and are insulted from both sides. Not in front of me though because I would make a big a deal about it. Who are they to disregard a parents culture/race? Nobody, that's who.

cbracmmr
07.05.2009
12:16am

you are a traitor to the Raza and should be ashamed of yourself, a true pig of a woman, you must hate yourself so much to have mixed with that filthy pig of a man, where in the fuck do you people live that think that it doesn't fucking matter anymore, you're blind ofcourse race matters, here in america more so than anywhere else, just drop dead, you betray all the Indios, and incase you forgot that's what you are an india, and a pretty ignorant one at that! The kind white people laugh at, and rightfully so, you pig!

guangping
03.30.2009
3:08am

I am in China (with dark hair and dark eyes)

MONTSERRAT ACEVEDO
02.04.2009
2:28pm

Jessica Alba isn't the brightest bulb in the pack whether she's white, blue, or green. Nobody really gives a damn what her color is but here's a flash Jes: There are at least a million Latinas who are white as their Euro-descended neighbors. You love your beautiful little girl Honor Marie even tho' the child is white, sorry Jes. But this is a new age so stop even talking about who accepts and doesn't accept. Being "Latina" (born in a Spanish speaking country or the child of such) doesn't automatically make a person Mestizo, I'm not so should I not be considered Latina? Bizzare! There are tons of white-Amerindian people in the U.S. also, blonde, blue eyed and southern- I have a couple of in-laws who still receive "reparations" from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and they're white. Sheesh, how far back do we have to go to get your approval of being "brown"? Who the hell knows what we've got in our genes from 500 years back? I'm of Mexican-Cuban-Argentine background but born and raised in New York- my Spanish sucks, I'm American and proud of it tho' also proud of my Latin background. Three Latin Countries all conspired to create ME, this racially Euro Latina who didn't pray for "white" or "brown" babies, just healthy ones.

Stardust17
01.29.2009
9:10pm

Although I think some of her comments are downright ridiculous and even stupid at times I also think it's wrong that people bash her b/c she doesn't speak fluent spanish, there are many latinos who are american born that have been here for generations who chose not to speak spanish in the home or their parents decided not to, whatever the reason it's no one's place to judge. I think it's down right ridiculous that people think there this mold we all have to fit and if you don't your simply not a latino/a. We're all people and we all have different backgrounds different likes, dislikes, etc. If we all fit the same world this would be a pretty boring world.

d.go83
01.24.2009
6:04pm

I SUPPORT JESSICA ALBA!!!

Jessica Alba is NOT wrong for identifying herself as AMERICAN. American does not mean Caucasian. It doesn't mean African. It doesn't mean Asian, etc. We are a country of immigrants and as a 3rd generation, mixed person she is the epitome of American.

Even though she doesn't come across as very articulate, I completely understand where she is coming from. I am also mixed (and after reading what other had to say, it seems like a lot of you are mixed as well). Like Jessica, I didn't grow up speaking Spanish. Even though it's my father's first language, my parents chose to raise my siblings and I in an English-only household. I made efforts to learn Spanish through classes in high school and at a college level, still I AM NOT FLUENT. How do any of us know the efforts she has or hasn't made to learn the language or more about the culture? Nobody gets a say in how their parents raise them. Why punish her for her parent's choice?

And why is she so wrong for saying she wants her baby to be brown? It isn't wrong when y'all post "Brown Pride" or "Brown is Beautiful" graphics all over your MySpace! LOL Give her a break!

Here are some other Latinas who are not (or have not always been) fluent in Spanish: Christina Aguilera, Rosario Dawson, Cameron Diaz, America Ferrera, Kelis, Janelle & Jessica Martinez (Prima J), Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Fergie, Eva Longoria, Mariah Carey, Aundrea Fimbres and the late Selena.

reginagreen
04.26.2009
4:11pm

Just a quick education lesson... Kelis and Mariah Carey ARE NOT latinas. THEY ARE BLACK WOMEN. {Hispanic: relates to Spain / Latin: relates to the former language of the accent Romans / Latino: phrase was coined by a Frenchman because of all of the romance languages spoken in "Latin American" that is why it is called "Latin America" / Latino translated to English is Latin , the true Latin's are from Italy. THE ITALIANS. Hispanic is just a label / Latino is just like a logo and people are buying and spending into it. Just like an old dog that can't learn any new tricks. You or whom ever will still believe this lie called "Latino". GET A CLUE.

cbracmmr
07.05.2009
1:04am

As an Indio(not pure) Salvadoreno, i admire your intellect, i must admit it gave me a stiffy,ha ha just kidding, i think we all understand what you are saying, latino/hispanic are just labels the white man gave us so as not to reffer to us as Indians, doing so would solidify the fact that whole of the western hemisphere(all the carribean islands,the whole USA and canada included) belongs to us, yes we are the true owners of this land, we are as natural to it as the rockys are high, as the deserts are fn hot especially right now, the whole friggin' enchilda is ours, their labels, it's their way of denying us, but we(you and me) know the damn truth. We belong and we are where God placed us, right at home.