12 Celebrities With Surprising Latino Roots
From South America to Spain, these famous names share Hispanic heritage
by Linda Dono, AARP, October 13, 2020
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PHOTO BY: oe Scarnici/Getty Images for New York Magazine
Fred Armisen, 53, actor, comedian
Fereydun Robert Armisen, a Saturday Night Live cast member from 2002 to 2013 and star of Portlandia, is half Venezuelan, a quarter German and a quarter Korean. His mother, the former Hildegardt Mirabal Level, was born in San Fernando de Apure, Venezuela, but met his father when both were students at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, where Fred Armisen was born. The first character he played on SNL, Fericito, was inspired by his mother and grandmother's nickname for him.
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PHOTO BY: Christopher Willard/ABC
Benjamin Bratt, 56, actor, producer
Known for his recurring role on TV's Law and Order and supporting roles in Miss Congeniality and Traffic, Benjamin Bratt is the son of the former Eldy Banda, a Native American activist. Banda, born in Peru of Quechuan ethnicity, moved to San Francisco as a teen. In 1969 after fire had destroyed the city's American Indian Center, the divorced mom of three took her 5-year-old son and his siblings to help occupy Alcatraz, claiming the then-shuttered federal prison for all the tribes of North America.
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PHOTO BY: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Bobby Cannavale, 50, actor
Bobby Cannavale has won Emmys for his work in comedy Will & Grace and drama Boardwalk Empire. His mother, Isabel, left Cuba in 1960 for Union City, New Jersey, and fell in love with the boy across the street, Sal Cannavale. When the future actor was 5 years old, his parents divorced and he spent time shuttling between two households, including living in Puerto Rico.
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PHOTO BY: Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Helena Bonham Carter, 54, actress
The British actress most recently known for portraying Britain's Princess Margaret on The Crown has high-society ancestry on her father's side; she's the great-granddaughter of a prime minister. Her maternal grandfather, Eduardo Propper de Callejón, was a member of Spain's diplomatic corps and helped arrange for the escape of thousands of Jews from France during World War II.
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PHOTO BY: Todd Williamson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Mariah Carey, 50, singer, songwriter
Though Mariah Carey has Irish roots on her mother's side, her paternal grandfather, Francisco Roberto Núñez, emigrated from Venezuela. When he came to the United States, he decided to anglicize his first and middle names and chose an English/Irish surname, becoming Frank Robert Carey. Although she has recorded Spanish language versions of some songs in the past, this month she released an extended-play album, Mariah En Español, with seven hits from the 1990s.
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PHOTO BY: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Michael Kors
Lynda Carter, 69, actress, singer
Known best for her role as Wonder Woman in the 1970s, Lynda Carter was born Linda Jean Cordova Carter in Phoenix. Her mother, the former Juana Córdova, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico. Since her superhero days, Carter has played the president of the United States, President Olivia Marsdin on CW's Supergirl; released three albums, including 2018's Red Rock N’ Blues (plus another one while she was on Wonder Woman); and been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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PHOTO BY: Adam Hunger/Getty Images
Reggie Jackson, 74, baseball player
Reggie Jackson's father, Martinez Jackson, was a semi-pro baseball player in the Negro leagues during the Depression. But Martinez Jackson's mom was from Puerto Rico, and Reggie Jackson told the New York Times in 2005 that he is “proud of my Latin blood.” The Hall of Famer, who played for five teams in his Major League Baseball career, also played winter league baseball for the Cangrejeros de Santurce, the Santurce Crabbers, in San Juan, Puerto Rico during the 1970-71 season.
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PHOTO BY: Paul Morigi/Getty Images
Martin Sheen, 80, actor
Born Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez in Dayton, Ohio, Martin Sheen adopted a stage name after experiencing discrimination as he tried to break into show business in 1959 in New York. He combined the surnames of the CBS casting director who gave him his first big break, Robert Dale Martin, and Catholic Bishop Fulton Sheen. Martin Sheen went on to star in hundreds of roles, including in Apocalypse Now and The West Wing but never changed his name officially. In 2003, Sheen told Inside the Actors Studio that his assuming a stage name had bothered his dad, Spanish immigrant Francisco Estévez.
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PHOTO BY: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
Lee Trevino, 80, golfer
The legendary golfer published his autobiography in 1982, They Call Me Super Mex, and Lee Trevino's last name has Spanish roots as Treviño. But many fans think of him as a Texan who vaulted himself from poverty through his mastery of a sport known for its elite air.
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PHOTO BY: Rick Kern/Getty Images for Town & Country
Christy Turlington Burns, 51, model
Christy Turlington Burns was a California girl who visited relatives in Central America during the summer before she became a 1990s supermodel based in New York City. Her mother, the former María Elizabeth Parker Infante, was born in San Salvador, emigrated to Los Angeles as a young girl, worked as a flight attendant and married pilot Dwain Turlington. In 2003, after Turlington Burns retired from modeling, she married actor and director Ed Burns and added his surname to her own.
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PHOTO BY: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images
Raquel Welch, 80, actress
Born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Welch didn't learn Spanish as a child because her father, Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo, wanted his family to assimilate. When she decided to pursue acting, she took the surname of her first husband, James Welch, and kept it for her career. When she had her breakthrough part in the 1966 British fantasy film One Million Years B.C., filmmakers dyed her hair blonde and didn't mention her Latina background. In 2002, about 40 years after she first appeared on TV, she told the New York Times that she wanted to embrace her ethnic identity.
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PHOTO BY: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
Vanna White, 63, game show cohost
The Wheel of Fortune's cohost and letter-turner of 38 years was born Vanna Marie Rosich in Conway, South Carolina. Her father, Miguel Angel Rosich, left the family when she was young, and stepfather Herbert White adopted her.
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