Celebrity Ancestry: Hollywood Actress Jessica Alba’s Heritage: 100,000 Fans Google Her Ethnicity, Nationality, Parents Race & Family Background 

IS SHE BLACK, WHITE, HISPANIC? Actress Jessica Alba’s ethnicity and heritage seem hard to place for many fans who Google details about her ancestry and her parents racial background and origins. By Ben Arogundade. Feb.16.2021.

BEAUTY UNDEFINED: Thousands of fans are curious about Hollywood actress Jessica Alba's ethnicity, nationality and parents racial background. Is she Hispanic, black, bi-racial?

MILLIONS OF FANS around the globe watch Hollywood actress Jessica Alba on television or on their mobile devices, and they wonder — is she Italian, Spanish, Mexican, mixed race? With her olive skin, dark hair and eyes she looks like she could be all of these, such is the aesthetic complexity of modern beauty. Inevitably, those of Alba’s fans with questions about her ethnicity, nationality and her parents’ race heritage turn to the oracle that is Google for answers. Each month the search giant records the total number of Internet queries that their users type into their browsers. For example, 3,000 Jessica Alba fans Google the term, “Jessica Alba ethnicity”, each month, while a further 2,000 search, “Jessica Alba parents”. Meanwhile, 1,000 people ask, “Is Jessica Alba black?”

JESSICA ALBA ETHNICITY & NATIONALITY: THE FACTS

If we add up the total number of search queries about Alba’s ethnicity, nationality and family background and heritage, it amounts to over 100,000 searches per year. So, what are the facts about Jessica’s ethnicity and race heritage? She was born in Pomona, Southern California on April 28, 1981. Her parents are Mark David Alba, an ex-US Air Force serviceman of Mexican and Spanish ancestry, and Catherine Jensen, who is of English, Danish, Welsh, German and French heritage. She shares her part-Mexican ancestry with fellow actress Selina Gomez.

RACE HERITAGE ACCUSATION

In Jessica’s early career she was dogged by allegations that she was in denial of her heritage. In February 2008, when she appeared on the cover of the March edition of Latina magazine, many voices within the Latin community were shocked, as they were convinced that she was ashamed of her Mexican ancestry. The Internet was awash with false quotes attributed to the actress — “My grandfather tried to forget his Mexican roots”, was one of them, and, “As a third-generation American, I feel as if I finally cut loose,” was another. Blogger Perez Hilton went as far as to nickname her Jessica “Don’t Call Me Latina” Alba. In response to the haters and the false quotes the magazine offered Alba the opportunity to address them in an interview once and for all. “It really hurts my family when they read stuff like that,” she said. “They really hate it. I always tell them I’m sorry, that it’s just the nature of what I do. People will say things that aren’t true and I can’t really do anything about it.”

ALBA’S DNA ETHNICITY TEST

Since then Alba has made a point about openly embracing her ethnicity and her family’s race heritage. In 2011 she appeared on the talk show Lopez Tonight, where they exclusively revealed the results of her ancestry DNA test. To her surprise they revealed that she was 87 per cent European and 13 per cent Native American. “Wow, that’s crazy,” she said. “I can’t believe it.”

ANCIENT ANCESTRY

Then in November 2014, she appeared on the popular ancestry DNA testing TV show Finding Your Roots, with Henry Louis Gates Jr., which traced her family background all the way back to the ancient Mayan civilisation of eastern Mesoamerica, discovering some Sephardic Jewish ancestry on her father’s side along the way. However, their DNA genealogy test results differed from those stated on Lopez Tonight. The show described Alba as being of 72.7% European, 22.5% Native, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern/North African, and 0.1% South Asian, ancestry, with an additional 2.4% for which there was no match.

JESSICA'S WORLD: (From the top): Hollywood actress Jessica Alba as a young girl visits Santa Claus with her brother Josh; Alba's parents - her father Mark is of Mexican and Spanish ancestry, and her mother Catherine, is of English, Danish, Welsh, German and French extraction; Jessica appeared on the cover of the March 2008 edition of 'Latina', after a series of lies that she was in denial of her heritage appeared on the Internet. Alba graces the cover of the August 2014 edition GQ magazine.

*ACTRESS JESSICA ALBA’S ETHNICITY, NATIONALITY, PARENTS RACE - ACCORDING TO GOOGLE SEARCH

1,500

The number of people worldwide who Google the phrase, “Is Jessica Alba black?”, each month.

5,000

The number of people worldwide who Google the variants, “Jessica Alba’s ethnicity, nationality, parents race background & heritage”, each month.

*All figures for “Actress Jessica Alba’s Ethnicity, Nationality, Parents Race - According to Google Search”, supplied by Google. Stats include global totals for laptop and desktop computers and mobile devices.

JESSICA ALBA’S SHOCK AT HER DNA TEST RESULTS

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