Jessica Alba is taking Spanish lessons to make sure that her young daughter is bilingual.
The actress — whose mother is white and father is Mexican — says she was devastated after a 2008 interview with Latina Magazine misquoted her as saying that she does not consider herself Hispanic.
“I didn’t want to misrepresent Latinos and I didn’t know how to defend myself. But I went to my room and I cried all night. Since then, I’ve preferred not to comment on the subject,” Jessica remarks in the March issue of Spanish-language magazine Siempre Mujer’s. “I tried to explain to them that, in this country (America), I’m considered Latina and, thus, I consider myself Latina as well. I grew up eating enchiladas… I identify with Mexicans. It’s in my blood whether or not I speak Spanish.”
She has decided to sign up for Spanish lessons, so she and her daughter Honor, 1, can become billingual.
“I know the basics, but I just hired a professor that specializes in Hispanic studies to teach me and Honor. God knows that I wish I was raised bilingual. But it wasn’t to be,” she added. “I want to make movies in Spanish… There are so many interesting themes and stories that are worth sharing, like the lives of immigrants, for example. There’s a whole world that hasn’t been sufficiently explored and I want to be part of it – the violence on the Mexican borders, the political upheaval in Venezuela and Bolivia and the drug trafficking in Colombia.”