That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XIX

Julie Ann Brown (1954 - ). Actress and singer of Irish/Mexican descent, best known for her role in the 1988 comedy Earth Girls Are Easy. Needless to say, she is not normally thought of as being part-Mexican -- or even part-Irish -- though her ancestry does make me wonder anew about the title of her album Trapped in the Body of a White Girl. Was Ms. Brown trying to tell us all something?

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XVIII

Stacey Lauretta Dash (1966 - ). Actress of Mexican and African-American descent. She is best known for her role in the 1995 comedy Clueless.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XVII

Mariah Carey (1969 or 1970 - ). Daughter of an Irish American opera singer and a black Afro-Venezuelan engineer. Despite having dabbled in movies like Glitter and Precious, she is best known for her musical career.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XVI

Daphne Eurydice Zuniga (1962 - ). The daughter of a Guatemalan father and a mother of Polish and Finnish descent. She is most famous for her roles on the TV shows Melrose Place and One Tree Hill.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XV

Lucie Arnaz (1951 - ). Perhaps the most famous Latina half and half ever. Daughter of a Cuban-born actor and an American actress. She is most famous for starring as Neil Diamond's love interest in the 1980 movie The Jazz Singer as well as for occasionally appearing on her famous mother's last TV series.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XIV

Daisy Fuentes (1966 - ). Cuban-born daughter of a Cuban father and a Spanish mother. She is best known as a model, actress and television personality but she is also famous for being MTV's first Latina VJ and Revlon's first Latina spokesperson to be signed to a worldwide contract. Normally I would have posted her photo later in the year but it's her birthday tomorrow.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XIII

Cristina Saralegui (1948 - ). Cuban-born journalist of Spanish origin who is most famous for hosting the Spanish-language talk show El Show de Cristina, a hit series on Univision since the late 1980s. She attempted to do an English-language version of that show in 1992 but it failed. She's often referred to as "the Spanish Oprah." Her show allegedly ended on Univision this year but the jury's still out as to whether Ms. Saralegui is off the air for good.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XII

Madeleine Stowe (1958 - ). An American actress who is the daughter of an American father and a Costa Rican mother. Her original name was Madeline Mora Stowe. She is best known for her roles in 1992's The Last of the Mohicans and 1995's Twelve Monkeys. Her first leading role, ironically enough, was as the half-Latina love interest of an ex-convict in 1987's Stakeout, but she isn't usually associated with Hispanic characters. Her most recent role was on the short-lived TV series Raines.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XI

Joanna Kerns (1953- ). American actress who is the daughter of a Mexican-American father and an Irish-American mother. Her original name was Joanne Crussie DeVarona. She is best known for playing Kirk Cameron's mother on the TV series Growing Pains. More recently, she appeared in the 2007 movie Knocked Up.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte X

Yvette Carmen Mimieux (1942- ). Daughter of a French father and a Mexican mother. She is best known for her role in 1960's The Time Machine, in which she played an Eloi. Admittedly I find it quite ironic that such a role was played by a person of Mexican descent since I had no idea that was so when I wrote this.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte IX

Charisma Carpenter (1970- ). Apparently a mystery woman who is described on some sites as being of Mexican and Cherokee descent and on others as being Cherokee, Irish, Scottish and Spanish on her mother's side and French and German on her father's side. If that is not confusing enough, IMDB lists the latter description of her ethnic ancestry and then goes on to describe her as being of Mexican descent. She does admit to speaking a little Spanish, though -- and more importantly, she does not deny her Hispanic ancestry though she is usually cast in white non-Hispanic roles.

She is best known for her role as Cordelia Chase on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and she most recently appeared in the movie The Expendables. She is probably the closest thing BtVS ever had to a full-time Hispanic character and of course, she played the snobby girl who rarely got along with any of the more popular characters on the show.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte VIII

Lynda Carter (1951- ). American actress who is the daughter of a father of English and Irish descent and a mother of Mexican and Spanish ancestry. Her birth name was Linda Jean Córdova Carter but she was best known to TV viewers in the late 1970s as Diana Prince aka the title character in the TV series Wonder Woman.

I remember having a big crush on her back in the day, and as this picture indicates, said crush can't be entirely blamed on her Wonder Woman outfit.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte VII

Linda Ronstadt (1946- ). Popular singer whose father is of Mexican and German descent and whose mother is of German, English and Dutch descent. Her Hispanic ancestry has been fairly obvious ever since she recorded a Spanish-language album back in the 1980s but back in the 1970s, I have no idea that she was a Latina -- and yet back then she was the one singer of Mexican descent to whom I most listened. Was that an odd coincidence or were my genes trying to tell me something? After all, I also listened to a lot of Carly Simon songs back then but I would hardly claim that Ms. Simon was a Latina.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte VI



Catherine Bach (1954 - ). Daughter of a German father and a Mexican mother. She is, of course, most famous for playing a non-Mexican character on The Dukes of Hazzard -- though given the wild, wicked ways of that show's characters, there is no telling what the ancestry of her character might have been.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte I (Anita Page)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte II (Rita Hayworth)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte III (Raquel Welch)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte IV (Ginger Rogers)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte V (Joan Baez)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte VI (Catherine Bach)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte VII (Linda Ronstadt)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte VIII (Lynda Carter)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte IX (Charisma Carpenter)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte X (Yvette Mimieux)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XI (Joanna Kerns)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XII (Madeleine Stowe)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XIII (Cristina Saralegui)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XIV (Daisy Fuentes)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XV (Lucie Arnaz)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XVI (Daphne Zuniga)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XVII (Mariah Carey)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XVIII (Stacey Dash)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XIX (Julie Brown)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XX (Joanna García)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XXI (Cameron Diaz)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XXII (Jamie-Lynn Sigler)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XXIII (Alexis Bledel)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XXIV (Aubrey Plaza)
That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XXV (Deborah Berebichez)

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte V



Joan Baez (1941 - ), folk singer born of Mexican and Scottish parents. Most famous for her cover of the Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte IV


Just kidding.

The actress pictured isn't actually a Latina. She just happened to be dressed that way for a movie role.

I must confess that it would be nice if she was. But the way she was in real life is nice too.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte III


Raquel Welch (1940 - ), born in Chicago as Jo Raquel Tejada, the daughter of a Bolivian father and an Irish-American mother.

Of course after her appearances in the TV series American Family and the 2001 movie Tortilla Soup, her Hispanic identity is no longer that big a secret but still...

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte II


Rita Hayworth (1918 - 1987), born in New York City as Margarita Carmen Cansino, the daughter of a Spanish flamenco dancer and a showgirl of Irish and English descent.

She probably seems like an obvious choice to most hardcore film buffs but there was actually a time in the late 1980s when she didn't seem so obvious. Back then I had written a story about one of my Mexican-American aunts for a night school course and because said aunt had once been compared to a movie star, I was tempted to compare her to Rita Hayworth, only to change my mind because I did not consider Ms. Hayworth to be a Hispanic actress.

Heh. Irony.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte I


The late Anita Page (1910 - 2008), a blue-eyed blonde who is most famous today for starring in the Oscar-winning movie The Broadway Melody. Her birth name was Anita Evelyn Pomares and her father's family came from El Salvador. Back in 1929, she received more fan letters than anyone save Greta Garbo.