Famous Latinx Birthdays

Photo from pe.com. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... George López! (1961-       ) A comedian and actor born in Los Angeles, López was raised by his maternal grandmother, Benita Gutierrez (his father left when he was a baby, and his mother remarried and left when he was ten). He never celebrated a birthday and dealt with bullying as the "darkest kid in the neighborhood" (read more in the 2002 New York Times article A Life So Sad He Had to be Funny , HERE ). Despite the difficulties of his childhood and conflicting feelings about his grandmother, who passed away in 2009, López acknowledges the huge role she played in his life, telling a writer for The Chicago Tribune in 2016, "I think about her every day. I think, probably, about her, like every hour" (click HERE for full article). López began pursuing stand-up comedy after graduation from high school, crediting comedian Freddie Prinze, his idol, for helping him realize it was possible. He was performi...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Eva Longoria! (1975-       ) Photo from forbes.com. Click HERE .  An actress, producer, director, model, activist, and businesswoman who was #4 on Forbes list of "Prime Time's 10 Top-Earning Women" in 2010, Longoria was born to 9th generation Mexican-American parents in Corpus Christi, Texas. When tracing her roots on PBS's show Faces of America , she discovered that her family came to Mexico from Spain in the early 1600s and received a large land grant along the Río Grande river in 1767 from the King of Spain. When the border with the United States moved south in the 1800s, her family found themselves in American territory, and thus Americans. Longoria also discovered that she has Mayan, African, and Asian ancestry, and that she is distant cousins with Chinese cellist Yo-Yo-Ma (read more HERE ).  Longoria, who is perhaps best known for her role as Gabrielle Solís on Desperate Housewives , started her career playing Isabella Br...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Jay Hernández (Javier Manuel Hernández Jr.)! (1978-       ) Photo from tvguide.com. Click HERE .  A chicano actor born in Montebello, California to third generation Mexican-American parents, Hernández was discovered by a talent agent while riding an elevator in a Los Angeles high rise. He made his television debut in the 5th and 6th seasons of NBC's Hang Time , which his now-wife, Daniella Deutscher, also starred in. He made his film debut in the 2001 movie Crazy/Beautiful with Kirsten Dunst. Many movies followed, including Friday Night Lights, Hostel, Carlito's Way: Rise to Power, Max, Bad Moms , and Suicide Squad (he speaks about his role as Diablo in this 2016 Entertainment Weekly article ). He is currently on Will Smith's Netflix blockbuster Bright (see him, along with Will Smith, interviewed for the premiere for Telemundo's Un Nuevo Día, HERE . Smith attempts to speak Spanish. Hernández, who does not speak Spanish but who, ac...