Louis C.K. And Other Celebrities You Didn't Think Were Latino (VIDEO)

Some would be deceived by the fair skin and blue eyes. But stand-up comic Louis C.K. (ginger hair and all) is Irish and Mexican.

Louis C.K. was born in Washington D.C. to an Irish mother and Mexican father. The family moved to Mexico City, where he lived until the age of seven. His first language is Spanish, and he retains his Mexican citizenship, according to Best Of Comedy Online. So, C.K. is actually half Latino and has a Mexican passport.

On his last visit to The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien, the comedian poked fun of the racism surrounding immigration, referring to a comment a woman once made against Mexicans. The woman was left speechless after she found out C.K. was Mexican. He talked about when he first came to the U.S. as "a young Mexican boy" and thought, "America es muy bonito!" ("America is very pretty!"), as he put it a child's voice.


Here's a list of other celebrities you probably didn't think were Latinos:

WATCH RELATED:

Comments

[StrawHat]

10:42 AM on 01/03/2012

I have a fair, blue-eyed, natural blonde relative by marriage whose father is a fair, blue-eyed, blond Mexican man.

Mexicans can be of any race, just as U.S. citizens can be of any race.

Hispanic is a language/culture group, not a race.

[arliobserver]

02:26 AM on 12/21/2011

Latino / Latina is a political division invented by the US Federal Givt to track race/origin not race/ erhnicity.
In order of appearance 1 -10 in South and Central American terms:
European Settler Ancestry, American 1/2 blood negro, White Gurl, Black american - they claimed him 1st, Morena Clara, White oy, Morena Clara, 1/2 blood Mexican Indian, Morena Clara. There is no more "rejorative and racist" set of labels than those actually originatingting in Central and South America. Me ? 1/8th Cherokee white boy - get over it.

[AlaskanEagle1990]

10:04 PM on 12/20/2011

"Latino" isn't a race- it's an ethnic group. They come in all colors.

And whatever Aubrey Plaza is, she's just terrible.

[HunGirl2012]

07:11 PM on 12/20/2011

Fun fact: Louis C.K.'s last two initials come from his original last name Sekely, which is Hungarian. I think he had a grandma. I ONLY know this because I am Hungarian and scrounge for Hungarian-ness in others. :)

[The JillyBean]

11:52 PM on 12/17/2011

All the people mentioned are SPANISH latin, not indigenous indian latinos. This is as stupid as calling the ethnically dutch Afrikaaners "africans." Particularly so when there is a significant class division between the white latinos and the indigenous in those countries.

What a pathetic joke this article is.

[Nuyorican21]

11:43 AM on 12/20/2011

Bottom line is that in the US, family history, origin, language and religion all bind Hispanics/Latinos culturally/ethnically and not by race. Obviously, Latin America hasn't had a good record with that. But in the US, we watch the same TV channels (all owned by Cubans of course), eat similar food (somewhat), watch different sports than many other US-born citizens, and have similar family lives (relatively). All those things are cultural/ethnic similarities without any issue about genetic origin. As much as US citizens like to complain, we've handled race with a bit more courage than those south of the US-Mex border.

[The JillyBean]

08:48 AM on 12/21/2011

I got disgusted when a white girl whose mother was an ethnic spaniard with mexican citizenship took a spot from an all expenses paid scholarship program, reserved for minorities. She was from a well off family that was in no way a minority. It was shameless and fraudulant, but technically allowable because her mother was technically "mexican." I'm black and from a comfortable background, but I opted to not apply for one of those scholarships, because it's bad form. I often think what indigenous latino kid who was from a less economically advantaged family was deprived of that coveted scholarship because of this girls tacky grab.

It makes my stomach turn when the white latinos take when it suits them, but leave the indigenous in poverty, colonialism is mentally alive and well.

[arliobserver]

02:30 AM on 12/21/2011

Amen - an attempt to Americano PC the subject of ethnicity / racial origin. Liberals to the far left make me itch in a private place....

[IndependentBadger]

01:34 AM on 12/16/2011

While American racism and xenophobia is sad and pathetic, I can't really ignore the jaw dropping racism I encounter in Latin America on a fairly constant basis. "Whiteness" is associated with quality in Latin America. Whatever is "white" is civilized, clean, modern, and proper. It's tied to a massive inferiority complex Latinos have about race. You'll routinely see people who would never be considered "white" in America, insisting that they have no dirty indian or African or Asian blood in their veins, which is pure garbage. It's pretty revolting, and very sad, especially when you consider that virtually noone in Latin America is "purely" anything. We should be proud of that too, but we aren't. I've been to European villages where the inbreeding has really taken its toll. Latin Americans should be proud of the depth and size of the gene pool they possess. Instead we've accepted the fallacy that northern European genetics equals good, and everything else is substandard.

[Ed Rodguez]

03:10 PM on 04/20/2012

You are 100% right. Yet these same people come here to the USA and complaint that Americans are racist. I am referring to the olive complexion to darker Hispanics. White skin Hispanics don't have that problem in the USA or any other place. In Spain or in any other Spanish country if you are a dark (not black) hispanic some people tend to discriminate. The fallacy that a Northern European is of better caste has always been the case for hundreds of years. So don't be surprised.

[rmpbklyn1215]

08:54 AM on 12/15/2011

wow, how racist and ignorant is this LOL Note to morons, Latin has to do with where you were born from or your culture, It has nothing to do with genes. There are no Latin genes LOL , You can come from a Latin speaking country or culture, that does not impact genes.

[anen87]

06:04 PM on 12/14/2011

yeah I remember back in the day during her peak Sofia Vergara was known as a "guerita" which is kinda of like saying "whitety" back in latinamerica.
http://deportes.orange.es/fotos/sofia-vergara/la-camara-la-adora.shtml
Kinda weird that this woman ^^^ would be considered the complete opposite here in the U.S. xD

I wonder if her boyfriend, Nick Loeb, who has dark hair and olive complexion had a different nationality say Colombian or a different surname a hispanic one. I bet Americans would be like he's "Latino not White" xD Americans are so Nazi. I bet if Victoria Beckham was not famous they would think she's an illegal alien lol Their own kind!

[rgdssd]

01:52 PM on 12/15/2011

the word "guerita" is only used in Mexico, not in all of Latin America.

[Arturo Ramrez]

01:34 PM on 12/21/2011

really? The corpus from the Real Academia de la Lengua Española says otherwise.

[IndependentBadger]

01:27 AM on 12/16/2011

Racism is cultural, so it manifests itself differently in every country. Colombian racism is pretty disgusting stuff. But it's no worse or better than the American variants. Just different. I'll never forget my grandmother's constant admonishments to comb my hair so I wouldn't look like a "puerco indio". It's also shocking for Americans to note that Black people were Senators in Colombia well before Obama showed up, while also referring casually to people as "negrito" ("darky") as if it's no big deal.

[TOMLAM]

08:42 PM on 01/03/2012

Black people were senators here too before Obama showed up. Were there any black presidents in Colombia? I'm betting that its not likely with the casual racism thrown around there.

[wms425s]

05:33 PM on 12/14/2011

What this proves is the old saying,"Never judge a book by its cover." In most larger cities in the US you will see a variety of people with all types of skin colors,and facial features,attempting to categorize people simply by the way they look is very dangerous indeed.

[IndependentBadger]

02:59 PM on 12/14/2011

We don't "think" they're Latino because we are an absurdly backwards people in terms of our understanding of Latin America. Latino isn't a color, or language. It's like saying someone "looks" Jewish. As a Latino who doesn't wear a sombrero, clean someone's patio or nurse rich people's babies, it can be frustrating as hell sharing, say, my love of Stravinsky with someone and then being told that I'm "not as" Latino as someone else. I also want to give a shout out to my Black hermanos and hermanas out there who are almost never recognized as Latino/a until they teach someone salsa or recite Don Quixote for someone in ancient Castilian. UGH.

[cubagirl2000]

01:44 AM on 12/14/2011

Ok, I didn't read other comments - so if I repeat anyone else's, I apologize...
I feel the need to clarify something that irritates the ever living you know what out of me... I am tired of this "Latin" trend going on. I am a very proud WHITE CUBAN and would never deny my roots. My first language is Spanish, and I speak it wherever/whenever... People see me and think, "oh how odd, she must have learned that in school or something." So many people have this false idea that all Latin American people look the same, i.e. like native South and Central Americans with straight jet black hair and dark skin... As you can see (in the above article), Hispanics (or Latin’s as some people call them) come in a variety of colors, races and nationalities... I am 1 of 5 children and we all have a range of skin tone, hair color, etc. I have blue eyed, blond haired aunts, uncles and cousins. I could go on and on, but I think I'll just put this quote by Sofia Vergara a Colombian - "I'm a natural blonde. But when I started acting, I would go to auditions and they didn't know where to put me because I was voluptuous and had the accent--but I had blonde hair. It was ignorance: they thought every Latin person looks like Salma Hayek." ... That right there says it ALL....

[mashud]

04:37 PM on 12/14/2011

what exactly is a 'white cuban'? if your of spanish decent then you are strictly not white.

[anen87]

05:12 PM on 12/14/2011

that's a very nazi kind of mentally which is typical of anglos. I remember reading from some british guy that after traveling extensively to spain and italy he thought spaniards were "whiter" than italians.

[mspender]

12:55 AM on 12/15/2011

not strictly white? By whose rules?

I'm not sure if you're being serious or using sarcasm - but it seems clear that a "white Cuban" would be something similar to being a "white American". These are labels that have to do skin color and such. A "black" person in Cuba, for instance, would have a similar skin color and ancestry than a black person in this country. The label "white" is usually associated with people of European background (that includes the people of Spain), although there was a time when "white" also included people in the Middle East, Arabs and the like. There was also a time when in this country some people who no identify as "white" were not white. (e.g. Italians, Jews). But if you are going to classify all people of European descent as "white", then there indeed millions in Latin -America who are in fact "white", since the continent has for centuries, also taken in millions of European immigrants, not just from Spain but from other parts of Europe.

Also, in case you are indeed serious, you should also know that in reality there's no such thing as being "strictly white".

[SouthOfProgress]

08:28 PM on 12/13/2011

Love Louis CK, had no idea about the mexican heritage. Not at all relevant but interesting.

[melizer]

04:54 AM on 12/15/2011

This article is misleading, he's a quarter Spanish/Mexican-"Indian" from his father's mother. His dad is half Spanish/Mexican-"Indian" and half Hungarian Jew. Both he and his father are Mexican citizens.

[rgdssd]

01:58 PM on 12/15/2011

What the hell? He's just Mexican and Irish, what are you talking about?

Mexicans can be anything, it is a very mixed society- Frida Kahlo, Salma Hayek, etc...etc...

[Arturo Ramrez]

01:49 PM on 12/21/2011

He was born son of a man that was Mexican by birth, he is half Mexican.

[IndependentBadger]

09:50 AM on 12/16/2011

Actualy, in terms of his comedy, its very relevant. If you listen to his material it's pretty versed in history and geography that comes pretty naturally to those of us with a foot in each culture. Try finding another comic who can crack jokes about Prussian Francs, Greek mythology, and gigantic vaginas in one breath.

[raroca77]

04:35 PM on 12/13/2011

As a South American person I grew up, obviously, in a Latin American culture. At least back when I was a kid in elementary school, we were taught that Latino meant speaking a romance language (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, etc) and we knew the term had been popularized and created by the French when they were trying to wrestle away lands from the Spanish empire and that the term has stuck. Given that our countries are as diverse if not more than the US, being Latino or Latina is about culture and not race or looks. So, its really simply offensive to see this CK person (whoever he is) as half Latino. You described someone who is basically bicultural, a Mexican man who is also an American man or Irish descent. Please don't adopt White Americans view of people as race and don't judge and categorize people on the basis of their skin color. That's not a very Latin way of viewing people--it's very Anglo.

[GravitonX]

10:03 AM on 12/14/2011

I've always said that Latino is an American concoction. Though, it works here.

[mashud]

04:38 PM on 12/14/2011

the Spanish were in the Americas long before the Northern Europeans.

[Maricarmen Martinez]

06:19 PM on 12/15/2011

Of course it is, There are NO Latinos in Latin American, as opposed to what? There are Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico, not LATINOS in Puerto Rico

[Silvia Squirre]

09:47 PM on 12/14/2011

"Please don't adopt White Americans view of people as race and don't judge and categorize people on the basis of their skin color. That's not a very Latin way of viewing people--it­'s very Anglo."

That's really globalizing "white people", isn't it? BTW, I lived and worked in Mexico City for a year. I constantly got called "guera" (paleface) whenever I took a break to walk down the street and get a cup of coffee or something - several times in a few blocks distance. Not only did they resent my taking a teaching job, I've never seen people of different races get so stereotyped as they do in Mexico. Just look up "Memin Pinguin"

[mspender]

01:20 AM on 12/15/2011

I don't think that when Mexicans refer to someone as "guera" (or guero) is what you think it is. It is, I understand, a common term for anyone (Mexicans included) who is blonde and fair, not something related to being a white American. You really need to have a better understand both of the culture and language to understand the connotation of such words - can't really make assumptions from an American viewpoint.

That said, I agree that Mexicans, as any other people, do also stereotype - and not just white Americans, but people of other races. I also think that in Mexico a black American would suffer greater discrimination that a white one. Racism and bigotry exists everywhere.

[rgdssd]

02:02 PM on 12/15/2011

Guera just means "white"- it does not mean pale face. Tons of white Mexicans are called gueros- I have Mexican cousins who are naturally blonde and we call them gueros. Most of the time it is a term of endearment (guera, flaca, gorda, negra, morena).

From this and your other comments, sounds to me like you didn't take the time to learn about the culture.

[Cassandra L Chapa]

02:58 PM on 12/13/2011

Columbus was Italian and sailed under the Spanish Flag! America was named after Amerigo Vespucci...an Italian. There were Italians and Spaniards here before the Europeans, so, why is America so racist against the Latinos population?

[SuperHeretic]

04:31 PM on 12/13/2011

Because there's a lot of money and political power to be had in getting one large group of people to hate another. Where would the GOP be without fear and hate? Think about it.

[loanshark]

12:23 PM on 12/14/2011

Yes you are, one superheretic.

[raroca77]

04:40 PM on 12/13/2011

Actually, what was named after Vespucci was the other America, South American. North America was called North America and then Americans stole the name to use is as their national description (it would be weird to say "I'm a United Statesian", but that is in fact what many older South Americans call US people). Neither Vespucci nor Columbus ever came to the United States.

[Arturo Ramrez]

01:55 PM on 12/21/2011

Not only old ones. I don't say "americano" unless I'm referring to the entire continent, I say "estadounidense" when I'm refering to an American, but that's not necessarily ideological, it can be language pragmatics.

[BoshSpong]

02:46 PM on 12/13/2011

Look, if your mom and dad were not American Natives from one of the tribes that inhabited this continent prior to the arrival of Europeans - you are an immigrant.

To sit in judgement of Native American peoples from Guatemala or Mexico for "trespassing" on land that Europeans stole by force - is to be willfully blind.

I happen to be a white, blue eyed light haired, tall Hispanic - I never suffered even an iota of discrimination - of course my family originated in Spain and I have always been mistaken for a "gringo" all my life.

This is a nation of "mutts" a melting pot for the nations and the best hope for peace and understanding between cultures and peoples.

I do not support illegal immigration, however I do not accept the foolish narrative that immigrants are freeloaders - they tend to work harder than anyone else for less money than legals.

However the success of Reaganomics and of the right wing propaganda machine are turning America's middle class into members of the third world working class - the whole illegal immigration point is becoming moot as we keep on incorporating the "libertarian" strategies that permeate most third world economies.

[lowbeam]

08:46 PM on 12/13/2011

Expensive-loaders would be more accurate.

[mspender]

01:28 AM on 12/15/2011

hard-working-loaders, even more accurate.

[mashud]

04:41 PM on 12/14/2011

here here. GOP can squeal as much as it likes, but unless your a American Native, its highly suspect to say immigrants go home. if that was the case, all people would have to leave North America and the majority would have to leave South America.

[BoshSpong]

08:34 PM on 12/14/2011

So true. However the irony is lost upon cluless folks..