Naya Rivera Says She Can't Speak Spanish: Top 10 Latino Celebrities Who Don't Speak Spanish
In a recent interview with Fox News Latino, Glee star Naya Rivera confessed that she doesn't speak Spanish. With that in mind, then, we decided to take a look at some of the celebrities who are of Latino origin but don't speak Spanish.
1. Selena Gomez: Justin Bieber's on again, off again girlfriend is half-Mexican, but admits that she doesn't speak her mother tongue. In an interview with Latina Magazine, she confessed that she wanted to get Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish because she doesn't speak it. The singer and actress said she wants to learn it because she felt uncomfortable trying to speak Spanish in interviews.
2. James Roday: The actor on USA's hit show Psych is really named James David Rodriguez (he took on an "Anglo" name because he didn't want to pigeon-hole himself into Spanish-type roles). Regardless, even though he was raised by his father's Mexican family, he doesn't speak a word of Spanish.
3. Jessica Alba: the actress known as MiserAlba in some circles because of her sour attitude vehemently denies her Hispanic heritage, and insists she doesn't speak Spanish.
4. Carlos Pena Jr. of Big Time Rush: the boy bander who recently married Alexa Vega (another Latina) doesn't speak Spanish, but like Selena Gomez, he's picking up Rosetta Stone to learn how to speak Spanish.
5. Emilio Estevez & Charlie Sheen: both are the sons of actor Martin Sheen (Ramon Estevez), but neither Emilio nor Charlie (Carlos Estevez) speak Spanish...and according to Charlie, neither one are trying to learn it either.
6. Demi Lovato: when the starlet recorded her song "Lo Que Soy" (This is Me), she was originally going to record the song in Spanish. But when she realized that she couldn't memorize the lyrics the night before she was due to enter the studio, she recorded the song half in English and half in Spanish.
7. Selena: the late Tejano music legend was best known for her Spanish songs, while her English songs were hits after her death. However, as her biopic starring Jennifer Lopez demonstrated, she didn't speak or understand a word of Spanish, and learned many of her hit songs phonetically.
8. Cameron Diaz: the Cuban actress first shot to fame in "The Mask," and recently joked that she not only doesn't speak Spanish, she can barely speak English!
9. Christina Aguilera: like Selena before her, the half-Ecuadorian songstress doesn't speak or understand Spanish, even though she recorded albums in her mother tongue.
10. Marc Consuelos: the former soap opera star and Kelly Ripa's husband was born in Spain and raised in Mexico, and comes from a Spanish-speaking family. However, he doesn't speak a word of the language!