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OC Weekly writer and KPFK host Gustavo Arellano is sort of digging the news that he's a third cousin once removed of the Pomona-born actress Jessica Alba. They are related by way of El Cargadero, a village in Zacatecas that Arellano says "has sent thousands of people to Anaheim over the last century."
As it turns out, the grandmother of Jessica's father, Mark, and my grandfather were first cousins. Our great-grandfathers, hermanos Plácido and Juan Miranda, used to work together at the Morenci Mine in Arizona during the early 1900s. The shared ancestor of Mark Alba and I is our respective great-great grandfather, Victoriano Miranda....I was going to write about the actress' supposed insistence that the reason her family advanced in life as Mexis in America were because they dropped their ethnic culture and Spanish language, but I can't find definite proof Alba said some of the Mexican-bashing things people say she uttered...so I'll end this post with this: you know Alba's big forehead? It's a genetic trait from El Cargadero (along with light skin, eyes, and hair) that most of its residents possess, this nerd sadly included.
YouTube bonus: Alba in playful staring contest.
Photo by Terry Richardson from GQ slide show