Way too much of the Rachel Zegler talk lately has been about her supposed feud with Gal Gadot, and not enough has been about Snow White—despite how good the reviews have been for the new Disney live-action adaptation and how much praise Zegler, in particular, has gotten from it. The actress, whose big break came in another big musical, the remake of West Side Story, has drawn her own controversy for being a little bit outspoken, there is that.
She talked about Snow White being outdated, which, let’s admit, she does have a point there. The original was released in 1937. That probably is not the most politically correct thing to say, but that is kind of a fact. Then, she criticized President Trump. If we add the supposed feud with Gal Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen, to that, and Disney scaling back promotion of Snow White, then here we are. People just love reasons to create controversies, anyway.
Related: Who is Rachel Zegler dating?
But one of the weirdest made-up controversies has been about Zegler’s ethnicity. Zegler addressed that one head on in an interview as she discussed the question of her ethnicity and whether she was white or not. But what’s Rachel Zegler’s ethnicity? Is she white?
What’s Rachel Zegler’s ethnicity?
Rachel Zegler is indeed white, and she is also Latina. Being Latino is an ethnicity, not a race, meaning you can be Latino and be Black, White, and even of Asian descent. She was born in New Jersey and her mother Gina is the US-born daughter of Colombian immigrants, while her father is the descendant of Polish immigrants.
The actress explained recently in an interview with Allure that “there’s confusion because I don’t have a single ounce of Latin in my name,” adding that “When I was in the running for María in West Side Story, they kept calling to ask if I was legit. I remember thinking, Do you want me to bring my abuelita in? I will. I’ll bring her into the studio if you want to meet her.”
Abuelita is the Spanish word for grandmother. Zegler’s comments were part of her internal monologue and not said out loud to executives, but they are part of a larger stereotype for actresses in Hollywood who are required to have a Spanish-sounding last name or look a certain way to be considered Latinas. Even Zoe Saldaña, who just won an Oscar for Emilia Peréz, her first movie in Spanish, only started going by Saldaña instead of Saldana recently and has spoken openly about people’s confusion over the fact that she could be Black and Latina.
Zegler has previously spoken about how, “It’s an interesting experience being part of that diaspora in the current climate we live in. But I love being Colombian.” Relationships between Colombia and the US were recently strained by a back-and-forth between US President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro about the treatment of migrants being sent to Colombia.
