Camila Mendes is thought to be Hispanic by lots of people. However, that’s not true. The Do Revenge star actually identifies as American Latina as she is from Brazil and speaks Portuguese. Though people generally believe that Hispanics and Latina are the same, Hispanic people are Spanish-speaking people whereas Latina are from Latin America but they don’t speak Spanish. Camila Mendes is therefore Latina.
Camila Mendes is an American actress and singer who made her acting debut in 2017 when she was cast on The CW teen drama series Riverdale to portray Veronica Lodge. For her portrayal of Veronica, she won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Scene Stealer in 2017.
Besides that, she has appeared as Morgan Cruise in the romantic comedy The New Romantic, the Netflix original films The Perfect Date, Dangerous Lies, as well as the critically acclaimed Hulu sci-fi comedy Palm Springs. Her latest Netflix film Do Revenge was recently released on September 16.
Since then, the internet is buzzing with discussions about the teen comedy and about the actors themselves. A lot of fans are now interested to know Camila’s ethnicity as a lot of them think that she is Hispanic whereas the other half is just not so sure about that. So, is Camila Mendes Hispanic? Read to find out!
Is Camila Mendes Hispanic? The Actress’ Ethnicity Revealed!
Camila Mendes (@camimendes), ever since she came into the acting scene as Veronica Lodge in Riverdale, has garnered a massive fan following and earned adoration and appreciation from millions of fans. Those fans were always curious about her ethnicity since Veronica herself is ethnic. Lots of people assumed that both the character and the actress are Hispanic but they were wrong about that.
Turns out Camila Mendes is not Hispanic. She identifies as an American Latina. While Hispanic and Latina are often used interchangeably, when people say that someone is Hispanic, they are generally referring to a person who either speaks in Spanish or is descended from Spanish-speaking populations or countries, especially those of Latin America.
So, by these conditions, Camila Mendes is certainly not Hispanic because she neither speaks Spanish nor hails from Spanish-speaking countries. She identifies as Latina because she is from Brazil, which is considered to be Latin America. But people from Brazil and Portugal are not considered Hispanic because they do not fit the public’s idea of what it means and also because they are not Spanish-speaking countries. They are Portuguese-speaking populations.
They are Latina. And for Camila Mendes, being American Latina means identifying with the western culture as well as her Latin heritage. She was raised in America but has Brazilian ancestry and as an American Latina, she is influenced by both her American upbringing and her Latin heritage. She speaks highly of both cultures and has spoken of how much appreciation she has for how those two cultures have created who she was.
So, to anybody who still thinks that Camila Mendes must be Hispanic and must speak Spanish because she is a Latina, there’s a difference between being Hispanic and being Latina though the words are often used interchangeably. And she is not Hispanic, she is American Latina.
She is Latina and proud of her heritage even though it’s not always easy being Latina in Hollywood. She has explained how she feels about being a Latina in America. She is a full-blooded Brazilian and has an entire extended family of Brazilians, but she was born and raised in the United States of America. So whenever she goes to Brazil, she feels like an American amidst the people of the same ancestry as her in the country she never grew up in. And whenever she’s in the USA, she always notices the traits that make her stand out as Brazilian.
Camila Mendes always takes care to keep in touch with her Latin heritage even though she now lives in the USA. She said that she connects with her culture through her family. She even speaks Portuguese to her parents so that she can practice it always and that way, she will never forget the language. She also stays engaged with her extended family through a lively group chat on Whatsapp. She explained that the sense of community and family is at the heart of Brazilian culture, and staying engaged with her family is what keeps her connected.
The Riverdale star has also spoken about how it feels difficult to be a Latina in Hollywood. She shared that she had started to see the issues in how some projects were cast from early on when she was relatively new to Hollywood. She talked about how ethnic people were stereotyped into boxes on the basis of their looks which could invalidate the feeling of belonging of such people if they did not fit into the stereotypes and create an identity crisis.
Camila Mendes is now not new to hearing things like, “You don’t look Latina enough.” She is tired of such things and has said that mentality is so backwards because the fact is that she is Latina so, how were people going to tell her that she didn’t look Latina?
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