What Is Zoe Saldana’s Ethnicity? Know About Her Parents and Race

Zoe Saldana belongs to a family of mixed ethnicity. While she is American by nationality, her ethnic background is tied to different cultural roots. 

Saldana's parents were immigrants to the United States who settled in New York.

Zoe Saldana: Her Parents and Her Ethnicity

Her late father, Aridio Saldana, was Dominican while her mom, Asalia Nazario, is Puerto Rican.

After her father died in a car crash, a ten-year-old Saldana and her sisters, Cisely and Mariel, got shipped off to the Dominican Republic and lived there until she was seventeen.

"My sisters and I were supposed to adopt our grandparents' lifestyle. But we're just not traditional Latin women," she told Esquire in 2009.

During the same interview, Saldana shared she hated the questions regarding her ethnicity, and despite belonging to multiple ethnic backgrounds, she preferred to call herself a native of Queens.

Zoe Saldana with her mother posing for a photograph. (Photo Credit: Facebook)

However, during her sitting with Wired in 2019, Saldana was asked whether she was Haitian.

In her response, the Avatar actress said she was three-quarters Dominican and a quarter Peurto Rican.

On a personal note, Saldana is married to her husband Marco Perego, who belongs to the Italian heritage.

The couple got married in 2013 and are proud parents of their three children, all sons, including twins Cy Aridio and Bowie Ezio, born in 2014. Their younger son, Zen, was born in 2017.

Zoe Saldana on the Rise of Latino Ethnicity

In 2015, Saldana was featured as the Latina magazine's cover star from December 2015/ January 2016. 

And during her exclusive interview with Latina, the actress opened about immigration and the rise of Latino culture in the United States.

Reportedly, the actress was excited to see the growth of Latin culture in America. Further, she shared a strong message for anyone who might not share the same enthusiasm as the actress.

"You can't kill us. You can't send us back," Saldana voiced her opinion.

She said there are "millions and millions" of people with Latino ethnicity in the US because it was their time to migrate.

She called her race the youngest culture and said they are doing the same thing as people from other races and ethnic backgrounds before.

Actress Zoe Saldana's late father Aridio Saldana. (Photo Credit: Instagram)

"So shut up and just deal with it," Saldana remarked.

She further called for law adjustment as immigration as a social and political phenomenon wouldn't go away.

Saldana also shared how she wanted to hug the natives of America and say, "It's okay, It's new. Don't be scared," calling Latino people "great people."

She asked for people's trust and promised the immigrants would do great and better things for the country.

"We are a culture that isn't angry," she further added.

The actress called native Americans the only true Americans and stressed how Latino people were going through the same phase as people from Italian, Irish, Jewish, Asian ethnic backgrounds initially experienced.

Toward the end, Saldana highlighted how, after a while, people acculturated and only found solace by truly accepting who they were.

She said immigrants from various parts of the world blended in accepting America as their new home while keeping their motherland separate from the discussion.