Zoe Saldaña on the complexities of growing up bicultural: 'I was bullied for not speaking Spanish'
Anyone who grew up with two cultures knows the difficulties that come with finding a sense of self, and of belonging. Zoe Saldaña can tell you exactly how that feels.
The Emilia Pérez star began her childhood in New York City, with her parents and her two sisters, but when she was just nine years old, her father died in car crash, leaving the family shattered and forcing everything to change. In her new cover story for Harper’s Bazaar US, the actress recalls how her mother sent her and her two sisters to live with family in the Dominican Republic while she stayed in the US, working several jobs to support them.
The move impacted Saldaña in more ways than she was prepared for. “You can’t speak English; you have to speak only Spanish. You can’t code-switch,” she remembers. “And then you get bullied because kids don’t understand you. And we weren’t little victims. We pushed back, but then they pushed harder, because they all understood each other.”
Still, the experience brought Saldaña and her sisters closer, and the three now even own a production company, Cinestar, together. “They wouldn’t let us speak English in class,” her older sister, Mariel, recalls, “but then when we would have a break, you would see us in a corner just connecting. It felt like home.”
“I think that unified us even more because not everybody could relate,” her younger sister, Cisely, adds. “You can’t expect them to have the same capacity and to understand what you’re going through.”
While rough, the change also meant Saldaña became fluent in Spanish and finally got to know and embrace her Dominican roots. In Emilia Pérez, the Golden Globe winner plays attorney Rita Mora, and speaks in fluent Spanish—it’s her first major role in the language.
Read the full cover story here.
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