Who are America Ferrera’s parents? Barbie star opens up father’s disappearance

America Ferrera has opened up about her father’s departure from the family during the Season 12 premiere of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Her father, Carlos Gregorio Ferrera, who was originally from Honduras, left his family to return to his home country. At that time, the Barbie actress was only seven years old. It created a sense of “disappearance” or abandonment for her. He passed away in 2010.

In the episode, America Ferrera became emotional when she delved into a difficult part of her past with Gates. He revealed new details about her paternal side, showing that Carlos himself grew up in a broken home. His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother left Honduras for a new partner.

After her father left their family, Ferrera and her five older siblings were raised by their mother, América Griselda Ayes, as a single parent. Her parents emigrated from Honduras in the 1970s.

Continue reading for more information.

All we need to know about America Ferrera’s parents

In the new episode of Finding Your Roots, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed shocking details to America Ferrera about her paternal side, including her father, Carlos’ childhood.

She was presented a love letter from her late paternal grandmother, Georgina Paz Mendieta, addressed to her second husband, Nicole Orturo Nuila Castillo. It read:

Orturo,

I suffered a disillusion that has caused me to close my heart to all affection, thinking that I could not love again. But you appeared on my lonely path to break the slough. Despite the disappointment I suffered, I listened to your words. Despite my dashed hopes, I forged new ones and new dreams.

The letter revealed that Georgina experienced heartbreak after her divorce from Carlos’ father, Don Carlos Ferrera, which caused her to close herself off to love until Orturo entered her life.

She learned that her grandmother and her new husband left Honduras and moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as an architect and she as a teacher. They had a child. She reconnected with Carlos upon returning to Honduras, but died suddenly in March 1961 when he was about 11.

America Ferrera was then shown a picture of her father with his half-brother, taken sometime after he left their family. It showed that despite losing his mother at a young age, Carlos kept a connection with his half-brother. Ferrera described it as “salvaging a lost memory” since she has no context of his life post-departure.

Ferrera revealed that her parents struggled to make ends meet during her upbringing in Los Angeles. She Marie Claire magazine:

“My family never lied about the fact that we didn't have a lot. You just kind of have to play the cards you're dealt.”

She was raised by her mother in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles along with her other siblings. She worked tirelessly as a director of housekeeping for a Hilton hotel to support her children. Despite their poverty, her mother stressed the importance of education and pushed all her kids to excel academically.

During an interview with The Independent, America Ferrera opened up about her parents and how she was raised by her mother after their divorce. She said:

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“My parents were immigrants and my mother quickly became a single mother in my childhood. She had to be strong, there was no option for her to survive and to raise her children and to see us succeed and give us what she wanted to give us.”

America Ferrera attended the University of Southern California. It was while studying at this university that she met her husband, Ryan Piers Williams, in 2003. The couple got engaged in 2010 and married the next year. In May 2018, she gave birth to their first child, Sebastian Piers Williams, and in May 2020, they welcomed another child named Lucia Marisol Williams.

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