Saturday Sultress - Eva Longoria

Eva Jacqueline Longoria Bastón (born March 15, 1975) is an American actress, producer, director, activist and businesswoman. After a series of guest roles on several television series, Longoria was first recognized for her portrayal of Isabella Braña on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, on which she starred from 2001 to 2003. She is perhaps best known for her role as Gabrielle Solis on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives from 2004 to 2012.

If you asked actress and producer Eva Longoria about her identity, she’d say “Texican,” to describe her Mexican-American family from Corpus Christi, Texas.

When she took a DNA test for the PBS program Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr., the results showed her a much more complex story.

They traced the Longoria family back to 16th-century Spain, when a dispute over land inspired Lorenzo Longoria to travel to the New World.

Over 150 years later, in 1767, the king of Spain gave Pedro Longoria 4,000 acres of land in what is now Texas, just north of the Mexican border.

Despite generations of history on this continent, Longoria said her father always calls her family Spanish.

The DNA test revealed that both Longorias were correct. According to Eva’s genetic markers, she is:

• -- 70 percent European
• -- 27 percent Native American
• --  3 percent African

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