This award season has been all about Zoe Saldaña as she took home a bunch, including an Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild award for her role in “Emilia Pérez.” With all that winning, the 46-year-old actress has had to make plenty of acceptance speeches, and one thing they all have in common – she always makes time to thank her family.
It’s said that parents are a child’s first teachers, so who are the teachers who helped Zoe Saldaña reach the peak of her field? Here’s what we know about her parents.
A Daughter of Immigrants
Zoe Saldaña was born in New Jersey on June 19, 1978, to a Puerto Rican mother Asalia Nazario, and a Dominican father, Aridio Saldaña. Zoe and her two sisters grew up in a bilingual household, speaking Spanish and English in their home – something she proudly professed during her Oscar acceptance speech.
“My grandmother came to this country in 1961,” she said. “I am a proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and dignity and hardworking hands.”
Saldaña noted that she is the first Dominican-American actress to win an Academy Award expressing pride that she won for a role which required her to sing and speak Spanish.
Losing a Hero
Saldaña lived with her parents and sisters Mariel and Cisely in Queens, New York until their father, who she looks exactly like, died unexpectedly in a car accident in 1987. When she was 10 years old, Zoe’s mother sent the girls to the Dominican Republic to live with their grandparents while she worked as a courtroom translator and a hotel maid in New York City to support them.
In a 2015 AOL Original Series, “Zoe Saldaña Presents My Hero,” Zoe acknowledges the tremendous toll her dad’s loss took on her family.
“When we lost him, it was hard. It was very, very tragic. He was a really good guy,” she said.
Zoe honored her father by naming one of the three boys she shares with her husband, Marco Perego, Cy Aridio.
But Saldaña is forever grateful for the sacrifices her mother made to provide for her and her sisters, and she takes every opportunity to give her her flowers for being a source of support over the years.
“You protect us, guide us, and nurture our every inquiry. Through the thick of it all you manage to smile and face the universe with an open heart,” she wrote in a September 2019 Instagram post. “Your mother raised you well @asaliasaldana and now you get to show her just how powerful you are. Thank you mother! We will always remain your most apt pupils and biggest fans.”