Jennifer Lopez Nationality: Where Is J.Lo From? Inside Her Latina Roots

Joe Biden inauguration: Jennifer Lopez performs

Jennifer Lopez arrived on stage at the US presidential inauguration to perform This Land Is Your Land and America The Beautiful, dressed in a white coat and white ruffled blouse. The world-renowned songstress is just one of dozens of singers and musicians to perform at Joe Biden's swearing-in, including John Legend, Demi Lovato, Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen and Justin Timberlake. After belting out a phrase in Spanish during her performance, many fans were wondering what is known about her family and her nationality.

Where is JLo from?

J.Lo is of Puerto Rican descent but was born and raised in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, New York.

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Her parents, Guadalupe Rodriguez and David Lopez, were both born and brought up in Ponce, Puerto Rico's largest city after San Juan.

As children, both then moved to the US with their respective families before they met in New York.

J.Lo is the middle child of three, meaning she has has an older sister and a younger sister, Lynda, who is a journalist.

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Jennifer Lopez nationality: Where is JLo from? Inside her Spanish roots (Image: GETTY)

Jennifer Lopez (Image: Getty)

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Her father was a computer technician and her mother a homemaker, but despite their humble origins, they funded their daughter's singing and dancing lessons, which she started at just five-years-old.

Throughout her childhood, her parents stressed the importance of work ethic and being able to speak English.

But Jennifer has always been proud of her Puerto Rican heritage. Speaking of her ethnicity in 2006, she said: "I’ve never tried to hide the fact that I’m Latina.

“I think that’s why Hispanics are like ‘She’s ours; she’s out there, but she belongs to us’ and that’s true.

Jennifer Lopez performing at the inauguration of President Joe Biden (Image: Getty)

"With the Latino community, I am theirs. I do belong to them—that’s who I am.”

Jennifer has also played famous Latino women in her acting career, such as Selena, who was considered the Queen of Tejano music.

In the film, J.Lo portrayed a young Selena who was trying to make her way in the music business, and has since become one of the most famous Latin music artists in history.

However, Selena's career was short, as she was shot and killed days before her 24th birthday.

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Jennifer Lopez performing with Marc Anthony (Image: Getty)

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Like Selena, Jennifer has not only recorded in English, but also in Spanish, often doing Spanish-language songs on her albums as well as entirely Spanish records.

One of these, Como Ama una Mujer, was co-written and co-producer by her then-husband Marc Anthony, who is also a Latin music star.

In her debut album, On the 6, she fused her Latin heritage with American pop and R&B music, which was hugely successful.

She and Marc performed a ballad together on this album, No Me Ames, which was a Spanish-language song.

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• Jennifer Lopez performance: What did JLo shout in Spanish?

As well as this, her song Let's Get Loud had a Latin-style beat in the bacgorund, as well as brassy instruments which gave it a fiesta-style feeling.

Jennifer has been open about her heritage and Puerto Rican background, while she is also an American and was born in the USA.

At President Biden's inauguration, she shouted a phrase in Spanish, which translated means: "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Her Latina and American roots are clearly important to her, as well as uniting a country which has suffered divisions, most notably over the past few weeks.

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