She continues to speak about her family and the fact that she had a very modest Cuban upbringing in Los Angeles. Her father still doesn’t speak Spanish, which is a good thing because her oldest daughter speaks to him in Spanish. “We’re constantly playing Cuban music. I speak to them in Spanish, and my mom speaks to Esmeralda in Spanish. Well, now she speaks to both of them in Spanish. Any time I have an opportunity to introduce her or them—I have to say “them” now, though my newborn just sleeps all the time—to my culture, whether it’s through music, or through food, I do. That is a main priority, for sure.”
The birth of her second baby, Amada was a bitter-sweet moment because not only had she just given birth to her daughter, but during the same time her brother Carlos passed away. “Losing my brother brought our family closer, and we were already close to begin with. So to just see everybody be there for one another and show up, I feel so lucky to have them. And then they were there for me when Amada was born. We had a funeral service for him and that same week I had the baby. So it was really, really intense and obviously beyond heart-breaking, but also kind of beautiful.” Both of her daughters are named Amada, after her grand-mother, whom she adored dearly.
She explains that her mom has been a big help and an inspiration: “Everything she’s been through, the challenges in her life, she handles everything with such grace and elegance and has a great sense of humor. One night this year, we were in the car after leaving my brother’s house. It was before he passed away, and we were obviously very upset. We were very quiet and in our own thoughts when then I turned the car and this entire bottle of Coca-Cola spills all over her. We still had 40 minutes to be on the road, and she was all sticky and cold. And she’s just sitting there drenched in this soda, and we start laughing so hard.”
Mendes is not sure when she’ll go back to acting, but for the meantime, she’s enjoying every minute with her family. Check out this interview with Latina Magazine:
