Rita Hayworth
Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, 1918, in Brooklyn to a Ziegfield Follies girl and a Spanish-born dancer. By the age of 13, she was dancing in Mexican nightclubs, and began her film career as Rita Cansino. Her first husband (out of five, including Orson Welles and Prince Aly Khan) was the promoter Edward Judson who changed her name and dyed her hair until she became the flame-haired temptress of Gilda and The Lady From Shanghai.
Rita Moreno
Born Rosita Dolores Alverio in Puerto Rico, 1932, she grew up in New York. A Broadway star as well as Anita in West Side Story, she was the first woman to win all four top showbiz awards - Oscar, Tony, Grammy and two Emmys. She said of casting: "It took me six years of therapy to get my `ethnic' problems untangled."
Raquel Welch
Born Raquel Tejada, 1940, in Chicago to a Bolivian-born engineer and a mother of English stock. Her films never matched the degree of her fame, which rested solidly on her all-American sexuality.
Rosie Perez
Of Puerto Rican descent, Perez was born in Brooklyn. She was set to be a marine biologist until a scout spotted her dancing in a club. Her first film break came when Spike Lee cast her as the tough-talking teenage mother in Do the Right Thing. After such movies as White Men Can't Jump and Fearless, she opens in January in the title role of Perdita Durango, the Spanishmade sequel to Wild at Heart.
Salma Hayek
Born in south-east Mexico, Hayek was the most famous soap star in Central America, playing the title role in Theresa. She made a successful transition to the big screen, courtesy of her mentor Robert Rodriguez, starring in three of his films - Desperado (opposite Hispanic himbo Antonio Banderas), Roadracers and From Dusk till Dawn (opposite a giant python - see Lopez and Anaconda). Recent films include Fools Rush In, in which she plays a poor Mexican girl, and 54, the story of the legendary New York nightclub. Rumoured to be playing the lead in a biopic of the artist Frida Kahlo.
Cameron Diaz
Cinema's current favourite blonde - The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, There's Something About Mary - gets her name from her second-generation Cuban-American dad, though her colouring comes from her mother's German and English (and Native American) stock.
Jennifer Esposito
Born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents. She made her name in Spin City and is now at number two in the US with I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. She stars in Spike Lee's upcoming The Summer of Sam.