William Levy, born William Levy Gutiérrez, was born in Cojimar, Cuba and grew up in Miami, Florida.
Levy's early life was very poor in Cuba, a Stalinist country known for its suppression of religious freedom. And Levy has stated that his upbringing was not at all religious. Interestingly, Levy's grandfather was Jewish, though that faith didn't play much of a role in his life.[1]
But in 2009, Levy decided he liked Catholicism quite a bit and, at the age of 29, he officially converted to that faith. At a church in Puebla, Mexico, he received his confirmation and took his first communion.[2]
Now, he appears to be quite devout, something that comes out on his Twitter account. He once tweeted:
God has invested entirely too much into you for you to be comfortable in something less than you were created to be![3]
And his faith was even publicly acknowledged on the show, Dancing with the Stars, where judge Bruno Tonioli evaluated his Levy's performance by saying:
There is a boy inside the man. It looked like the Catholic boy from Cuba was there. You put your heart and soul into this.[4]
Although, I would have said: 'It looked like the formerly non-religious Catholic boy from Cuba with Jewish ancestry was there.' But that's just me.
Poverty and brushing off the president
Levy isn't very political. He seems to care more about his career, dancing and looking smokin' hot. He was even invited to dinner at the White House once and declined because he was too busy training for his appearance on Dancing with the Stars.[5]
But he does seem to enjoy the opportunities and bounty that comes from living in the U.S. He has spoken about the heart-wrenching poverty he experienced growing up in Cuba, where food was scarce. And of the perilous journey he took floating to Florida, he said:
I didn't know if we were going to make it, but it was a do-or-die situation. I only knew that the refrigerators had everything. You open it and you'd see ham, cheese, Coca-Cola… All I knew was my refrigerator was going to be full of stuff.[6]
Maybe he doesn't care about who's in office, as long as there's food on the table.
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