America Ferrera discovers family secret on 'Finding Your Roots'

America Ferrera was left stunned during her appearance on Finding Your Roots after discovering a deeply personal piece of her family’s past.

In an exclusive clip from the Season 12 premiere, airing January 6, Ferrera reads a love letter written by her grandmother in the early 1950s to a man named Arturo.

Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. explains that the letter was written around the time of her grandmother’s divorce. “It’s dated three years before June 20, 1952, so likely around the time she got divorced,” Gates told Ferrera.

The revelation immediately surprised the actress. “Are you kidding me? A love letter!” Ferrera said with a smile. “I wonder if she ever thought that one day I would be reading this on television?”

Ferrera then reads the translated letter aloud, originally written in Spanish.

“Arturo, I suffered a disillusion that's caused me to close my heart to all affection, thinking that I could not love again, but you appeared on my lonely path to break this law,” she reads. 

“Despite the disappointment I suffered, I listened to your words.”

Overcome with emotion, Ferrera pauses before laughing, “I honestly cannot get over that you guys found a love letter. I can't get over it!”

In the show’s Season 12 trailer, Ferrera described the experience as life-changing, saying, “It's like learning there's a new room in your house that you've never seen.”