Her father is of Mexican American descent. Both of her paternal grandparents were born in California. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas before settling back in California when she was nine years old.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies; she suffered collapsed lungs twice, had pneumonia 4-5 times a year, a ruptured appendix, and a tonsillar cyst. This isolated her from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has also acknowledged suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder during childhood. Her health improved, however, when her family moved to California.
