Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born on 2 February 1977 in Barranquilla, a city located on the northern Caribbean coast of Colombia. She is the only child of William Mebarak Chadid and Nidia Ripoll Torrado. Her parents are of Lebanese, Catalan, and Colombian descent,[28][29][30] though she has distant Italian roots through an ancestor with the surname Pisciotti.[31] She was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools.[32] Shakira has eight older half-siblings from her father's previous marriage.[33]