New York, .- The second season of “Vida”, an innovative television series that explores the identity, culture, gender and sexuality of a Latino community rooted in the eastern part of Los Angeles (USA), opens this Thursday on the Starz platform.
“There are not many executive producers and creators who have been given opportunities to tell these stories,” said actress Melissa Barrera, one of the protagonists, regarding the lack of series of Latinos in the United States.
“We are just seeing a change in the industry in which the doors are opening, and we believe that a wave is coming,” the interpreter, a native of Mexico, predicted.
Created by Tanya Saracho and starring Melissa Barrera and Mishel Prada, “Life” began in the first season, released just over a year ago, with the problems of two sisters who return to their mother’s home after her death to face a peculiar situation: the supposed “roommate” of his progenitor was actually his wife.
With this revelation of a homosexuality hidden for decades, the first episode of the program started, to include realistic and explicit sexual scenes between different types of couples that on rare occasions have been seen on the small screen.
As the protagonists of the show, Melissa Barrera and Mishel Prada, point out, “Vida” is a series about Latinos, made by Latinos for the Latino community, “telling stories that have never been told before”.
“In the US there are not many Latin movies to start with, but there is not much Latino television either, and normally what we see are stereotypes of criminals, servants or that kind of thing,” Saracho explained.
“This series is not about this kind of stuff and it plays a lot in gays, that’s something we’ve never seen before, without it being for a comedy effect or sense of humor. (…) I like how we handle it because we do it in a truthful way, “he added.
In addition to homosexuality, there is extensive talk of the phenomenon of gentrification, in which humble communities in large cities are gradually expelled from certain neighborhoods by large companies or people with greater purchasing power by revaluing the land on which they are located.
This is just one of the problems faced by Lyn (Melissa Barrera) and Emma (Mishel Prada), who try to prevent a large corporation from taking over their mother’s bar.
“Vida” also addresses another series of issues that the vast majority of Latinos already born in the United States. they can understand, as is the difficulty of finding an identity because they do not feel totally American, but neither of the country of origin of their parents.
“When you grow up here, you go to your parents’ city and it’s not familiar, you know it, but it’s not yours, it’s not your home, and when you’re here they’re telling you that you can not be here,” Prada explained.
“You’re not American enough,” Barrera finished. For Prada, the television “show” also addresses the question of language and how many US-born Latinos. They have lost Spanish or have become their second language in front of English, something that does not make them less Hispanics.
“It is important (…) to know that you do not speak Spanish perfectly as if you were from the country, Mexico or Puerto Rico, but you are still Latino and we have to be together in this,” he said.
The success of the first season has led, in front of the six episodes of the first season of “Life”, this second installment has ten chapters of about 30 minutes each. (EFEUSA)
