By Roberto Leal
The 1940 film Our Town, based on Thornton Wilder’s play of the same name, takes a nostalgic, rose-colored-lens look back at the changes that occur in a small New Hampshire town. Set in pre-World War II America, this gentle, vanilla-flavored remembrance of things past foreshadows the seismic shifts in our inner cities, the flight to white suburbia and the ethnic identity of inner-city neighborhoods.
Gentefied, the Netflix dramedy set in modern-day Boyle Heights is a thoughtful and often funny Chicano meditation on how innovation, change and the ever-present encroaching menace of gentrification can cause doubt and conflict within a traditional Latino community.
Gentefied creators Linda Yvette Chávez (The one-Wayz) and Marvin Lemus (Dia De Cuetes) tell us the story of the Morales cousins, Erik (Joseph Julian Soria, Crank: High Voltage) and Chris (Carlos Santos, Vacation Friends) as they struggle with the paradox of the American Dream within the milieu of their Chicano neighborhood as symbolized by the taco shop of their beloved, immigrant grandfather Casimiro “Popi” Morales, beautifully played by veteran Mexican actor Joaquín Cosio (Quantum of Solace ).
OUT OF THE RIVER INTO THE MAINSTREAM
“Getting into the mainstream” is the catchphrase often heard among Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans that defines the strategic pathway to successfully assimilating into American society. But “getting into the mainstream” or assimilating presents a troubling conundrum for Mexicans who have crossed a river to get here and even for those who were born on this side of the river. Succeeding in White America for a Latino means jettisoning huge parts of their Mexican culture like forgetting Spanish in favor of English, Americanizing our Hispanic names and leaving ancient cultural traditions behind.
Gentefied uses Popi’s taco shop as the backdrop- to explore the intracultural conflicts of assimilation versus maintaining traditions within this Chicano neighborhood. The principal characters are the archetypes that illustrate the dynamics within the story of Gentefied. Popi is the classic Mexican immigrant hero. Popi crosses the river, settles in Boyle Heights, starts a thriving taco shop and becomes a fixture in the community. His grandson Erik symbolizes change and the desire to seek new horizons. Chris, Erik’s cousin, likes the safety and security of Boyle Heights and only wishes to honor his grandfather’s legacy.
Ana Morales, (Karrie Martin, Holidate ) is an aspiring artist. Ana has attracted the attention of an Anglo art patron who wants to promote her work for a profit. But it is not clear if Ana intends to compromise her artistic integrity and allow herself to be exploited by her patron.
Lina Solis (Annie Gonzalez, Shameless) is highly educated, ambitious and upwardly mobile. She’s involved with Chris, but the lure of the mainstream is drawing her away from her familiar surroundings.
When Popi’s taco shop runs into financial problems, Erik convinces a skeptical Popi and a resistant Chris that the taco shop needs to introduce new flavors and ingredients to its tried-and-true menu of tacos and other traditional Mexican favorites in order to attract a newer, more prosperous upscale customer.
THE ORGANIC HUMMUS AND SPROUTS TOSTADA
Popi eases his anxiety over the changes to his taco shop by spending time with Lupe (Alma Martinez, The Terror). Lupe provides a sympathetic ear and is a safe harbor for Popi during the stormy transition raging in his precious taco shop.
But the changes Erik installs ring-up positive results at the cash register. Even Chris has to grudgingly acknowledge his cousin’s quirky culinary adaptations have proven successful. It isn’t too far-fetched to imagine Popi having an unsettling vision of his taco shop becoming a trendy eatery for yuppie gabachos eating his now-signature hummus and sprouts tostada with a knife and fork. ¡Ay Dios, sálvanos!
WHAT PRICE TRADITION?
Thomas Wolfe wrote: “You can never go home again.” As a cautionary warning against viewing the past through a romanticized mind’s eye, it has some truth. But it can also be said that you never leave your neighborhood. You may leave it physically, but emotionally, spiritually and culturally where you were formed as a human being stays with you throughout your lifetime.
Gentefied shows us a Chicano neighborhood struggling to maintain its identity and long-held traditions in the face of impending change from outside forces and within the Chicano community itself. Everything has a price and Gentefied asks what price a community is willing to pay to keep its treasured traditions. All the characters in Gentefied through their various storylines are seeking an answer to that question.
WELL, THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD!
While Boyle Heights is the focus of Gentefied, the creators of the show, Chávez and Lemus, are holding a larger mirror up to a demographic and cultural explosion in America that the inhabitants of Wilder’s 1940s New Hampshire small town could never imagine in their Thorton Wildest dreams.
In this year’s World Series, the two teams celebrating America’s Pastime were dominated by players with Hispanic surnames. During the game, there was a gimmick promoting: “Steal a base. Get a free taco.” Whenever a player from either team stole a base, Taco Bell gave away free tacos to all of America. Not a baloney sandwich, a slice of pizza or a potato knish, but a taco.
In a recent historic first appointment, the Senate confirms Robert Santos, a third-generation Mexican American from San Antonio, Texas as head of the US Census Bureau. So not only will the growing numbers of Hispanics in America be too big to ignore, but we also now have a Latino statistician making sure the numbers are accurate. The political and societal implications of those numbers are enormous.
While Our Town is a warm, fuzzy, feel-good look at an America that used to be, Gentefied is?—through the lens of Chicano Boyle Heights and the characters struggling with the tug and pull of tradition versus modernity?—an entertaining and colorful glimpse into the inevitable Latinization of America.
Season two of Gentefied returns to Netflix Nov. 10.
GENTEFIED
Stars: Joaquín Cosio, Joseph Julian Soria, Karrie Martin , Carlos Santos, Alma Martinez, Annie Gonzalez
Featured Photo: Gentefied (Credit: Netflix)
