When ‘Gentefied’ first premiered on Netflix, the response to seeing representation of Latinx communities in a real and personal way was immense—and since then, it hasn’t slowed down. Luckily, for creators, show-runners and directors of the series, they haven’t either.
“It was crazy to have a show received the way that we hoped,” explains co-creator of ‘Gentefied’ Marvin Lemus. “It’s a lot of work working on a season for TV, so it definitely gave us that second wind to be able to go in and do it again. Knowing that ok, people loved it and they want to go back in and know what’s going to happen—[we said] let’s make another great season of TV that we would be proud of.”
The show originally was developed by Lemus and co-creator/writer Linda Yvette Chávez as a digital series with the same name mirroring the culture and the continuous conflict with gentrification in Latin communities, specifically with where they grew up in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. Soon after the digital trailer dropped however, America Ferrera became involved as an EP of the series, which made it’s way to the streaming giant in early 2020.
Then, the pandemic hit. However, that gave even more of a reason for Lemus and Chávez to come back for Season 2 and get even more personal with the characters and storyline.
“The first thing Marvin and I did was go to Big Bear and lock ourselves up in a cabin and start thinking: What is the show that we want to make? This is the first season Marvin and I got to fly solo as show runners, so we really were excited to have that entry point,” says Chávez. “What we did know is that we wanted to show this internal journey that our character’s were going through and we ultimately wanted to take each of our characters on a challenging journey. That’s one of the things Marvin and I both talked about, not having any of our cousins or Pop have it easy… That’s life. Life is hard and we left off the season with a hard cliffhanger.”
That cliffhanger? If you watch Season 1, the finale episode ‘Delfina’ features some highs for the Morales cousins and their Pop, who serves as the father figure to all of them. Eric (Joseph Julian Soria) and Lydia (Annie Gonzalez) are welcoming a baby girl into the world, but it’s in that exact scene that they also realize that Pop (Joaquín Cosío) is not present. Instead, viewers see him arrested, handcuffed, and trapped in the back of an ICE van. That storyline is immediately picked up in Season 2 with the after-effects of Pop’s time behind bars and what the family is trying to do to keep him in the country, and also, to keep their own taco shop in business.
“We always talk about the season’s themes [as] belonging and where do we ultimately belong when it comes to immigration and gentrification? What is home and what do we call home? For all of them, home is caught in Limbo,” Chavéz continues. “It’s caught in the balance of whether or not they will stay or go, whether it’s losing the shop or Pop being deported or Eric maybe leaving and moving with Lydia, or Chris trying to figure out what the next job or Anna taking off with success—how do we keep this nucleus intact in spite of all the craziness that’s going on around us?”
Family and community has always played as much as a character in the show as each member of the Morales household has, and it also works that way behind the scenes. Keeping the directing lineup to just four directors this season (Lemus, Chavéz, Ferrera and Diego Velasco) ‘Gentefied’ is able to keep it all in the family. That might partially be because of COVID, but it’s also par for the course with how the show runs on personal fumes.
“When we think about directors, we’re kind of casting the episode with directors the way we would with the actors. We’re thinking about who’s the filmmaker that would do this episode and bring it all the way home? Because every episode that you’ve seen, we switch around with the format and we play around with tone,” says Lemus.
Lemus, who is a film buff, says he was very interested in elevating the visual style of the show and took notes from some indie cinematic styles and typical American ways of filmmaking while applying them to his own community and experience. “You feel it even more in your gut. That’s a level of care and detail that I’m personally very obsessed with and that is what reflects the filmmakers and cinema that I’m a huge fan of and what has helped me get to this place and do what I do,” he says.
Taking from their own experiences—Chavéz comments on her connection to Lydia (who’s storyline in episode 3 she directs) from past relationships, while Lemus takes note of the connection he made with his own identity that he didn’t have growing up through this show—’Gentefied’ is here to make it’s mark yet again. Audiences will get to see Eric, Lydia, Pop, Anna (Karrie Martin), Chris (Carlos Santos) and some new faces in new situations, but perhaps also find some connection to themselves. Season 2 of ‘Gentefied’ follows the same formula of plenty of laughs, plenty of love and a lot of emotional moments. It’s all to serve the purpose of representation. When taking into account the lack thereof in the past—just showcasing real human stories from people who have lived them in an honest way—it seems long overdue.
“What have we not seen before from our community and what sides of the community have we not seen before? And truthfully, we can’t represent everybody in the community… That’s just a burden nobody can bear, there are just too many different types of experiences to express,” finishes Chavéz. “But what Marvin and I really try to do is hone in on what is the complex nuanced representation of this community and our identities and our families that we just have yearned for our whole lives? To have the freedom and opportunity to be creative with characters and the stories within our communities and families…It’s such a blessing and such an honor to be able to do that.”
‘Gentefied’ Season 2 drops on Netflix Nov. 10.
