Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1124770
33 Q2 2019 / CINEMONTAGE by Génesis Henriquez portraits by Martin Cohen I had forgotten just how much of myself my work asks me to leave at the door until I worked on Vida. The Starz network show, which had its second season premiere on May 23, was the first network television show on which I've ever had the pleasure of being asked to assist. My head didn't stop spinning from the offer until several weeks into working on the series' debut season last year. When it finally did stop, it landed smack-dab in the middle of the significance that Vida would have not just for me, but for television itself. First and foremost, Vida is a story about...well, life. And yet it starts with a death. When their mother, Vidalia (Rose Portillo; Rocio López as young Vidalia), dies following a battle with cancer, estranged sisters Emma (Mishel Prada) and Lyn (Melissa Barrera) are forced to return to their childhood neighborhood of Boyle Heights in East LA. Upon their arrival, the sisters must quickly come to terms with their relationship to a woman who they now realize was a mystery to all the people she left behind. In the first season, the sisters learn that Vidalia was not only married, but that she was married to a woman named Eddy (Ser Anzoategui), with whom they will now have to navigate co-ownership of the floundering bar and building that their mother left them. This news is especially difficult for Emma to process since she was sent away to live with relatives by Vidalia — for being queer herself. Throughout the first two seasons of the show, Emma and Lyn's attempts at rehabbing the bar are met with distrust and animosity from the Vigilantes, a group of neighborhood activists weary of the ever-encroaching gentrification that threatens to displace the neighborhood's working-class residents. Mari (Chelsea Rendon) is one of the Vigilantes organizers and is especially distrustful of the sisters, whom she regards as white-tina sellouts. Yet, the dynamics of Mari's relationship with the sisters are further complicated as their lives begin to converge through Lyn's chaotic relationship with Mari's brother, Johnny (Carlos Miranda), and Emma's growing concern for Mari's well-being. The sisters' attempts also clash with Eddy's desires to preserve the memory of her beloved wife and the life she believes they had led together. In following the stories of these four vastly different Latina women as they navigate their ties to family, home and self, Vida offers audiences an authentic lens into the often-overlooked Latinx-American experience and some of the many different forms in which it manifests. (Latinx is a gender-neutral term used for persons of Latin-American origin or descent.) This is no easy feat and, having had a front-row seat to how this small but groundbreaking show came together, I can personally attest to the attention to detail that was paid at every level of production to ensure that Vida represented Latinxs authentically. La 'Vida' Familiar A LATINX HOMECOMING Vida. Starz Entertainment Opposite: Back row from left: Mike Boord, Liza Espinas, Chris Castillo, JoAnne Yarrow, Steph Zenee Perez; front row, Amy Duddleston and Génesis Henriquez.