‘Vida’ Season 2 Continues to Eloquently Capture Life in Gentrifying East L.A.

Alci Rengifo

“Vida” returns for a second season of exploring the other Los Angeles rarely captured in the flashy thrillers and dramas. Season one was a unique and impressive debut, mixing social topics and personal drama with great flare. The issue of gentrification is affecting most major urban centers in the U.S., and while other shows have touched on the subject, “Vida” puts it in the context of the wider Latinx experience in East Los Angeles. What is most vibrant about this show is how it centers on lives being lived, without resorting to exaggerated plotting.

The season opens in risqué fashion as Lyn (Melissa Barrera) partakes in a steamy orgy apparently hosted by a wealthy friend and business client. Meanwhile her sister Emma (Mishel Prada) is having an encounter but with a business connection unimpressed by the figures she’s put together regarding her late mother’s bar/building she hopes to preserve from a gentrification push in East L.A.’s Boyle Heights. Disciplined, accountant-minded Emma only has funds to keep the place going for six more months, something she makes razor clear to the more clueless, but loyal Lyn. Recovering in the hospital is their late mother’s wife, Eddy (Ser Anzoategui), who was a victim of a hate crime last season. But Emma soon finds out Eddy was never legally married to their mom. It’s not that she’s lying about the romance. There just wasn’t any official paperwork. This raises a whole new problem for keeping the building from the prying eyes of developers. On a more personal front, Lyn is still grappling with the fallout of her tryst with longtime friend Johnny (Carlos Miranda). Their affair broke up Johnny’s marriage and in a fit of self-loathing Lyn claims to abstain from sex. As Eddy demands to return home, Emma and Lyn scramble to find any way to get the funds needed to keep the bar going and help preserve both their memories and a local symbol of culture.

As with the first season, much of the appeal of “Vida” is in its characters. Still running the show is writer and producer Tanya Saracho, who has done a great service by delivering a series introducing many viewers (even quite a few in Los Angeles itself) to the world of Latinx Boyle Heights. The writing captures the subtleties of life within a Latinx community in contemporary America, where just the way you talk works as a signal to others. A handyman hired by Emma, Baco (Raúl Castillo), insists they make a deal via handshake. When Emma refuses he scoffs that there’s nothing Mexican about her, meaning she acts white. A slimy developer who happens to be Mexican even commends Emma for paying at least one month’s worth of rent for the bar, because he’s proud to see “one of us” succeeding. Back to represent East L.A.’s activist side is Mari (Chelsea Rendon), Johnny’s sister, who is stuck taking care of a hopeless father while watching other friends graduate from college and go on to grad school. Life intrudes even on the routines of the politically active and Mari is soon distracted by her first true romance, with a guy named Tlaloc (Ramses Jimenez). But when she’s fired from her job the stress just piles on, and it doesn’t help that Johnny isn’t too happy about her new dating life. It’s a classic patriarchal attitude, Johnny can screw around with Lyn, but heaven forbid if Mari starts seeing someone and risking pregnancy. But Mari will connect with Lyn and Emma when she offers to help take care of Eddy, giving the character a powerful journey of self-discovery. The dialogue captures that particular rhythm to Chicano lingo where Spanish and English mix and meld. Latinx viewers will cheer when Lyn proposes that “Loteria,” a Mexican version of Bingo, be used as the main attraction for a game night at the bar.

There is an admirable approach to the way female sexuality is portrayed in “Vida,” without excuses or shame. Lyn and Emma are Latinx and yet defy the stereotypes of traditional, patriarchal Latino society. While trying to save the bar Emma has an intense sexual relationship with her semi-girlfriend Cruz (Maria-Elena Laas), who gauges their relationship via internet quizzes, and soon Baco himself becomes a temptation. Lyn opens this season with a steamy orgy, but her character takes on a hilarious yet insightful turn with her struggle to remain abstinent, even when men at the gym become major hurdles to overcome.

“Vida” is about life within Los Angeles’s Latinx culture, a unique zone where the bridge between Mexican and U.S. culture is personified by its inhabitants. It is a place changing too due to an increasingly unforgiving economy, yet culture has a way of surviving. In an ever more diversifying media landscape, “Vida” stands out by telling a story rarely shared, yet so American.

“Vida” season two begins streaming May 23 on On Demand and premieres May 26 at 10:30 p.m. ET on Starz with new episodes airing every Sunday.