When I first watched the TV series VIDA in 2018, I was excited to learn about the East LA neighborhood of Boyle Heights, and to see all kinds of sexual preferences and gender expressions represented, in what used to be a macho Latin culture. I wrote this article in Cultural Weekly, VIDA-Latinx TV, and I actually asked my family to spend my birthday exploring that neighborhood. See my article about TV programs streaming in 2020 for another series set in Boyle Heights, Gentefied on Netflix.
VIDA-Lyn, Emma (c) STARZ
I loved the second season of VIDA in 2019, and the third and last season airing Sunday April 26, 2020 on STARZ. As a journalist in the Hollywood Foreign Press, in 2019 I had the privilege of interviewing Melissa Barrera and Mishel Prada, the young actresses playing the sisters Lyn and Emma, and I met them again, virtually, a couple of weeks ago. I asked to interview Roberta Colindrez, who had impressed me as Nico in VIDA, and I was granted a one-on-one interview on video. I wrote two articles, one for the Golden Globes website and another for Cultural Weekly. But there’s so much more to say. So here are excerpts from the questions I asked this year to Mishel and Melissa.
Melissa Barrera, Mishel Prada © HFPA
Elisa: What are your thoughts on the Catholic and Christian churches condemning homosexuality as a perversion, which is so damaging to young queer people?
Mishel: It’s really beautiful that we get to explore in VIDA this season what that really means. Because what we saw in the first season was that, even though these very traditional Mexican Catholic women didn’t fully accept the idea of homosexuality, when the mother passed away or when help was needed, they were still showing up with the rosaries and were there for each other. And that’s really at the heart of the complexities that we see. We could still be holding onto these ideals of Catholicism and Christianity, but we should be more encouraged to take what we want from it, which are themes of love and acceptance, and move away from hate and not acceptance.
Elisa: Emma has sex with men but develops emotional relationships with women, particularly with Nico, the bartender. Roberta Colindrez identifies herself as queer, how about you?
Mishel: Actually for me the least interesting part of Emma is who she has sex with, because she has so many other emotions going on, she is very open and she’s going to fall in love with whoever she wants to fall in love with. And I feel that way as well, I don’t identify as anything in particular. Wherever life takes me, I will fall in love with whoever the human being is. There’s something really beautiful about being open to falling in love with whoever you happen to fall in love with. I love that romantic idea of being open to what life gives you.
VIDA-Marcos (c) STARZ
Elisa: Can you talk about Marcos, who holds a double queerceañera party at the bar Vida, and his gender expression that sometimes is male, other times female?
Melissa: Series creator Tanya Saracho actually wrote that character based on the actor, Tonatiuh Elizarraraz. He is just like that, he is fluid in the spectrum and he goes from whatever he is feeling one day to whatever he is feeling the next. He can go from butch male, and you wouldn’t know if he is gay or not, then sometimes he wants to wear heels and makeup, and he does. There’s something really beautiful about someone that is so free to express themselves in however they are feeling. Marcos identifies as male in the show, because Lyn calls him a he, he does not use the they/them trans non-binary pronouns, which sometimes can be confused with someone who is so fluid. What I love about our show is that you see all kinds of people that are all over the sexual spectrum and the gender spectrum, and not everyone has a label, which is okay. You don’t have to know exactly where someone falls in the spectrum to fall in love with them and Marcos is the proof of that, because the audience loves him.
Elisa: How would you describe the friendships between Marcos and Lyn?
Melissa: The relationship between Marcos and Lyn is very cool, because they are like brother and sister, they become confidants. And during season two that’s very apparent, because he is always there for her in all of her troubles, but in season three, Lyn is on another trip, getting to know her father and keeping that a secret from Emma. And as much as Marcos wants to be there for her, they also start having a falling out, because they are not on the same page anymore and their priorities are not the same. And that’s the dynamic of friendships, that happens all the time, friends fight, they have fallings out and they disagree. So there’s a little bit of more color to their friendship, which I loved.
P.S. Read June 24 interview with VIDA creator Tanya Saracho.