1/ Finished #Gentefied & so this is my final comment on the show. I'm really disappointed with how the Afro-Latina character, Yessika was treated by the show. She never got her own episode, never got much background development, we don't get to see her life outside of organizing.
2/ ..And if we do, it's only in within the scope of her relationship with Ana. Yessika's past is only ever seen through Ana's memories. It's not till Ep 8. that we briefly get to meet Yessika's Dominican parents, & they're mainly there to offer commentary on the Morales family.
3/ For much of the show, Yesssika is relegated to passively being an accessory in Ana's life. And when Yessika is active, she's there to serve as a vehicle for delivering commentary on gentrification, OR to help the Morales family out.
4/ In Ep. 9, the issue of gentrification finally comes to a head. I found it disconcerting that the show's writers chose to thematically make Yessika's character as the primary antagonist to the Morales family & their new gentrification-friendly business plans.
5/ Instead of coming together to fight against white gentrification, the Morales family bands together to devise plans to outsmart, challenge, & beat the Afro-Latina activist coming for their business (i.e. livelihood). The Morales's co-opts the protest, rendering it toothless
6/ Sure one can argue that this is the show making commentary on Brown complicity with gentrification, but the Morales family is nonetheless the subject of the show & would never thematically be placed in the space as villains--just a family trying to survive.
7/ And although the confrontation between Yessika & Ana about the Morales's internalized anti-blackness was good, I also feel like in that scene, Yessika's as a character fulfilled her primary purpose on the show: to serve as a moralistic finger-wagger to force Brown reflection.
8/ And once her role on the show had been fulfilled, Yessika just disappears. No follow-up in Ep. 10. Just scenes of Ana pining for her. But once that Brown baby announces its arrival, we have to focus on that.
9/ In my estimation, Yessika was never a fully developed character, with her own life. It's her proximity to the Morales family that gives her existence. What does it mean that a mariachi side character can get a whole episode to himself, but the prominent Afro-Latina doesn't?
10/ Perhaps this can be a lesson for the writers of #Gentefied going into Season 2: don't create stories that you don't know. And if you don't know, bring someone in who does. And y'all really need to have a serious conversation around internalized anti-blackness.
