Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2020: A Netflix series tackles gentrification in L.A. Some say it’s part of the problem
That internal conflict, and the desire to engage the nuances of a thorny civic issue, became “Gentefied.” (The show’s title is a play on the term “gentefication,” in which young, upwardly mobile Latinos move back or try to give back to their old neighborhoods.)
Making its debut Feb. 21, the 10-episode first season revolves around the Morales family: three Mexican American cousins — Erik (Joseph Julian Soria), Chris (Carlos Santos) and Ana (Karrie Martin) — and their immigrant grandfather (Joaquín Cosio) who find themselves trying to save the family’s taqueria as gentrification knocks on their neighborhood‘s door. The half-hour Spanglish dramedy is an extension and adaptation of the 2017 short-form web series of the same name.
The series arrives as Boyle Heights, the working-class, heavily Latino enclave east of downtown L.A., has become a gentrification battleground in recent years, with locals contending with an influx of coffee shops and art galleries, new real estate developments and surging rent and home prices, as interested tenants with deeper wallets flock to the area. Some longtime residents embrace what’s gained from the change, while others are angered over what is lost from their beloved community because of it.
