What was the reaction like when people finally got to see it?
I loved it."
I’m like, “What do you mean you loved it?
Karrie Martin as Ana, JJ Soria as Erik, Joaquín Cosío as Casimiro, Carlos Santos as Chris, and Manuel Uriza as Ernesto, in ‘Gentefied’ Season 2.NETFLIX
It’s 10 in the morning.”
She’s like “I’ve seen six of the 10 episodes.
I can’t wait to get home.”
Marvin Lemus, America Ferrera, and Linda Yvette Chávez on the set of ‘Gentefied’ Season 1.NETFLIX
And it was just so moving and touching.
Because you’re putting it out there in the world, and we collectively made this for our families.
Those were the ones that made me burst out into tears every time I saw them.
Annie Gonzalez and Joseph Soria play Erik and Lidia on the Netflix series ‘Gentefied.'.NETFLIX
And what was the reaction from the Boyle Heights community?
MARVIN LEMUS:Yeah, the neighborhood was overwhelmingly positive.
There was that layer of wanting to do right by Boyle Heights.
The Morales family expands on Season 2 of Netflix’s ‘Gentefied.'.NETFLIX
And I feel like we accomplished that.
And I remember when we met them, they were sussing us out.
But this was the first time I had seen them since then.
I said, “Hi,” because I’m just a fan of them and their work.
And they were like, “Oh my God.”
She told me straight up, “When we saw you, you guys asked to take a picture.
And I was like, ‘I don’t even know, should I be doing that?
Should I be seen with these folks,’ trying to figure you guys out.
And then I watched the show and it felt like home, it felt so full of love.
Thank you so much for doing that.
It’s clear that you guys were trying to make something that felt real.”
We did want to let it be something that just sideswipes you at the end of the season.
We wanted it to feel that way because we wanted it to feel like life.
Being undocumented isn’t always the forefront of everything.
Stay safe and keep your head low.
How do we tell this story in a way we haven’t seen before?
How do we keep it from turning into trauma porn?
How do we hit it with nuance?
How do we have the audience experience what it’s like to go through this?
Feel that tension that’s looming overhead."
And that’s why the tone of the season shifted a little bit.
At any moment, all of this can go away, and our family might be torn apart."
And that was what we hadn’t seen yet.
That’s why we start the first episode with Pop stepping out of the detainment center.
Because our community is oversaturated with that [imprisoned] image.
Being in limbo after the fact."
That’s something that people don’t see quite as often.
On a lighter note, why give Chris a love interest this season?
LINDA YVETTE CHAVEZ:Because pobrecito, he deserves love too [Laughs].
Well, first thing is Carlos Santos is an incredible actor.
And season 1, he was definitely alone in his identity crisis.
So coming into this season, we wanted to challenge him.
And a lot of that is actually inspired by Marvin’s current relationship that he’s been in forever.
And I think Sarai (Ivana Rojas) brings that out in him.
And then just romcom vibes.
We love a good romcom.
We love some love, and these two, oh my God, their chemistry is off the charts.
What did you want to explore with them?
Is the Palo Alto setting meant to be juxtaposed with Los Angeles with the rest of the family?
CHAVEZ:Yeah, we wanted it to juxtapose what the experiences are at home.
This is nothing like where I grew up."
It’s a very weird thing that I don’t think we often see on television.
What we’re trying to find is our space within it.
So much happens in that episode.
Finally, has Ana’s sense of what success would be changed?
LEMUS:I’ll work backwards.
Is Yessika the hardest?
But Yessika is right by design because that’s the conversation that we’re trying to have.
And that’s the huge issue at the heart of it, especially in that relationship.
Does her definition of success change?
We wanted them to go through that evolution.
That’s something that we, as POC artists, go through.
How do I straddle that line, and continue to do something that I can stand behind?"
That’s the ultimate debate, and it never gets a clear answer.
It’s always shades of gray.
And then the growth is [realizing] it’s not that easy.
We gotta be able to hold space for all of it.
Gentefiedseason 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
