Trivia / Vida

• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Mishel Prada, like her character Emma, is Mexican-American. The only difference is that while her character is of full Mexican descent, Prada is of mixed Mexican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, and French descent.
  • Likewise, Roberta Colindrez is half Honduran and half Argentine like her character, Nico. However, Colindrez is Mexican-American, having been born in Mexico though growing up within the US.
  • All of the other Latino characters are also played by Latinos, though they're not always Mexican-Americans specifically.
• Dawson Casting: 21-year-old Marisol is played by Chelsea Rendon, who was 27 at the time of Season 3 filming.
• Fake Nationality: The American-born Lyn is played by Mexican actress Melissa Barrera. Likewise, Elle Paris Legaspi, who played Lyn as child, is of Filipino and Italian descent.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Melissa Barrera, a native Mexican who speaks fluent Spanish, plays Lyn Hernandez, an American-born Latina whose inability to speak (and just barely understand) Spanish serves to highlight her pocha^note A person of Mexican ancestry who lives in the US and doesn't speak fluent Spanish image.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor:
  • Ser Anzoategui, who plays Butch Lesbian Eddy, is non-binary.
  • Roberta Colindrez, who plays Nico (a slightly less Butch Lesbian), identifies as queer.
  • Additionally, a number of minor LGBT+ characters are played by LGBT+ actors as well.
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • The gentrification subplot was inspired by the real-life 2017 protests in response to increasing gentrification of Boyle Heights (the Hernandez sisters' neighborhood in the show).
  • The infamous "White-ina" slur wasn't something made up on the spot—the show's producer Tonya Saracho was called that by a Boyle Heights resident who thought that filming in the aforementioned neighborhood would cause real-life gentrification. In going with one of the show's themes on racism within the Latin community, Saracho decided to throw it in.
• Troubled Production: The show became a target of the anti-gentrification movement "Defend Boyle Heights", fearing that the show's constant presence would result in real-life gentrification. Since then subsequent photography and filming were moved to Pico-Union.
• What Could Have Been: Emma was originally supposed to be named Brooke (making the sisters' combined names a pun on "Brooklyn").