Tanya Saracho Talks ‘Vida’ and Latinx Representation [Video]

Since STARZ first released the news that Tanya Saracho would be showrunner of the new Latinx series, Vida, everyone has been ecstatic, especially on the heels of the news that East Los High would be canceled.

Vida is a half-hour series that centers on two Mexican-American sisters from the Eastside of Los Angeles who couldn’t be more different from each other. However, circumstances force them to return to their old neighborhood, where they are confronted by the surprising truth about their mother’s identity.

I recently had the chance to sit down with Tanya Saracho, Showrunner and Executive Producer of Vida, to chat about the show and what it means for the Latinx community.

“We’ve been kept away from the narrative for so long that we haven’t been able to affect culture,” she said.

“You affect perspective when… if you see us enough times, like supreme court judges or just lawyers, in a positive light then it’s sort of injected into your brain when you’re not Latino, and then you accept, oh, a Latino supreme court justice,” Saracho explained.

“It affects culture. It affects perception,” she continued.  “And for so long, we haven’t been able to do that.”

Tanya Saracho also wanted to make it clear that this show isn’t just for the Latinx community. The recurring themes we will see in Vida are universal.

“I did craft this for two tracks. I crafted for non-Latinx with the universal themes of family and coming back home and reclaiming yourself. The queerness of it and also coming back to old loves and old bad habits,” Saracho specified.

“And for Latinos, a lot of the code-switching, a lot of the terms, Pocha, the way we look, the way Mari looks, the way Eddi looks, they’re dedicated to us too. We have not gotten to see us in this light,” she noted.

“That was satisfying, to be able to portray that.”

You can watch the full interview with Tanya Saracho here:

Be on the lookout for more interviews and coverage of Vida, coming soon!

Vida premieres Sunday, May 6th at 8/7c on STARZ.

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