How 'Gentefied,' 'On My Block' show Latino L.A. differently

“ Vida,” which premiered on Starz in 2018, made Boyle Heights’ gentrification woes central to its storyline: Two sisters return to the neighborhood to deal with the aftermath of their mother’s death, including a debt-ridden bar she co-owned that’s in the sights of an unscrupulous real estate developer. After seeing all that unfold, why did “Gentefied” co-creators Marvin Lemus and Linda Yvette Chávez think it would be a good idea to film another show in Boyle Heights? His fiancée introduced him to the neighborhood, taking him to places like Casa 0101, a performing arts center founded by “Real Women Have Curves” playwright and co-screenwriter Josefina López, and Espacio 1839, the curio shop and bookstore that’s home to the community radio station that hosts “Órale Boyle Heights.” She also took Lemus to Eastside Luv, a wine bar whose owner was born in the area and proudly refers to himself as a pocho, a typically pejorative term employed by Mexicans to describe members of the Mexican diaspora in the U.S. “I’d never felt more at home or complete,” said Lemus, recalling his first visit. For her, Boyle Heights and East L.A., where her parents first arrived when they migrated from Mexico, are “like Ellis Island,” the place “where we all arrive, where we all go out from.” Her extended family now covers large swaths of Southern California: “They’re all spreading farther and farther out,” said Chávez — mostly in search of affordable housing.