Marona Phillips deciphers some struggles that Latin communities face, with Gentrification being the root of them, from the Netflix Series Gentefied.
In the series Gentefied, Episode 5 “The Mural” was filmed around a white landlord by the name of Tim orchestrating a giant painting of 2 men sharing a kiss to be designed on the outside wall of his tenant's store. The tenant was an elderly woman named Olfena. The mural caused a domino effect as more problems came following it. The painting was painted by the community's own Anna a struggling artist just trying to get by, and she herself is a part of the LGBTQ community.
Gentrification is the upscaling of buildings, stores, businesses, etc. After landlords purchase and luxurify these properties, they raise the rents, not adhering to their tenants' financial stats. Tenants are then left with the choice to fight to pay their bills or give up a business or home that meant something valuable to them or the community. The world is growing and evolving more and more every day. New gadgets, and technologies that complete simple daily tasks faster. These become the new cool, they become the new culture. Though many prefer tradition, it's becoming less and less of an option.
The show Gentefied Created by Linda Yvette Chaves shows the importance of family, culture, and strength in numbers when faced with adversity. The show flaunts these great aspects in retaliation to its core issue: the gentrification of Latinx communities. We watch as some in the community refuse to adhere to the gentrifiers and some are backed into the corner with no choice. Gentefied uses gentrification to portray the social struggles of homophobia discrimination and poverty in Latinx communities.
Gentefied characterizes the issue of homophobia through gentrification both by outsiders of the community and its own individuals. Further speaking, following the completion of the mural Olfreda was quite upset, as well as her customers. A few threatened to spend their money elsewhere, some didn't step foot in the store at all. Tired of the bad-mouthing she decided to begin painting over it. Before she could do so she was stopped by her landlord, who spat that he is the boss, that he is in charge, and threatened to raise her rent. Olfena confessed that her business is failing and that he never asked her permission. Tim stood holding his ground, leaving Olfena with an ultimatum of leaving the mural up or moving her business elsewhere. The neighborhood's disapproval of same-sex relations has negatively impacted Olfenaa’s store.
People are all for homophobia awareness, but not in terms of it being forced upon them. We now live in an accepting society today, some people just need more time than others.
The Issue of Discrimination
Gentrification is used to portray the social issues of Discrimination also through those within the community and outsiders. The confrontation with the mural on Olfena’s stores had a domino effect because as she was conversing with the landlord, there were a few instances where he insisted she speaks in English. He followed one of those statements by saying you talk to me in English on the phone all the time, I know you can do it. Tim’s biased judgment of what Olfena does with her shop is causing him to make these decisions. He later explained to Anna of another businessman's store which he purchased, and he will fix it up to attract thousands of tourists proclaiming that it will be good for them both when in reality he benefits from it the most.
There was another situation portrayed in which Chris the neighborhoods “coconut” and “white boy” referred to by his younger cousin Nyeli was faced with comments and slander from both Latinas in his community and Latinas at his workplace as well as his boss. To the community, he is a white boy on the inside but brown on the outside since he didn’t grow up with them. The Latinas at his workplace also don’t consider him a real Latina. When he gives input on how to save the shop from failing, he is faced with even more criticism and backlash. Chris’ Idea of a food tour to shave the shop caused a great divide within the community as it was bringing more strangers into their community.
Author Robert Lloyd touches on minor occurrences in the show in his article “No matter where you live, you'll relate to Netflix's L.A. gentrification comedy”. He mentions the portrayal of the show on the news of Donal Trump speaking on his wall to be built at the US and Mexican border. He also stated “White people, when they make the odd appearance, are typically trouble, though more clueless than vicious; even the ones who appear as angels prove otherwise.” The showing of the wall signified a sign of intimidation to Latinas.
Poverty
Lastly, Gentrification affects the Latin X community through poverty in many ways. The price of rent has gone up, business prices have gone up, causing customers to be upset. They too are juggling bills and believe a decently-priced meal would be fair. These same business owners then have to fire many of their own to keep their business afloat. One specific episode follows Javier, a member of a mariachi band who struggles to make ends meet for his family. In episode 6 of Season1 he and his band performed at a small cafe singing their classical mariachi music, as everyone conversed, stayed on their phones, and drank mimosas. When they were finished hip hop upbeat Mexican music began to play and everyone became involved in the music. In the end, he only made 27 dollars. Javier came to the realization that those people don't appreciate their music, while his bandmate claims that they change up their style to suit them. He is not going for it, Javier Refuses to change his culture to please outsiders.
Though everyday people struggle and fight to pay their bills they should still be treated fairly. I watch every day as communities become gentrified more and more. All of these luxury apartments are being built. The rents are sky high, and for those that we're lucky to find a decently priced home, they are left to deal with problems, but At what cost? Decent living. There are many people today living in a busted home that needs to be repaired, as their landlord oversees their issues. So long as their rent is paid that's it. Many know their tenant's financial statuses, and they know they can't pay to fix this issue on their own.
Those opposed to these ideas may assert that Gentrification was a positive influence on the LatinX community. As portrayed in Gentefied Anna, a well-known member of the community hosted a cash mob, where people would come by and sell out one's inventory. The cash mob she orchestrated with plans to successfully help restore Olfenas troubling business. We were shown dozens of nonlatino people rushing into the store grabbing baskets, and as many items as they could. Olfena began to chase them out of the store calling them thieves. It was not until Anna stopped her explaining what a Cash mob is. Olfena, was not impressed or happy, she told Anna that she didn't need any of her help and asked her to leave the store along with her supporting cash mob. From this, you can see that This woman was being offered help by whites and upper-class non-Latinos yet she continued to decline and resist both Anna and Tim’s offer of help. It also gives the conclusion that Latinos don't want help, and that they would rather struggle. They have a point in thinking that, but to a certain extent because the Cash mob was a solution to the homophobic issue caused by gentrification.
Gentrifiers believe that they can do whatever they want as they please because they own the property. Some agree, and some don't. Once again it all comes down to perspective. Because they own it they can do whatever, they don’t need the go-ahead from anybody else. As Well as coming down to principles and respect. If the roles were reversed they would want the ability to be included in such decisions. If landlords were to think compassionately about their tenants, and how they would feel, their choices would be profiting both parties. And there would be a guaranteed mutual relationship and because of that they probably could meet each other's demands.
Author bio: Marona is currently a Freshman at Bloomfield College studying the major of Medical Imaging Science. She is also the middle child of 3 as well as an immigrant from Guyana.
Comentarios