"Undone" Proves the Importance of an All-Latina Cast

With its second season out on April 29, Amazon’s “Undone” is back following Rosa Salazar’s Alma as she time travels, addresses her own inadequacies, and tries to heal her family. She’s not alone thanks to a largely Latina support system that includes her sister Becca (Angelique Cabral) and her mother, Camila (Constance Marie). This season, we also meet her abuelita Fabiola (Renée Victor) and tia Monse (Ana Ortiz), who also play significant roles in her life.

This season addresses what having so many Latinas in one cast does, which is proves there’s no one way of being Latina. Let’s start with what side of the border they’re on. In the new season, Alma and Becca leave their home in San Antonio to visit their abuela and extended family in Mexico. Along the way, we learn it was their mom who crossed and started an EEUU-based family. So in “Undone,” we have Latinas born in the US and born in Mexico, those who’ve immigrated and those who haven’t. And they’re all part of the same family, all portrayed by Latina actresses, all able to access aspects of Mexican and US culture.

I also appreciate how each character has a different style. This matters because it shows how you dress doesn’t necessarily correlate to “how Latina you are.” It doesn’t even define how desirable you are. There’s so much freedom in the range of dress sported by the Latinas of “Undone,” and it’s so different from what we normally see — where there are the “pretty girls” (who are considered pretty by Eurocentric beauty standards) who get the guys and the wallflowers who don’t. That feminine trap is particularly cutting for Latinas who face the added expectation of being super sexy and punished if they conform to or resist that stereotype.

The other stereotype that looms large for Latinas is about motherhood. We’re supposed to have a million kids (thanks to Catholicism), and we’re supposed to sacrifice everything for our kids while holding them to extremely high standards. I’m Chicana, and I think of films like “Like Water For Chocolate” and “Real Women Have Curves” as definitional, and the Mexican/Mexican American mom is not a good look in any of them. Even “Gentefied” dipped into this trope, with the only onscreen mother being Ana’s harsh but well-meaning mom, Beatriz.

In “Undone,” Latina motherhood is not like that — or it’s not just like that. We see the traditional, trauma-based love from Abuela Fabiola. And while her choices have negative ripple effects, it appears like she’s largely patched things up with Camila. As the central mother of the show, Camila is also imperfect but not out of the typical desire to possess her children. Instead, she keeps too much distance, believing her children would be better without her when perhaps they need her more than ever. Even Becca gets a motherhood plot this season. Her new husband wants to have kids right away, and she’s not ready. The reluctant mom, the aloof mom, the mom who’s erred and repaired — these are not the typical Latina stories. But they are what real moms look like: imperfect but striving, loving but flawed, human.

It’s such a refreshing departure from the usual narrative of what it is to be Latina. And having multiple departures all in the same show makes each one even stronger. Add in the fact that “Undone” isn’t even about identity — it’s a time-traveling, adult animation that’s about fate, family, and the limits of our minds — and it just gets better. “Undone” is a show that takes its characters’ Latinidad as fact, builds our culture into its fabric, and puts us at the center of its exploration of the human condition. And I’m here for it.

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