Vida Mines the Highs and Lows of Coming Home

Tanya Saracho, the playwright and TV writer who created the series, layers texture and tiny details throughout her story, keenly aware of how loaded simple objects can be. A wall of scribbles and Polaroid photos in a bar isn’t just graffiti—it’s a portrait of a community, and a message to other patrons that a space is safe for them, too. The sisters Emma (played by Mishel Prada) and Lyn Hernandez (Melissa Barrera) returned to Boyle Heights, in Los Angeles, after the death of their mother, Vidalia—known as “Vida”—only to discover that she had been keeping secrets.