Written by John Edward Betancourt
Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Twenty-One of ‘Lopez vs Lopez’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
Over the course of its illustrious first season, the NBC series, Lopez vs Lopez, has done a phenomenal job of educating the world about the wonder of Latino/Latinx culture, and many of the problems that modern day Latinx people face. Such as the difficulties that come with honoring Latino heritage, the toxic generational nature of the culture from the male perspective, since it is deeply rooted in old world thinking regarding how men should conduct themselves. But one particular struggle that it continues to spotlight, is how there are sometimes great conflicts within the Latino community. Such as how sometimes two Latinx individuals more or less battle with one another in the hopes of one keeping the other down. Which is at its core, counterproductive and silly, but it happens and well… the next episode of the show takes the time to spotlight that and offer some insight as to why that occurs and that made ‘Lopez vs Bucket Crabs’ quite the powerful episode. Because it really did put this on display and explained its origins in a brilliant manner, courtesy of two key storylines. One of which, involved Mayan and how she wanted to become more involved in her son’s schooling and the parents’ group that often met up to discuss what wondrous things the kids could be doing at school and in their community. But alas, in order to gain full entry to that… she had to go through Natalia, a tough as nails mother, who was also Latina… that was eager to really take charge of this in every way imaginable. As for the other storyline, well that involved George. For Rosie was close to securing Lop-E.Z. Movers with a great contract. One that had the potential to net them a bevy of new clientele, provided of course… they could win the bid. For George’s former mentor and rival was bidding for this super gig as well, and he truly wanted to win this and well… that upset George because he and Danny had some bad blood. For Danny had done some shady things to ensure his business came out on top for a very long time and that brought about some rivalry between the two men and Natalia and Mayan went head-to-head as well. Because Mayan wanted to get involved quickly with her son’s schooling and well… that allowed for us to see the competitive and unhealthy nature of this act so that the reasoning behind it had gravity and meaning.
Which as it turns out, this all relates to societal pressures. For there is a mantra in America that if anyone wants to get ahead, they have to go for it, no matter the cost and if that means shoving someone aside, so be it. And in addition to that, one must be exceptional as well. Which means you have to stand out and wow everyone and that… has created some toxicity in the Latino community. Since it has pushed a community that thrives upon community as a whole… to deny that, to in essence, become the uglier aspects of the speech that Edward James Olmos gave in Selena about being more Latino than Latinos and more American than Americans to find value and meaning, when in fact… that doesn’t need to happen in the slightest. No instead, this episode points out… there is a better way.
In that, while there is no harm or shame in focusing upon one’s goals and desires in pursuit of the American Dream... there’s no harm in working together with one’s community when the opportunity arises as one continues along on that journey. Because… we are all in this together and taking a minute to help one another… brings nothing but good into one’s life. And that is what we finally saw take place in this episode. Since Danny and George worked together at last, at Rosie’s unique prompting, and Mayan joined the group and was treated as an equal instead of an outsider and that made… for a beautiful ending to this episode. For it was hopeful and wonderful and it makes it clear we can do anything, if we let that stupid stuff go. All of which made this a brilliant episode, one that once again impressed with its observations, and featured some amazing cameos from Latinx actors. Since this episode featured Melissa Fumero (Natalia) and the one and only Danny Trejo (Danny), and now that we’ve reached the end of this journey, it will be interesting to see what kind of intelligent and thought-provoking story awaits us come next week, when we visit the Lopez family once more. Until next time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
October 2024
|