Re-creating desire: love and “borderotics” en (la) 'Vida'

“Vida” is a TV series created by Tanya Saracho, that premiered on May 6th, 2018, on Starz, receiving critical acclaim as well as the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2019. The series consists of a family narrative about two estranged sisters who return home in East Los Angeles after the sudden death of their mother, Vidalia. Vida, an affectionate diminutive for Vidalia, also serves as the name of the bar the mother has left as an inheritance for her daughters. The bar is a community gathering place in East L.A., a safe space where the Latinx characters can express themselves freely. “Vida” will open a new stage in the sisters´ lives, an enterprise they will have to run with Eddy, who turns out to be not their mother´s roommate as they originally thought, but her wife. Family secrets, personal stories and struggles, old and new romantic ties start to develop from that point on. A female centered narrative, the show highlights racialized women´s sexuality as an ideological place located in the intersection of gender, race, class and sexual orientation. Using Susana Chavez-Silverman´s concept of “fronterótica” as a tool of analysis, this article examines sexuality as depicted in the series and discusses the articulation of love and desire as represented in its female protagonists.