The Mural
Episode 5 of Gentefied starts with Ana buying paints in a shop, ready to make the mural. She shows Tim her idea and he loves it, explaining that he is creating an art market for artists to come and share their passions from all around East LA. Casimiro, Erik and Chris head to see the pro bono lawyer who gives them some advice. She tells them to make sure they pay the rent on time to stop the detainer from evicting them. Heading out, Chris insists that they need to make changes, including introducing credit card payments and extra charges for some food items. After painting for a few days, Ana reveals her mural to Yessika, who’s in awe as she sees that the painting represents two Mexicans wrestlers kissing. This pleases her but also surprises Yessika that she was allowed to paint this in the neighbourhood. Not everyone is happy by the controversial mural though, especially the shop owner Ofelia who’s now losing customers because of it. She tries to get it removed but Tim stops her as he now owns the building. Ana confronts Tim as she believes it’s unfair that he didn’t tell Ofelia what he was doing. However he insists, believing this would eventually make her shop better and bring in more customers. Meanwhile, Erik carries on with his project for the local kids as he gives them free tacos in exchange for reading books. This proves to be effective as one of the parents later arrives to buy some food for his whole family. The next day, Ana organizes a cash mob to help Ofelia’s shop, which involves getting people to buy all of her stock. The shop owner is not happy as she will have no more stock for her regulars so she kicks them out. After speaking to her grandad about what happened, she heads back to see Ofelia and offer her help as she feels bad. She tells him that she believes Tim probably doesn’t want her there and that the mural might erase her instead of helping her shop. Heading outside, Ana cries when she sees that people have graffitied all over her mural and that it’s created trouble instead of helping the people around her. This episode of Gentefied concentrates more on Ana and the tasks she has been given. Determined to be heard and to show off her culture and beliefs, she creates a beautiful but controversial mural thanks to her artistic passion. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite have the effect she wanted. While this episode stays away from the main plot of saving the taco shop, it shows us again just how gentrification affects other businesses but also tackles serious subjects like homosexuality, in a culture struggling with the changes in society. As we reach the midway point of the season, Gentefied leaves things wide open going forward but so far, the show has done well to keep things interesting.
