“Hispanic Heritage Month” is currently a genre you can choose when looking for a new viewing on Netflix. It contains movies and TV shows from Latin American countries or that star Hispanic celebrities, comedians, telenovelas and more.
Here are some of my favorite shows to watch from this category.
Jane the Virgin
Growing up with a teen mom and a Venezuelan Catholic grandmother, Jane Villanueva was determined to save herself until marriage. However, she gets pregnant after accidentally getting artificially inseminated during a routine visit to the gynecologist for a pap smear.
The show revolves around Villanueva navigating through life as a pregnant virgin and eventually mother, as well as a love triangle between her boyfriend, Michael Cordero, and the father of her child, Rafael Solano. She also has to deal with existing family dramas, Solano’s wife Petra and her dreams of becoming a romance writer.
This American telenovela has it all: comedy, drama, bilingual characters and an epic narrator.
The show has five seasons, and each season has around 20 episodes. I’m currently on season four, and I think it’s a great watch.
[Saw X is a perfect scary movie — just not for Saw fans]
Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty is a sitcom from 2006 that touches on themes of friendship, love and self-image.
Inspired by a Colombian telenovela, Yo soy Betty, la fea, which translates to “I am Betty, the ugly,” the show follows Mexican-American Betty Suarez as she gets a job as the assistant to the editor in chief of “Mode,” a fashion magazine. She’s a quirky and loveable character who dreams of becoming a magazine writer but is often underestimated because of her looks.
This show is basically if The Devil Wears Prada and Friends had a Hispanic baby who looked like America Ferrera, so it is definitely worth it.
Living Undocumented
This 2019 six-episode docu-series follows eight families that are undocumented or have an undocumented family member, and by the second episode, I had cried three times.
The show focuses on how former President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance policy affected families and immigrants across the United States. Trump’s policy prompted Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more commonly known as ICE, to crack down on detaining undocumented men, women and children.
One thing I particularly liked about the series is that the families were not all Hispanic. There were two Honduran families, two Mexican-American families, an Israeli family, a Laotian-American family, a Colombian family and a Mauritanian family.
Though many parts of this show broke my heart, I strongly recommend it. Not only is it emotional, but it educates you on some of the laws surrounding immigration, including those that were around before Trump was president.
[These 5 shows give the autumnal vibes you’re looking for]
One Day at a Time
I watched this show in high school, and it made me laugh during lunch and as I finished my homework. It has themes of love, family, friendship, understanding one’s culture and LGBTQ+ identity.
A reboot of the 1975 TV show of the same name, the show is about Penelope, a Cuban-American single mom, her two kids, Elena and Alex and her hilarious and vibrant mother who fled Cuba following Fidel Castro’s seizure of power.
Other key characters are Schneider, their landlord and Penelope’s friend, and Penelope’s lonely boss, Dr. Berkowitz.
I was upset when Netflix canceled the show after the third season was released. However, a short seven-episode fourth season premiered on cable, but production ended during the pandemic and got canceled again.
Honorable Mention:
John Leguizamo’s Latin History for Morons
I adore John Leguizamo. Some parts of the movie were a bit out of pocket, but it was extremely funny and exciting. In this one-man comedy show, Leguizamo shares with the audience that he researched Latin American history to teach his son about his origin and to be proud of who he is.
Though I only mentioned four shows and one movie, I highly encourage people to go in and see what the “Hispanic Heritage Month” category has to offer. The category has a variety of options from a variety of countries.
