Diksha Sundriyal
Compromises have to be made in order to resolve a conflict. You can’t solve a problem with the same mindset you had when it was created (Einstein said). When the taco shop is threatened by the increased rent, Pop has to accept the changes that Chris puts forward. And it works out wonderfully.
Erik finds his own ways to promote the business and with the two of them in charge, the problem starts to disappear one step at a time. However, the changes that they have made in their business threatens their community.
The danger of gentrification has been looming over Boyle Heights. In the name of progress, developers and landlords are coming up with schemes to push people out of their homes and businesses. They want to make it fancier so that people with more money can come in and invest in the neighbourhood. This will uproot the people who have built their lives in Boyle Heights, sacrificing so much over the years.
Now that Mama Fina’s taco shop is opening up itself to people outside of their community, it is challenging the very idea that Pop had been struggling with at the beginning.
Gentefied Episode 9 Recap
Erik organises a food tour to bring in more customers for the taco shop, but Yessica doesn’t agree with his method. She protests against it and expects Ana to join too, but her girlfriend sides with her family and Yessica feels alienated. She questions their approach but finds herself being turned into the villain of the story, which strains her relationship with Ana.
Gentefied Episode 9 Review
Now that the shop is doing better, inviting more people to their place seems the next logical step. However, Erik’s plans don’t sit well with Yessica, who has been fighting against gentrification in the community. She had always been on the side of the Morales family. She had helped save the shop time and again, but now that the shop is in opposition to her own values, she has to take a stand.
Her protest is what ‘Gentefied’ is all about. It is the concern of the people who have been living there for so long, their fear that they will be pushed out of their own homes if things continue this way. She is also opposed to Ana’s murals because they are affecting the community adversely. As we saw in the fourth episode, Ofelia’s business has to suffer because of Ana’s work, and there is nothing that they can do about it.
Beautification is great, but what about the people who have to pay the price of this brush-up. What about the homeless who are driven out of the streets and what about the businesses that are threatened because the developers want someone richer to come to the neighbourhood and buy out the people who can’t run their businesses anymore.
From being the victims of the problems, Yessica points out that the Morales family has now become a part of it. They needed to save their business, but they have done so with the approach that calls out every man for himself. But battles are not fought like that.
Read More: Where Was Gentefied Filmed?
