A Show on Freeform is Telling the truth About US Immigration

[Ubiquitous]

Back in 2006, The New Yorker published "Life Lessons," a short article about
Population Communications International, and how the group used soap operas
and radio dramas around the world to deliver positive messaging to combat
poverty by normalizing things like contraception, female education, and the
acceptance of people with AIDS. Obviously, the fact that I still remember the
article more than a decade later indicates what an impact it had on me, and I
always think of it when a show endeavors to deliver positive propaganda to
its viewers. It's certainly been on my mind since the premiere episode of
Freeform's Party Of Five, which my colleague Aaron Barnhart wrote about early
last month.

Freeform has a long history of exposing its viewers to bold ideas their
parents might not talk about at home, and giving visibility to individuals
seldom seen on TV without making them feel like token characters. Switched At
Birth filled a whole high school with Deaf students, some of whom were deeply
suspicious about assimilating into hearing culture. The Bold Type opened a
social media director's sexual horizons by having her fall in love with a
Muslim lesbian. The Fosters, set in San Diego, featured multiple storylines
about undocumented people facing deportation threats, which is also how
original Party Of Five creators Amy Lippman and Christopher Keyser have
updated their story for the remake: whereas the Salinger kids in the '90s
series were orphaned when a drunk driver killed their parents, the Acosta
children are effectively orphaned when ICE deports their parents, who are
undocumented.

https://youtu.be/zeAGCXBp5o4

It's impossible to live in the U.S. at this stage in history without being
aware of how cruel current immigration policy is. But it's very different to
read a newspaper article than it is to see every phase of the deportation
process as it destroys a perfectly happy family. When sweet, proud parents
Javier (Bruno Bichir) and Gloria (Fernanda Urrejola), waiting in the
restaurant they own and operate for their children to join them for dinner,
get a warning phone call from a neighboring pizzeria, we know what's coming.
It's at this point that I burst into tears, and things only gets worse from
there. Javier can't reason with the ICE agent. The lawyer the Acostas can
afford has too many cases to defend them effectively. Their children don't
know how to look after themselves. The detention center is like a prison.
While the eldest Acosta child, Emilio (Brandon Larracuente), is the only one
who isn't a minor, he is also undocumented, and though he currently has DACA
status, life under the Trump administration and a majority-conservative
Supreme Court means even that is precarious. He can talk his way into
convincing a fancier lawyer to take his parents' case, but the Acostas' story
isn't extraordinary, and the judge has no legal grounds on which to overrule
the deportation order. So what is to be done with baby Rafa? Does he go to
Mexico with his parents? Does he remain in the U.S. to claim his birthright
as a native-born citizen? Javier and Gloria, devastated, make the wrenching
decision to leave him with his siblings, and then they're called to their
bus, and parents and children have to say goodbye on opposite sides of a
chain-link fence. They might never live together again. In many ways, this is
a best-case scenario: the kids have each other, a home, and a profitable
business. But it's still horrible.

As the season has continued, Party Of Five has methodically laid out the
challenges and concerns facing people in the Acosta kids' situation. Lucia
(Emily Tosta) pleads with a teacher to reconsider a bad grade for her brother
Beto (Niko Guardado), given their current crisis at home. Instead, the
teacher pointedly draws a contrast between herself, a legal immigrant who did
things "the right way," and Lucia's parents. So much for solidarity.

https://youtu.be/JzInJk8PGh0

Valentina (Elle Paris Legaspi) is heartbroken to see that Gloria has taken a
job as a nanny and housekeeper for a girl about her age. Gloria's new charge
is lucky enough to have "Glo" as an extra mother, while Val has none. Lucia,
as an American citizen, has the privilege of fearlessly raising hell whenever
she detects an injustice... but befriending Matthew (Garcia), an undocumented
runaway who won't renew his DACA status because he's trans, and doing so
would require him to present a birth certificate that does not conform to his
gender identity leads Lucia to try to secure his future by copying a deceased
man's Social Security Number off of a hospital computer monitor for Matthew
to use, illegally.

If any conservative viewers cared to give the show a shot, even they might
find something in it to agree with. Gloria and Javier, as business owners —
job creators, the most sainted among the "protected classes" in the
conservative pantheon — were vulnerable to exploitation that citizens are
not. The only way they could secure a liquor license for the restaurant
without papers was to ask a favor of a neighboring restaurateur, who applied
in his name in exchange for 30% of the bar tab for 16 years. If "taxation is
theft" for people on the right-wing side of the political spectrum, surely
that is too.

Party Of Five also expands its field of view to encompass people whose lives
are constrained by government policies other than those regulating
immigration. Oscar (Mann Alfonso), one of Javier's best and longest-serving
employees, is a formerly incarcerated person who, when cash is skimmed, is
suspected as the culprit. When Gloria casually admits that she was the
skimmer, and was sneaking cash to Emilio while he was trying to make his band
happen, Emilio's sincere apology to Oscar is his first real test as the
restaurant's new manager. A recent episode also highlights the danger that
still lurks in disadvantaged neighborhoods from lead paint. When Rafa is
accidentally poisoned at the home-based daycare he attends. Rafa's
hospitalization coincides with the Acostas' first visit from Andrew Nichols
(Scott Michael Campbell), the case manager Social Services has assigned to
work with their family, and it is my very dear wish that the show depicts him
as a positive force in the Acostas' life, and thus provides further positive
propaganda for the extremely important and frequently soul-crushing job
social workers do. (To quote The New Republic's Alex Pareene: "90% of what
cops deal with should be handled by well-paid social workers and the FBI
should be staffed by investigative reporters.")

https://youtu.be/FVosPWgWFgo

January also saw another high-profile debut for a TV series revolving around
immigration: the anthology series Little America on AppleTV+. While it's a
very pleasant watch, only two of its eight episodes really acknowledges how
American policy can limit immigrants' opportunities and divide their families
for no justifiable reason. (One episode even depicts the story of a gay man
leaving Syria, due to persecution by his relatives, for Boise — a happy
ending not currently possible given the Trump administration's recently-
expanded Muslim ban.) By contrast, Party Of Five is telling a story whose
urgency is all the more admirable given the youth of its target audience.
Could we be just weeks away from middle schools organizing Abolish ICE
rallies and high school sophomores explaining to their parents why national
borders aren't real? Anyone who's paying attention knows that current U.S.
immigration policy is state violence. Lucia may not have learned that phrase
yet, but I bet she screams it before this season of Party Of Five ends, and I
can't wait for the children to hear it.


--
Watching Democrats come up with schemes to "catch Trump" is like
watching Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Road Runner.