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‘East Los High’: Not Just Another Teen Soap

Jul 17, 2013

NPR

July 11, 2013

Despite the fact that it’s been generating a lot of buzz, Devious Maids is just not that interesting. Five Latina maids — is it a landmark for Latina actresses or another example of how the media stereotype Latinos? Either way, the relationship between hypersexualized domestic workers and their pretentious employers does not make for compelling television.

I was surprised to find that East Los High, a show that is garnering just a fraction of the attention, is actually much better.

The show — the first English language series with an all-Latino cast, exclusively broadcast on Hulu — is set in a gritty East Los Angeles neighborhood where calling another woman naca (ghetto) is the ultimate insult. It features a fictional group of L.A. teenagers fighting for status and trying not to get burned.

Its creators, Carlos Portugal and Kathleen Bedoya, wanted to create a realistic depiction of teen pregnancy among Latinas. But despite its after-school-special roots, East Lost High feels surprisingly real.

To see the full article, click here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/07/11/2007