Move over Sofia Vergara, there’s another Latina comedian on the ABC block.
Cristela Alonzo, a Mexican-American stand-up comic, will be starring in ABC’s “Cristela.” The sitcom revolves around Alonzo’s character, a struggling law student who is juggling various jobs while living with her sister, brother-in-law and her immigrant mother.
The show brings first and second-generation immigrants’ experiences to the forefront. It calls out white privilege and pokes fun at stereotypes about Latinos. All this is presented in the traditional family multi-cam sitcom format viewers are familiar with.
In the first trailer for the show Cristela, has to deal with a rich white girl assuming she’s the maid, a mother who is constantly worried about her future and a brother-in-law who’s less than enthusiastic about her living arrangements -- i.e., Cristela living in his house.
The show also stars Carlos Ponce, Maria Canals-Barrera, Terri Hoyos and Gabriel Iglesias, Alonzo’s longtime friend, in a recurring role, according to Zap2it.
"We've known each other for about 12 years and our friendship is about doing a lot of stuff together, working together,” Alonzo said during the TCA panel for the show. “So when the show presented itself with this character I asked if he wanted to come over and play for a day. He said, 'Absolutely.'"
So far the reviews have not been great. "You sense that Alonzo is so proud to be making the on-point observations about race and first-generation immigrant culture that she wasn't able to A) Make those jokes funny enough or B) Make those jokes in the context of in-scene flow," writes Daniel Fienberg at HitFix.
Yet it is refreshing to see a Hispanic woman spearheading her own show on a major network in a role that is not pushing the hypersexualized-Latina stereotype.
Cristela will premiere on ABC on Friday Oct. 10th at 8:30pm. Watch the trailer above.
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