History Series / Vida

* BookEnds: The first episode opens with Marisol, confidently showcasing her activism. The final episode of the series closes on Marisol, now disillusioned with her life, wondering what to do next.

* ButNotTooBlack: Prejudice against darker-skinned Latinos is {{discussed}} as being common in the community. Nelson, the sleazy developer, told someone right to her face he wasn't interested after she turned out darker than in her online photo. Marcos and Lyn decide to use this by setting up a fake profile on a dating site of a very white girl, then catfish him. He tells Lyn (thinking she's the girl) he's not into Latinas due to preferring "pink nipples".

* HeelFaithTurn: Victor says he was once bad, but changed his ways after getting religion.

* NewParentNomenclatureProblem: Lyn and Emma always call Eddy by her name. They only call her their step-mother when Eddy is in the hospital, and they need the hospital staff to give them access to her room. [[spoiler: It turns out she isn’t their step-mom because Eddy and Vida were never legally married.]]

* SkewedPriorities. Los Vigilantes focus on gentrification, but they prioritize Lyn and Emma's bar instead of focusing on the real estate development across the street from them, which will gentrify their neighborhood.

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Averted. Emma gets abortion pills immediately after discovering she's pregnant, which is treated matter of factly by her and Lyn (the only other person who knows). In fact Lyn mentions she'd once used the same means to have an abortion herself before.

* HeteronormativeCrusader: Victor is a conservative Christian minister who's strongly opposed to homosexuality. He's unsurprisingly displeased learning that Emma and Lyn's bar hosts LGBT events, trying to take it from them legally so they'll stop. Emma telling him she's queer causes him to have his congregation pray for her loudly, and she leaves in disgust. Because of this Lyn, who'd wanted to forge a relationship with him, also turns her back on Victor.

** Emma and Lyn’s mother's death is the IncitingIncident for the plot, while their father is absent in the beginning. It turns out he was deported to Mexico, but there's no indication of them being in contact with him at first. It turns out they thought he died, but he's still alive and is back in the US. Lyn reconnects to him, but Emma doesn't want to. It doesn't last long, since he expresses homophobia toward them hosting LGBT events in their bar, and about Emma being queer, so Lyn declares him [[IHaveNoSon no longer her father]].

* DomesticAbuse: Emma and Lyn's father Victor used to beat up their mother, Vidalia. Lyn insists he's changed, while Emma is reluctant to accept this. [[spoiler: It's revealed that he had beaten Vida within an inch of her life when she tried to defend teenage Emma after he had found her exploring her sexuality.]]

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Lyn is the foolish sibling, Emma is the responsible sibling. Lyn causes trouble wherever she goes, such as starting an affair with Johnny and going on a thousand dollar shopping spree just to cheer herself up. Emma, on the other hand, is hard-nosed and prudent to a fault, driving everyone nuts with her high expectations.

* InternalizedCategorism: Vidalia had kicked out Emma twice over her attraction to women. However, once it's been revealed Vidalia herself liked women (even later marrying one) Emma angrily concludes this about her. The sisters are accused of being self-hating by other Latino people who dislike them changing the bar as well.

** Vidalia was feminine, while her wife Eddy is really butch.

* InstantHumiliationJustAddYoutube: Marisol gives a guy oral sex, then a video he took of this gets shared around, humiliating her.

* IHaveNoSon: {{Inverted}}. Lyn disowns her dad over how he acted due to Emma telling him she's queer.

* WidowWoman: Eddy is devastated by her wife Vidalia's death.

* DisappearedDad: Emma and Lyn’s father is absent in the beginning. It turns out he was deported to Mexico, but there's no indication of them being in contact with him at first. It turns out they thought he died, but he's still alive and is back in the US. Lyn reconnects to him, but Emma doesn't want to. It doesn't last long, since he expresses homophobia toward them hosting LGBT events in their bar, and about Emma being queer, so Lyn declares him [[IHaveNoSon no longer her father]].

* WakeUpCall: The Hernandez sisters occasionally get these to remind them that they cannot just shed their Mexican heritage whenever they want. Emma gets hers when a potential buyer for the bar (who's a white woman) calls the police on her and Marisol when the two get into a scuffle. Lyn gets hers when she rides on the bus with an older Latina maid, realizing that she's only seen as exotic arm candy for white men.

** Yoli, a member of Los Vigilantes, [[VisualPun douses the supposedly "whitewashed" Lyn in bleach]] to emphasize how out of touch she and Emma are with the dangers of gentrification.

* ParentalTitleCharacterization: The Hernandez sisters' relationship with their late mother is clearly demonstrated by how they address her. Emma, who is still angry and hurt about [[spoiler: being sent away for liking girls]], only calls her by her full name, Vidalia. Lyn had a much warmer relationship with her and calls her "Mommy".

* ReallyGetsAround: Lyn has casual sex pretty frequently, with the second season also revealing that she even regularly attends orgies (though this stops in the episode we see, as she's grown tired of it). Emma does this too, but to a lesser degree, with her number of sexual partners in the show being more limited.

** Emma, of the poor, uneducated, and "loose" variety. She's a middle-class businesswoman who's the intellect of the cast. While she shown taking multiple sex partners, they are of various gender identities.

* DisappearedDad: Emma and Lyn’s father is only mentioned once briefly-apparently he was deported to Mexico, but there's no indication of them being in contact with him since. It turns out they thought he died, but he's still alive and is back in the US. Lyn reconnects to him, but Emma doesn't want to. It doesn't last long, since he expresses homophobia toward them hosting LGBT events in their bar, and about Emma being queer, so Lyn declares him [[IHaveNoSon no longer her father]].

The series follows two sisters - Emma (played by Mishel Prada) and Lyn Hernandez (played by Melissa Barrera)- as they return to their hometown in East Los Angeles in a primarily Mexican-American community. The sisters must come together after a long absence in the wake of their mother's death, whereupon they learn that she was secretly married to another woman. From there, they must confront their own issues while Emma tries to sell her mother's bar, even though her widow, Eddy, won't allow it. A sideplot involves a local girl named Marisol who is fighting gentrification in their town.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: When Emma confronts Lyn over her affair with Johnny, Lyn willfully ignores the fact that Johnny is both engaged and a father-to-be, choosing to justify her actions on the grounds that she wants to be free from society's idea of monogamy. Understandbly, Emma is pissed at this.

* DisappearedDad: Emma and Lyn’s father is only mentioned once briefly-apparently he was deported to Mexico, but there's no indication of them being in contact with him since. It turns out they thought he died, but he's still alive and is back in the US. Lyn reconnects to him, but Emma doesn't want to.

* IHaveNoSon: {{Inverted}}. Lyn disowns her dad over how he acted due to Emma telling him she's queer.

* LipstickLesbian: Emma and (to a slightly lesser extent) Cruz (or libstick bisexual, in Emma's case) who has a quite feminine style of dress. Possibly also Vida, assuming she was a lesbian and not bi, who always dressed in feminine ways from what we see.

* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Emma and Nico have sex in the bar's bathroom (they lock it at least).

* VigilanteMilitia: Los Vigilantes, the activist group Marisol gets involved with, are an unusual version of this. Rather than fighting crime, it's gentrification they oppose, with noisy protests (sometimes violent), graffiti and harassing or insulting Latinos in the area who don't go along with their goals, whom they call "[[OutsideInsideSlur coconuts]]".

* InstantHumiliationJustAddYoutube: Marisol gives a guy oral sex, then he posts it online, humiliating her.

* VigilanteMilitia: Los Vigilantes, the activist group Marisol gets involved with, are an unusual version of this. Rather than fighting crime, it's gentrification they oppose, with noisy protests (sometimes violent), graffiti and harassing or insulting Latinos in the area who don't go along with their goals.

* InterchangeableAsianCultures: Before Emma and Lyn's arrival, Vida's bar was named "La Chinita", with a geisha as its logo.

* MonochromeCasting: Nearly all of the characters are Latino, except for a couple minor White ones. As it's set in a heavily Latino section of LA and focuses on their loves though, it makes sense.