The day before Thanksgiving, Netflix premiered the new hit television series “Wednesday.” Since its debut, Wednesday broke streaming records over the top Netflix series Stranger Things, making Tim Burton’s new series the record-holding English-language program on the streaming platform!
But what makes matters even better is that Wednesday is based on the Latinx community.
For many years, there have been short runs of shows of Latinx representations like the revamp of “The Party of Five” that redid the 90’s classic into a new age in which ICE rounded up those who were undocumented to deport immigrants back to their home country, leaving their five American born children to fend for themselves in a land without their parents. That series lived for only one season before its cancellation of it on the network Freeform.
From what has been shown so far about Wednesday, this show has a much different fate than most Latinx shows.
If you have not heard of the Addams Family before, here is a slight brush-up on the gothic and notorious family. The Addams Family got their first introduction to the world on the New Yorker as a little cartoon then in the late ’60s was pitched for a television show, and then later in the late ’90s had two feature films with early Latinx representation Raúl Juliá who played Gomez Wednesday’s father, who is, in real life, of Puerto Rican descent.
In Netflix’s new series “Wednesday” the cast minus one shines a bright light on the Latinx community. This series stars Mexican-American and Puerto Rican actress, Jenna Ortega who plays the dark gothic character herself, Wednesday Adams. The infamous Puerto Rican actor, Luis Guzmán, plays Gomez Adams and Isaac Ordonez plays her brother Pugsley Adams.
Now for the gothic enchantress herself Morticia Adams, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones who is of European descent – the actress has had her fair share of playing “Hispanic” roles in the past which is why they sort of stuck her to run with the facade (which one should never do) but Jones plays a good role within the series.
But it’s not only the cast that adds the spice to this new series but also the embedded use of Spanglish amongst the characters. Adding in references to Dia De La Muertos, while also calling Mexico their ancestral home. But what I truly love about this show is the Native American representation within it (get ready because there is spoilers ahead.)
If you remember in Addams Family Values, where the famous Christina Rucci played Wednesday Addams and did the recitation to the infamous Thanksgiving Act. Ortega’s Wednesday is seen fighting off a genocidal pilgrim when she finds out her ancestors are of Native American descent and were settlers long before the pilgrims arrived. Wednesday needs help from those around her to help stop the repeat of the ethical cleansing to happen again from those who “first found” our nation (does this plot sounds a bit familiar?..)
This is why I strongly believe this show is such a great hit, not only because of the aesthetics of Mr. Burton himself but also because of the distinct use of carrying out the storyline of a Latinx actor/actress to rewrite the history that has been implied in our minds for a long time. This allows people to be educated on the issues that even history could always be repeated or even still be a continuous thing within society. To this day, Natives are still being mistreated by the government on their own lands.