The critically acclaimed Vida returns this April on Starz for its third and final season, creator and showrunner Tanya Saracho announced in a farewell letter. The series has taken on issues affecting Latinx culture, LGBTQ identity, and gentrification as sisters Lyn (In the Heights's Melissa Barrera) and Emma (Riverdale's Mishel Prada) have navigated the intersections of their lives in the wake of their mother's death. And from the trailer, the season looks queerer and more socially relevant than ever as Vida takes on ICE raids.
In a letter, Saracho, who is queer and Latinx and who staffed her writers’ room primarily with women and queer and Latinx people, wrote about lowering the curtain on the trailblazing series.
"Season three will be Vida’s final season. Rather than dwell on the ‘hows’ and the ‘whys,’ what I’m burning to get to is the ‘thank you’ part. That’s the part that’s making my chest ache,” Saracho wrote.
"When I began this journey three and a half years ago, I never dreamed that by the end of the process I’d be so wholly changed — mind, body, and spirit — and that I’d be standing so strongly in my abilities to run and create a TV show the way it should have always been created: By us,” she wrote.
“When I started this, the landscape was a bleak one for Latinx representation. In the television landscape, the narratives about us were few and far between and were stuck on stereotypical. And I had only heard of one Latina showrunner who’d been allowed to run a show solo.”
“Also for brown queers, there was truly no representation. This is where the thank-yous begin: Because you championed our delicate and darling little series, we were gifted three beautifully compelling, trailblazing seasons of television. Sincerely, this is why I wanted to personally write this letter, to express that your support has meant everything. It has meant two renewals and validation of our brown narrative,” Saracho continued.
She went on to thank Starz, for allowing Vida room to provide a platform for queer and Latinx stories and artists:
“I got to tell the exact story I wanted to tell, exactly how I wanted to tell it, and that is rare in this industry. I leave steeped in gratitude. Thankful to Starz for not just allowing Vida to happen, but for being great co-parents as we raised her together. And grateful for the collaborators whose careers we were able to launch: Latinx cinematographers, writers, actors — almost entirely female — who are now out there and in demand. What a beautiful family we built. And what a beautiful show.”
The six-episode season that will premiere April 26 features a drag king segment and a "Queerceañera" at Vida bar as Lyn works to make their mother's old dive the go-to spot for Latinx culture.
Season 3 sees both sisters happy in love, for once. From the trailer, it looks as though the impenetrable Emma is happily dating Roberta Colindrez's Nico while Lyn throws a Queerceañera for her best friend, Marcos (Tonatiuah Elizarraraz).
The official synopsis for the season is as follows:
"Vida returns with Emma and Lyn riding on the heels of success. The bar is booming and their love lives are actually flourishing ... until the Hernandez sisters discover a long-buried family secret that ruins their hard-won peace. The sisters find themselves face to face with old ghosts and new enemies, all while deciding if they can continue together as a family or if they should move on alone, for good this time."
Vida returns to Starz for one last season on April 26. Watch the trailer below in the video below.
