{"id":64641,"date":"2019-10-21T15:54:25","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T21:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-casagrandes-extols-mexican-american-life-via-animation\/"},"modified":"2019-10-21T21:54:25","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T21:54:25","slug":"the-casagrandes-extols-mexican-american-life-via-animation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-casagrandes-extols-mexican-american-life-via-animation\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Casagrandes\u2019 extols Mexican American life via animation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"This
This image released by Nickelodeon shows a scene from the animated series \u201cThe Casagrandes,\u201d featuring a multigenerational Mexican American family. In this series, Ronnie Anne, her older brother and single mother, leave the suburbs to move in with their large family in the fictional Great Lake City. The apartment is located above The Casagrandes bodega, owned by grandpa, and next to an elevated subway track.<\/span>Nickelodeon via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

ALBUQUERQUE \u2013 \u201cThe Casagrandes,\u201d Nickelodeon\u2019s new original animated series that centers around an 11-year-old girl trying to survive a big city, is one of the first cartoons in the U.S. to feature a multigenerational Mexican American family.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited spin-off from the network\u2019s popular animation series, \u201cThe Loud House,\u201d premiered Monday and comes as more networks are taking chances on Latino-themed shows.<\/p>\n

In this series, Ronnie Anne and her family \u2014 an older brother and single mother \u2014 leave the suburbs to move in with their large family in the fictional Great Lake City. The apartment is located above The Casagrandes bodega, owned by Ronnie Anne\u2019s grandpa, and in front of a subway track.<\/p>\n

The skateboarding Ronnie Anne works to adjust to her new surroundings while shunning a female cousin\u2019s attempt to dress up with urban style and making new friends in a multicultural city.<\/p>\n

Unlike previous cartoons with Latinos like Fox\u2019s 2016 \u201cBordertown\u201d series, \u201cThe Casagrandes\u201d seeks to tackle family-oriented themes like love, friendship, and jealousy. Family members, including Ronnie Anne\u2019s nurse mom, work to navigate limited space in a crowded apartment amid uncertainty and humor.<\/p>\n

Miguel Puga, the show\u2019s supervising director, said the idea for the series came after Ronnie Anne\u2019s character was introduced on \u201cThe Loud House\u201d and writers started thinking about a spin-off with a new family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u201clet\u2019s make them Mexican American\u2019,\u201d Puga said. \u201cThey started to listen, and we went from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Puga, a first-generation Mexican American, lived among a large family in a house as a child. To make the cartoon feel authentic, he shared his experience growing up in East Los Angeles and how his home was always crowded with family and parties. Nickelodeon executives bought in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just pitched them on how it was going on and they loved it,\u201d Puga said.<\/p>\n

Yet, Puga wanted to get more Latino artists involved. So, he reached out to syndicated cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, who was a consulting producer on the Oscar-winning 2017 animated Disney\/Pixar feature \u201cCoco.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz agreed to join the series as a consulting producer and a writer. He wrote an episode focusing on the \u201cDay of the Dead\u201d and how different cultures tackle the death of loved ones.<\/p>\n

Still, not all episodes deal with serious topics. Sometimes the family\u2019s talking parrot gets into trouble and runs up bills. Other times, an uncle disappears into the night and relives his previous life as a skateboarder.<\/p>\n

But most of the time, Ronnie Anne is working to solve a problem and learn a lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make sure this is a lot of love in these episodes,\u201d Puga said.<\/p>\n

Russell Contreras is a member of The Associated Press\u2019 race and ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at: http:\/\/twitter.com\/russcontreras<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Networks are taking chances on Latino-themed shows<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64641"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}