Nickelodeon is featuring a Mexican-American multigenerational family on its new animated series. “The Casagrandes” premiered on Monday and marks another win for Latino on-screen Latino representation.
The long-anticipated show is a spinoff made from the network’s popular show “The Loud House”. It comes as more and more networks choose to created more Latino-themed content.
The Casagrandes focuses on the life of an 11-year-old girl named Ronnie Anne who lives in a big city with her family. The original animated series marks the first time in the United States that a multigenerational Mexican-American family is featured on television.
The show follows Ronnie, her older brother, and her single mom as they leave the suburbs to live with their extended family in Great Lake City, a fictional American city. They end up living in an apartment above the family building, the Casagrandes bodega which is owned by Ronnie’s grandfather.
Ronnie Anne struggles to adjust to the new environment as she navigates around urban culture. In the multicultural city, she goes on to make new friends. Themes in the new show include family-oriented topics including friendship, love, and jealousy.
Supervising director Miguel Puga told the story behind The Casagrandes in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Puga says the series was inspired by Ronnie Anne’s character who was previously introduced on The Loud House.
“I said, “Let’s make them Mexican-American,'” Puga said. “They started to listen, and we went from there.” Puga himself is a first-generation Mexican-American who drew on his own experiences of growing up.