Reclaiming Boyle Heights: Chicanx Identity and Gentrification in Netflix’s “Gentefied”

Małgorzata Martynuska

doi:10.56583/fs.3166

Published : 2026-09-24

Reclaiming Boyle Heights: Chicanx Identity and Gentrification in Netflix’s “Gentefied”

Dr. habil. Małgorzata Martynuska, Assoc. Prof.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5028-5046

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56583/fs.3166

Abstract

This article examines Netflix’s Gentefied (2020–21) as a cultural text that problematizes Chicanx identity, gentrification, and undocumented belonging through the microhistorical lens of Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. The article explores how hybrid linguistic practices, panethnic traditions, and artistic production function as sites of identity negotiation within the context of neoliberał urban development. It further demonstrates that intra-community divisions emerge as upward mobility, self-gentrification, and cultural commodification undermine established social bonds. The article also addresses the show’s portrayal of undocumented immigrant identity through the character of Casimiro Morales, emphasizing how detention, deportation, and the phenomenon of “crimmigration” position Latinx individuals as perpetually deportable.

Keywords:

Gentefied, Chicanx identity, gentrification, undocumented status, detention

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Martynuska, M. (2026). Reclaiming Boyle Heights: Chicanx Identity and Gentrification in Netflix’s “Gentefied”. Facta Simonidis, online first 24 września 2026. https://doi.org/10.56583/fs.3166

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Dr. habil. Małgorzata Martynuska, Assoc. Prof.

mmartynuska@ur.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5028-5046

Affiliation:

University of Rzeszów Poland

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

Małgorzata Martynuska is an Associate Professor at the University of Rzeszów. She completed her MA studies at the University of Warsaw, her PhD at Jagiellonian University, and her habilitation at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Her scholarly interests focus on U.S. Latinx literature and culture, ethnic representations in popular culture, and American crime fiction.

Her recent publications include: ““Every Second Counts”: Representing Chicago’s Urban Identity in the TV Series The Bear” in Perspektywy Kultury (2026), ““We are force”: Border Crossings and Intergenerational Trauma in Gabriela Garcia’s Of Women and Salt” in Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature (2026), and “Puerto Ricanness and Americanness: Developing Bicultural Identity in Quiara Alegría Hudes’s Memoir My Broken Language” in Respectus Philologicus (2026).