‘Gordita Chronicles’ Follows a Dominican Family Living in Miami

Since Gordita Chronicles was announced a year ago we’ve been excitedly awaiting the premiere of the series created, written, and co-produced by Claudia Forestieri, and now the wait is over. The trailer for the coming-of-age series is out now and it’s officially debuting on HBO Max on June 23. The show, with executive producers Zoe Saldaña and Eva Longoria (who also directed the first episode), takes place in 1985 in Miami after 12-year-old Cucu “Gordita” Castelli (Olivia Goncalves) moves there with her family from Santo Domingo. Her family includes dad Víctor (Juan Javier Cardenas), a marketing executive, mom Adela (Diana Maria Riva), and older sister Emilia (Savannah Nicole Ruiz). The description of the shows states that while life in America is far from what they imagined — “The song said ‘America the Beautiful,” Cucu says, “I think they oversold it” — the Castellis are determined to take charge of their strange new world. The  series is about family, opportunity, love, resilience, and boldly defying the status quo in pursuit of the “American Dream.”

“This show is inspired by my childhood growing up chubby in 80s Miami. Together with comedy goddess Brigitte Muñoz-Liebowitz (our showrunner), and a room full of badass comedy writers with their own immigrant experiences, we created ten episodes packed with coming to America stories that are both heartfelt and hilarious,” Forestieri tells HipLatina. “I’m so excited to finally share this show with todo el mundo and I hope the audience has as much fun watching it as we did writing it.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_U1mkwMLvU

Other cast members include Diana Maria Riva, Juan Javier Cardenas, Savannah Nicole Ruiz, Noah Rico, Cosette Hauer, and Dascha Polanco while Patrick Fabian and Loni Love are guest stars, Deadline reported. In the trailer we see the family moving from the Dominican Republic to Miami and Cucu is not at all impressed. Not to mention the awkwardness of going to school and being surrounded by kids that “look like Madonna” and call Cucu “fatso”. Cucu, though, is not having it and we immediately see her feisty character shine through as she doesn’t let the bullies get her down. From 80s fashion to McDonald’s apple pies to having a dishwasher, we see the Castellis navigate life in the U.S. while trying to retain their roots and culture.

Gordita Chronicles premieres Thursday, June 23 on HBO Max.