‘Family’ Reconnects With Its Roots

Since its debut on PBS in January, “American Family” has won praise as the first Latino drama on U.S. broadcast television. The first 13 episodes did well enough that PBS decided to pick up nine more, and Mexico’s Televisa network has announced plans to air all of them in the fall.

The series, set in East Los Angeles, follows life with the Gonzalezes, a Mexican American family with strong cultural and family ties south of the border. Patriarch Jess Gonzalez (Edward James Olmos) owns a barbershop. Nina (Constance Marie) is a lawyer; another daughter, Vangie (Rachel Ticotin), a fashion designer; Esteban (Esai Morales), a firefighter. And flamboyant Aunt Dora (Raquel Welch) is a Hollywood star manquee.

Tonight’s episode (9 p.m., KCET and KVCR) focuses on Vangie, who gets an opportunity to work for a major retailer--if she can come up with the money to step up production.

Series creator Gregory Nava took “American Family” to Mexico to film the two season-ending episodes. In “The Journey,” due to air Aug. 28 and Sept. 4, Jess travels to Mexico’s southern Oaxaca state to learn more about the childhood of his late wife; Esteban arrives in Mexico City to try to rescue his relationship with his girlfriend; and Nina heads to southern Chiapas to deliver humanitarian aid to poor Indians.

Filming in Mexico was a homecoming for the show’s cast and its characters, Nava said. Olmos grew up in East Los Angeles but has family in Mexico; Nava is from San Diego with relatives in Tijuana; and Kate del Castillo, who plays Esteban’s girlfriend, is from Mexico City. “This journey is a real universal thing, I think, for Americans to come to grips with their past, the past of their families,” Nava said.