The original One Day at a Time, which premiered in 1975, centered on a white family. In Norman Lear’s modern rework, viewers get to know the Alvarez family—a Cuban brood whose matriarch, larger-than-life Lydia, is played by larger-than-life EGOT winner Rita Moreno. Lydia lives with her divorced daughter, Penelope (Machado), a military veteran and mother of two herself. The Alvarez clan faces the same struggles many sitcom families confront—family strife, petty fights, health scares—but does so from a vantage point that even now is rarely seen on television. In the first episode of Season 2, for example, Penelope’s son, Alex (Marcel Ruiz), is embarrassed by his family—a common enough trope—but specifically, it’s because a stranger told him to “go back to Mexico” after he heard Alex speaking Spanish. Though moments like these could easily be preachy, One Day at a Time makes them feel human instead—and it also manages to deftly weave specific Latino cultural references into universal humor.
How One Day at a Time Captures a Community Most TV Ignores
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