Wine Soaked Power Struggles Permeate Latino Family Drama Series ‘Promised Land’

Christina Ochoa sheepishly admits, “I don’t drink, which I was very scared to tell Matt and Maggie when they cast me, but I have tried a bunch of wines in preparation for this. And I would say [I] like, something that doesn’t even taste like wine, something fruity and sugary and doesn’t even taste like wine.”

The prep work Ochoa’s is referring to was for her role in the new series Promised Land, a drama set against the backdrop of a vineyard.

The show is about a Latinx family vying for wealth and power in California’s Sonoma Valley, famous for its wine production. The primetime soap comes from creator Matt Lopez and executive producer Michael Cuesta features an almost completely Latin cast, led by John Ortiz, Cecilia Suárez, Augusto Aguilera, Christina Ochoa along with Bellamy Young. Maggie Malina serves as an executive producer.

Lopez explains why 2022 is the perfect time for this series, saying, “I think it’s a blend of, on the one hand, timeless themes of ambition and power that are almost Shakespearean and, at the same time, [have] a very current timeliness.”

He adds that with the current hot button issue of immigration, which features prominently in the storyline of the series, “I think shining a light on [depicting] the pursuit of the American dream in all its beauty but, at the same time, all its costs, I think, speaks to the now.”

A fan of the soap genre, Lopez admits, “At the risk of revealing my age, as a kid, I was a huge Dallas fan. I have to say. J.R. Ewing was sort of my spirit animal. Another weird inspiration for this was, strangely enough, not a nighttime soap but a book – East of Eden. If East of Eden was just a logline, you would think it’s like a primetime soap.”

As for his knowledge about the world of wine, Lopez says, “Well, for this reformed beer drinker, I’ve learned quite a bit. I’ll say one interesting thing that I’ve learned is as I first had the first inspiration and inkling for this, you know, you’re creating this hyper-competitive world and I guess I sort of assumed I was making it up. And then you start to research and do the due diligence on the wine world and you quickly discover it’s as competitive as you see on TV. It’s very, very cutthroat.”

Although passion runs high in the narrative, Malina says, “I would say more wine is savored than thrown in this show, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t throw down a little bit. There are so many juicy twists and turns to partake and deeply inhale.”

But, she’s quick to add, “There’s definitely going to be a glass or two broken.  

In Promised Land, the Latino experience isn’t just shown on-camera, say Lopez. “What I found is that by having a lot of Latino and Latina members behind the camera, on the writing staff, there’s a level of passion for telling these stories. The first time I saw it was when we were casting, where we had actors who would come in and say, ‘My parents were fruit pickers in Santa Paula. I’ve never seen their story on screen before. Thank you.’ Or the other extreme where we would have actors that would say, ‘Thank you for showing this extremely successful, unapologetically wealthy Latino family that’s not in the cartel.”’

Overall, says Lopez. “I think audiences will respond to it. It’s a show that delivers the goods on the soap and in all those, sort of, juicy, twisty elements, but I think also it’s our ambition to say something about the times in which we’re living.”

Malina offers that it’s also about relationships, adding, “Familia is the code word for all of the Promised Land experience.

‘Promised Land’ airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.