East Willy B is a

comedic Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

Web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

that profiles Latinos in the gentrifying neighborhood of

Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; East New York and the cemeteries of Highland Par ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Described as a Puerto Rican ''

Cheers ''Cheers'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association w ...

'', its episodes generally run six to nine minutes online and tackle themes such as love, race, gentrification, entrepreneurship, and more. The series aims to promote Latino voices in media outlets.

The series

The series, created by Julia Ahumada Grob and Yamin Segal, follows the life of Willie Jr. and his bartender friend, Ceci Rivera. The show documents the process where a

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

neighborhood starts to change, with young hipsters moving to

in search of the next hot

neighborhood. As rents increase in Bushwick, Brooklyn (or " East Williamsburg") due to

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...

, Ceci and Willie organize their neighborhood to save Willie's bar. The show also follows Willie's attempts to win back his former fiancé from his nemesis. Many of Bushwick's "quirky characters" are included in the show, including a "bodega CEO, piragua (shaved ice) purveyors, local artists, family drunks, sassy women, local beggars,

salsa music Salsa music is a style of Latin American music. Because most of the basic musical components predate the labeling of salsa, there have been many controversies regarding its origin. Most songs considered as salsa are primarily based on son montun ...

lovers, as well as the unwanted 'hipsters.'" The cast and crew are predominantly Latino, though a much larger audience will relate to the themes in the series. The show also portrays the divide between the different Latin American cultures. To date, two seasons of the series have been produced. Episodes are released on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, and on the show's website. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' dubbed the series a "Latino Show for a New Generation." In 2013, East Willy B was nominated for an Imagen Foundation Award for "Best Web Series: Comedy." East Willy B was also highlighted in IndieWire as one of the thirteen "Critic's Picks" of 2013 for comedy web-series. The characters are: * Willie Jr. * Ceci * Maggie * Albert * Cesar

References

{{Reflist

External links

East Willy B website
American comedy web series 2013 web series debuts Bushwick, Brooklyn