How ‘Promised Land’ creator Matt Lopez created the all-Latino network TV drama

The California-set ABC family series explores the American Dream in the vein of 'Succession' and 'Dallas.'

Set in the sumptuous landscape of Sonoma Valley with a great-looking cast and juicy storylines bursting with scheming and betrayal, the new ABC series, “Promised Land” joins TV’s tradition of dirty, sexy nighttime soaps ranging from “Dallas” to “Succession.”

But the show, which stars John Ortiz as Joe Sandoval, the relentless and ruthless patriarch of Heritage House Vineyards, offers something different from its predecessors: It’s the first network drama with an all-Latino cast, as well as a majority Latino crew and writers room. 

And the storylines go beyond battles among the Sandoval clan over money and power: Joe’s son Mateo tries helping a worker named Daniela get illegal papers but when a deadly incident leads to the police discovery of her status, Joe must decide whether or not to turn Daniela over to ICE. (Logan Roy never faced issues like that, although if he did, we all know he wouldn’t hesitate to make the call.)

“The superpower of the show is that it does check a bunch of those TV boxes — beautiful cars, beautiful houses, beautiful women, beautiful vineyards — but in terms of theme and character, it’s going for something bigger and deeper,” says Matt Lopez, a former attorney and business executive who created the series.

Lopez spoke recently by video about what inspired the show and how he and the cast and crew — who call themselves “la familia” — feel about being part of history. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Q. How did you come up with the idea?

ABC Signature approached me about developing a one-hour drama built around a Latino family. I said I’m not interested in doing a telenovela; they asked what did interest me and I said, “John Steinbeck. John Ford. A big, sweeping multigenerational epic story that goes a little operatic.”

I also had a moment at a Home Depot. I’m a third-generation American and saw these men, day laborers, waiting for someone to come by in a truck. And I thought, “My life is so different from theirs. But the only real difference is the passage of time.” I was staring at my grandparents and their parents. They worked in fields and factories. That struck a chord and I wanted to tell the arc of that American journey. 

For the story itself, vineyards are amazing, are very cinematic and it’s a hypercompetitive industry, even within families, like the Mondavi brothers. And I’m a big “Godfather Part II” fan; as a storyteller, it’s the best of both worlds: You get a family empire at the height of its power, juxtaposed against the scrappy immigrant story of how that empire came to be.

I’ll say it’s broader even than just Latinos; it’s true for immigrants in general. The stunt coordinator on the pilot, Danny Le Boyer was born in Vietnam and he said, “This is my parents’ story. We didn’t come over a wall but we came here on a boat after the fall of Hanoi.” The themes have a universal resonance. And the themes are Shakespearean — the beauty and cost of chasing your dreams.

Q. There are striving immigrants and successful American-born executives. But no drug cartels. How important was that?

It’s a big deal. Look at the IMDb pages. John Ortiz has been in the cartel a lot of times, in “Miami Vice” movies,” “The Fast and the Furious.” This is also the first lead role he’s ever been offered. 

During the casting process, all these Latino actors would finish their reads and get quite emotional. Some would say, “My parents picked strawberries and I’ve never seen their story on screen before” and some said, “Thank you for showing this very wealthy, unapologetically successful Latino family that’s not in a cartel.”

Q. There’s a strong Latino presence behind the scenes too.

I have writers who have worked on other Latino-themed shows and I was surprised to learn that often they were the only Latino or only one of two on a writing staff. 

It’s important for this show to have Latinos on the crew, too. We have Felix Alcala who has probably directed 150 hours of television and then on episode five we have a young Latina filmmaker, Clara Aranovich, and she does not have a lot of episode television and ABC believed in me enough to take a chance on her. It goes to the other departments.

You get interesting moments. If you go to catering or craft services on most TV sets the staff is mostly Latinos. But to see them here interacting with the stars of the show and speaking to them in Spanish was another familial thing. There’s enormous pride. 

Q. The series is clearly descended from shows like “Dallas” and “Succession” –  there are even storylines about a board battle and a hit-and-run involving one of the patriarch’s children. Does it feel less derivative to you because the characters engaging in all this misbehavior are Latino?

The Sandovals engage in things that are crass but the younger writers in the room pointed out that this is a victory for Latinos to have all those different stories. 

Before we were even picked up after the pilot, the cast wrote a letter to the network that said in part they are used to being in shows and movies where they are the one Latino. What they embraced and what they wrote was that because they are all Latinos, it relieves them of the burden of representation, being the “noble Latino” or the cartel Latino, so they get to play in the space in between. A couple of the characters are a little venal but they evolve and don’t stay one thing.

Q. How did the writers approach the politicization of immigration?

We try to be matter of fact and approach immigration on the level of human experience. Perhaps a portion of the audience will look at the characters’ journeys and feel – by however slight a margin – differently about people who come here to live out the American dream. Frankly, these immigrants embody the American dream in a way that many of us whose families have been here for a while take for granted.

Q. That immigration debate happens within the family, too.

There’s this moment in the pilot where Mateo says, “You climb up the ladder and then you pull it up behind you.” Several of our cast members said they too can relate to this dynamic, and I’ve seen it in my family.

Joe doesn’t turn Daniela in to ICE but he says, “You cannot stay here.” It’s a little bit of tough love. He’s saying “No one gave me a hand up, and if I can do it, you can do it too.” If you’re strong enough, you’ll emerge out the other side. It can seem kind of callous but it’s not cruel. Although there are other ways of seeing that. It’s nuanced. 

The storyline where Joe fires Daniela is going to lead to a reckoning for Joe. That uncomfortable truth that Lettie tries to make him face – 30 years ago that was us – she’s willing to start wrestling with that and over the course of the season he will not be able to look away.