La Flor Más Bella’s Mich Represents Latinas Who Are “Too Much”

Mich (Esmeralda Soto) knows she is cool, talented, beautiful, and interesting, but nobody in her high school agrees, or notices that she’s even there. She knows she has what it takes to be popular and eat lunch at the fountain with all the other cool kids. But her whitexican (white Mexican) cousin Brenda (Michelle Olvera) doesn’t think Mich fits the bill, and she does everything in her power to keep Mich invisible in the eyes of her peers. Unlike Brenda, Mich has curly dark hair and is plus-size — two traits that make her unattractive according to the fatphobic and colorist beauty standards of high school. Knowing she deserves to be seen and appreciated for how wonderful and iconic she is, Mich’s mission is to become popular and finally receive the recognition and attention she desires. 

La Flor Más Bella, now streaming on Netflix, is marketed as a cute teen rom-com series, but the show goes much deeper than meets the eye. Set in Xochimilco in Mexico and fully in Spanish, La Flor Más Bella tackles some big issues in Mexican society: colorism, fatphobia, classism, familial expectations, homophobia, and the tension between Mexican and U.S. cultures. Mich’s story as an unpopular girl reveals the prejudices teens are raised with in Mexican and U.S. societies: whiteness, thinness, and conformity in general are what get you the most social capital. And Mich is ready to challenge these oppressive standards.

Mich is a fearless heroine — sometimes to the point of foolishness — who will inspire audiences to be themselves, or to find themselves so they can be as confident as Mich is despite the haters. From the very beginning, Mich is her own biggest supporter: no matter what people tell her about who she is and how she is supposed to be, Mich believes she can be more, and that there are people out there who will love her as she is. The lack of self-hatred in Mich’s character is a refreshing addition to the unpopular girl trope: instead of believing her bullies and wallowing in self-deprecation, Mich insists they are wrong. This happens on several occasions throughout the show, like when she tries to sit with the popular kids, when she insists on auditioning for the school play, and when she sings in front of the whole school at a party she wasn’t quite invited to. Even through rejection and sometimes humiliation, her belief in herself is unwavering. 

Mich’s biggest disappointment is that people don’t see her like she sees herself, which feels like a new take on the loser in high school trope. Her whitexican popular boyfriend Dani (Germán Bracco) is ashamed of dating her, despite claiming to love her, and insists on hiding their relationship from the rest of the school so as to not commit social suicide. Instead of hiding away until a makeover montage transforms her into a seemingly more palatable and attractive character, the audience already understands that Mich is too good for Dani and deserves better. But just in case this hasn’t sunk in, Mich asserts her fabulousness by performing her own version of "Amarrame" by Mon Laferte and Juanes at a school party, challenging her bullies to disagree with her. Seeing a plus-size, curly haired girl not conform to the beauty standards that are forced upon her was wonderful, and I am glad Latina girls will be able to see that onscreen.

This show is for the girls who feel like they are too much, and the girls who love too much and too hard. Despite all of Mich’s self-confidence, her world is thrown into disarray when she meets Majo (Ishbel Bautista), a dark-skinned proud bisexual girl who comes to Xochimilco because she suffered homophobic bullying in her hometown. While Mich is demanding that Dani owns up to their relationship, she realizes her heart is bigger than she thought: she has a crush on Majo. Mich’s rom-com teen story is a story of bisexual self-discovery; Majo reveals Mich’s queerness, Mich’s capacity for crushing on any gender. This turn of events, along with Mich’s interest in musical theater and ambivalence toward her family tradition to enter the La Flor beauty pageant, produces another dilemma for our heroine: Will she follow her heart and indulge in her interests or will she choose tradition over her own desires?

This is, of course, a quintessential struggle for Latina girls and women everywhere. While family is incredibly important to our communities, Latina women are usually burdened with the labor to keep the family together and to continue traditions — even if they aren’t quite what we want out of life, because family is important and we must protect it. For queer Latine kids, this can present several challenges over our lifetime: queer lives don’t always look like heterosexual lives, and that’s OK. But getting to a place where we feel secure in our choices is a process. Mich’s crush on Majo, and her feelings for Dani and another boy, Mati, reveal that Mich can have romantic feelings for anyone, regardless of gender. It’s important to see this kind of self-discovery be treated with so much respect and care on screen, particularly when the protagonist doesn’t quite understand herself and sits in confusion. That’s certainly a realistic portrayal of self-discovery in your teens.

Through Mich and her struggles with colorism, fatphobia, and homophobia, La Flor Más Bella displays the multitudes that Latina girls can have, and how our complexities might clash with what’s expected of us. Mich is a much-needed heroine for Latina girls who feel like they are too much. As it turns out, Mich’s bully — her cousin and popular whitexican Brenda, who terrorizes Mich during most of the show — eventually reveals she is actually jealous of Mich’s personality, singing voice, and wholesome family. 

Maybe the problem isn’t that we are loud or want attention, have big personalities, or have curly hair. The problem is that we are all these things and we are proud of it, that we live our lives fully despite not fitting into beauty and respectability standards, and that many people feel uncomfortable about how we carry ourselves without fear. I hope this show inspires girls and women to take up as much space as they think they deserve, and that they do so as unapologetically as Mich does.

I did not expect to watch a show about a bisexual girl coming to terms with how big her heart is, and yet that’s what I got. And I loved it. 

There wasn’t much diversity, but I actually enjoyed that the characters were local to their city and how much location and local culture was relevant to the show. 

I loved that the show is mostly in Spanish, but peppered with English words to signify class differences and the impacts of imperialism on the high school kids.

There’s a variety of skin tones in La Flor Más Bella, but not enough. There are no Black characters, but there is a dark-skinned character (Majo) who suffers racism and stands out from the whitexicans. While I wish there were a more varied cast, I do think the show depicts racism in Mexico accurately and doesn’t shy away from tackling race issues. 

I love how Mich is never dissuaded from her own fabulousness, which is exactly what her bullies want. There are no makeover montages that imply she isn’t enough. I think stereotypes are dealt with quite well in this show.

I enjoyed watching La Flor Más Bella: it was funny, sweet, and it approached some big topics. However, I felt that by the end, several threads of the storyline were lost, and there was a bit too much going on. I hope these loose threads are dealt with next season.