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In the third and final season of Vida, Mishel Prada and Melissa Barrera, who play the Hernandez sisters, have to deal with a challenging time brought on by a family secret. While the leading ladies of the Starz show navigate and deal with childhood traumas and complicated relationships, the women in real life have been doing their best to get through the global coronavirus pandemic. As the series returns Sunday, April 26, we checked in to see how they’ve been holding up.
Mishel has been sticking around Los Angeles, and Melissa has been in Mexico, but they both have been spending their days keeping in touch with friends and taking a moment to be in the present. “I’ve learned that I can be still, and that I can live in the present,” Melissa tells HOLA! USA. Her co-star Mishel adds: “Sit in the moment with ourselves; it’s the only thing we have control over.”
Keep reading to see if Mishel has mastered work outs from bed and where Melissa has been spending most of her time –we have a feeling she’ll be there this evening tuning in for the season premiere.
Current location: Mishel Prada: Los Angeles, CaliforniaMelissa Barrera: Ciudad Obregón, Sonora
How many days in self-isolation: MP: 48MB: 46
Favorite part of your house: MP: My bed. I love to be snuggled under covers. If I can do it from my bed, I will. Work, read, write, watch TV, eat. I haven‘t figured out how to work out from bed, but I’m positive I’ll figure it out. I’m basically one of the grandparents from Willie Wonka at this point.
MB: TV Room. That‘s where I’ve been spending most of my time, either watching movies with my husband, learning to play guitar, eating or doing zoom calls with friends.
What have you learned about yourself during this time: MP: That my mind wants to have answers for everything... but we truly live in an uncertain world. Our superpower is adapting, and we come from people that find a way to survive.
MB: I usually live in the future, always thinking about what comes next. And because of this forced pause, and the uncertainty of the future, I’ve learned to enjoy each day fully because each day is all I have. Tomorrow everything might change again.
Favorite home-cooked meal: MP: I really thought that I would eventually get tired of eating pasta, well… it turns out I haven‘t. All shapes, all sauces, at all times of the day... pasta. I just keep pretending I’m ‘vacationing’ in the Italian countryside.....one that I can’t leave from.
MB: Favorite home-cooked meal: Spicy Fideo Bolognese, my own creation.
At-home beauty treatment: MP: I have this beautiful jet-black Japanese scrub brush that I use to scrub my body before I shower; it leaves my skin so velvety and soft.
MB: Hydrating Aloe Masks
Something you will take into life after coronavirus: MP: In life before ‘the time of corona’ so much time can pass between spending time with friends. We have been pushed out of the physical world into this digital sphere, and we’ve essentially become avatars of ourselves, and yet, I really have enjoyed having online dinner dates and cocktail hour with friends.
MB: How important it is to live a balanced life. We don’t always have to live in a hurry. It is beautiful to slow down, even stop once in a while.
Message of hope for the future: MP: If this has taught us anything, it’s that we truly have to look out for each other. We do not exist as an island, and we are stronger as a pack. Let‘s start caring for one another.
MB: I hope when this passes, because it will, that we as a society don‘t go back to our life as it was, but define a ‘new normal’ way of living, where we continue prioritizing the love and solidarity toward our neighbors that has sprung from this pandemic.
How you are passing the time: MP: Some days I cook; I write; I catch up with friends (in that digital way) and other days I pour myself a glass of champagne at 10 am, lounge in my bed with my cat Louie and eat a whole cake. It truly is a day to day thing these days. I had to come to the harsh reality that all the books I haven‘t been reading because I thought I was too busy had nothing to do with not being too busy so I’m trying to remedy that.
Show binge-watching: MP: I’ve mostly been binge-watching everyone’s Instagram stories and once that gets weird, I turned to the documentary Wild Wild Country... it’s one of the most unimaginable and savage stories I have ever encountered. I watch it jaw-dropped the whole time. I’ve also finally been making good use of my criterion collection subscription, Godard for days.
What are you doing to stay positive: MP: Mostly, I feel lifted by staying kind to myself, to realize that this is a very scary time for a lot of people and there‘s nothing wrong with feeling lost and down some days. Our world is hurting and mourning collectively, so yes, some days I will feel incredibly grateful and grounded and yet, some days I will grieve. We as a society are dealing with some very heavy stuff at the moment so wherever I am that day, it’s okay.
Make sure to watch Vida on Sundays at 9 pm on Starz.