"A Tree Grows in Guadalajara" features guest appearances by Rita Moreno, Justina Machado and Rebecca Gayheart.
Ignacio Suarez returns to Mexico, accompanied by his two daughters, Betty and Hilda, and his grandson Justin, to obtain a United States visa.
At the fashion magazine MODE, creative director Wilhelmina Slater informs co-editors-in-chief Daniel and Alexis Meade that Jordan Dunn will be the "Fearless Woman" feature.
Wilhelmina encourages Bradford to get a makeover to relive his younger days and enlists the help of MODE's seamstress, Christina McKinney.
[3] In the same month, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) announced that Rita Moreno and Justina Machado would guest-star as members of Betty's family, and Rebecca Gayheart would play Alexis' ex-girlfriend.
[5] Prior to the episode airing, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Slezak speculated that Gayheart could play Amanda Tanen's older sister since he believe she resembled Becki Newton.
[6] People en Español erroneously reported that Angélica Vale would reprise her role as Letticia "Lety" Padilla Solis from the Mexican telenovela La fea más bella for the episode.
Bevan identified curandera's prophecies, Betty's visions, and seemingly coincidental meetings with people from Ignacio's past as part of the "Orientalist tradition of representing the non-Western world".
[11] Film studies scholar Kathleen Rowe Karlyn associated the episode with magic realism because of its unnatural lighting and Betty's visions of Henry.
[12] Chicana/o studies professors Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson and Tanya González argued that Ugly Betty unironically invokes and parodies popular images of Mexico to address sociopolitical issues around immigration.
[19] Latino studies scholar Amara Graf describes Betty and Hilda's search for their maternal grandmother as the inverse of La Llorona ("The Weeping Woman"), a folk tale about a dead mother looking for her children.
[20] Karyln had a different interpretation of the episode, writing that by finding her grandmother and learning more about her mother, Betty grows into her "own adult identity" and decides to pursue Henry.
Alex Strachan, writing for the Ottawa Sun, praised the episode as "funny ... but also sweet and gently charming, without being sentimental or cloying".
[26] Despite his initial apprehension that the storyline around Ignacio's citizenship status would be boring, Entertainment Weekly's Tanner Stransky enjoyed it and said it became "a breath of fresh, wholesome air in an otherwise really bitchy, shallow (but totally delicious!)
Although he enjoyed Amanda and Marc's friendship, Stransky dismissed Alexis and Jordan's kiss as "cheap" and Gayheart's acting as incongruent with the show's style.
[29] In a retrospective review of Ugly Betty's most notable quotes, Zap2it's Andrea Reiher included Marc's line, "Of course, Tavares.