IN MY TELENOVELA CLASS: MARISA ROMAN VISITS US

Last Friday, my students were somewhat nervous while they were getting ready to have a videoconference with Venezuelan actor Marisa Román. They were concerned about their level of Spanish, and whether it would allow them to participate fully in the conversation. Meanwhile, in my office, Marisa Román waited for my signal to come to my classroom and surprise the students. And it happened. We managed to repeat the wonderful experience of two years ago, when Marisa also came to my class as a surprise.

The conversation was fluent and very honest. There were many lessons. Besides deepening their learning about telenovelas, my students were able to appreciate first hand how, beyond the glittering aspects of celebrity, actors are human beings whose craft is centered on feelings and emotions. In addition, my students, who are frequently inhibited from speaking Spanish because they haven't perfected it, watched how Marisa Román privileged her desire to communicate with them over her English level and had no qualms to correct her spoken English as she answered our questions. (You can read some my students' posts about this visit in the class blog: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).

Here's a video of the visit. The quality is far from perfect, but the content is representative of what happened in our class during that hour. I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did.

IAMCR-Stockholm-POPULAR CULTURE

My third and final presentation at IAMCR in Stockholm was in the Popular Culture Working Group. In this presentation I focused on one of the subplots of telenovela Ciudad Bendita: Maru's story, a character that was addicted to plastic surgery. In this paper, a section of my work on Ciudad Bendita, I analyzed the writing, production and reception of this storyline in a country in which plastic surgery is naturalized as "normal."

Following are some of the slides I used in the presentation, including a short clip from Maru's story. At the end there's the video of my presentation. For those readers who have never been to an academic conference, it will be interesting to experience the perils of presenting first in a session: the comings and goings of latecomers and even the placement of extra chairs in a room that ended up being too small for the session. As presenters, we have to be immune to those distractions.

















The session also included a fascinating study of the different versions of Betty, la fea around the world:

Session 3 Appearances and Perceptions
Thursday 24th July 14.00-15.30
Chair: Milly Williamson
In the country of beautiful women: A telenovela’s critique of plastic surgery obsession
Carolina Acosta-Alzuru
Travelling style: Aesthetic difference in national adaptations of "Ugly Betty"
Lothar Mikos & Marta Perotta
Queer gazing and the popular: a study on the representational strategies of queer
representations in popular television fiction.
Sofie Van Bauwel, Frederik Dhaenens & Daniel Biltereyst
Circuits of the Real: Authenticity Work in Reality TV
Minna Aslama & Mervi Pantti

IAMCR-Stockholm-AUDIENCE

My second presentation at IAMCR this year was in the Audience section. In it, I focused on the audience's readings of the love story and physical aspect of the protagonists of Venezuelan telenovela Ciudad Bendita, written by Leonardo Padrón. At the end of this entry is the presentation's video. It doesn't have good quality, nor does it show the screen with the PowerPoint supporting slides. Therefore, following are some o those slides with a brief explanation.

In general, telenovelas have some basic codes. Among them are that protagonists follow a beauty code: they are usually beautiful women and handsome men. A second basic code is that the main love story consists of love at first (or almost-first) sight, a long sequence of misunderstandings and obstaces, and the happy end:



Ciudad Bendita's main love story was a transgression of these two codes. Handsome Juan Carlos García was the antagonist. Solid actor, but generally not considered particularly handsome, Roque Valero was the male protagonist, while female protagonist Bendita (played by Marisa Román) had a noticeable limp, the product of a childhood accident.


Thes storyline was also a transgression: Bendita is in love with the antagonist during the first 70 episodes.



In a country like Venezuela, used to telenovelas that are "within the code" and obsessed with physical beauty, how did the audience read this double code transgression?

At the beginning, they didn't like it:



The audience was certainly surprised by the choice of protagonists, and disoriented by this unusual love story. But, as the plot advanced, and Bendita and Juan finally fell in love, audience members accepted and embraced them:


And even though, the public ended up accepting Roque Valero as the protagonist:



There were many who wanted Bendita to be healed (as in a traditional telenovela) of her physical impairment:



In conclusion:



This overview is extremely superficial. Conference presentations already are horribly superficial: a 10-15 minute summary of the work that has taken years and research papers of many pages. But, sharing is my goal, and keeping the conversation going.

Following is the video of the presentation:



And the program of the session in which I presented:

14.00‐ 15.30 Room B497
Session 9: AUDIENCES AND TV GENRES
Chair: Virginia Nightingale, University of Western Sydney, Australia
ANNETTE HILL, University of Westminster, United Kingdom
Spirit Media: Ghosts, Audiences and Digital Culture
GEORGETTE WANG, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan
Glocalization Backfired: Cross‐cultural Viewing of The Weakest Link and The Apprentice
CAROLINA ACOSTA‐ALZURU, University of Georgia, USA
No Cinderella and no Prince Charming?: Audience reception when the telenovela codes are broken
MONICA HERRERO, Universidad de Navarra. Pamplona (Navarra) Spain
The relationship with the audience in family fiction series: the long‐term success and the extension to
other windows
MIAO‐JU JIAN, National Chung‐Cheng University, Taiwan
Passion for “the More Real”: The co‐constitutive relationship between audience and media
technology in the case of global reality TV reception in Taiwan
SARA PEREIRA, University of Minho, Portugal
Television for Children: the Child’s View

HOW BIG IS A CHARACTER?

I've written before (1, 2) about the differences in perception between Internet message board participants and the public at large. 

There are also important differences regarding the appreciation of the challenges associated with certain roles. Having been able to see the insides of telenovela production has allowed me to follow the creative process of writers and actors, and has given me a privileged and more complete view regarding the perception differences between the audience and the makers about a particular character. Through the years I've seen how the press and viewers measure "how big" is a character by the number of scenes or dialogue it has. Meanwhile, real actors measure the character using the performance challenge it represents, and the quantity and quality of nuances that the writing of this character enables. 

Recently in the TVVI message board there was a short discussion about the characters written by Leonardo Padrón.  The conversation was centered on two talented female actors: Nohely Artega and Caridad Canelón. Some message writers considered their two roles in telenovela Ciudad Bendita  small and without transcendence.  Other message board participants disagreed.

The discussion moved me to review again this telenovela's ratings, and my field notes and interviews while I was studying Ciudad Bendita. In my conversations with Nohely Arteaga and Caridad Canelón I found these actors to be very satisfied with the challenges that their respective characters,  Doble M and Peregrina, signified. They were also happy about the possibility of saying something about women who have lost their individual identity because of oppression that renders them as only spouses and mothers (Doble M),  and the everyday life of an Alzheimer patient (Peregrina). 

Those audience members who participated in my study appreciated Doble M, a character that spoke about "the experience of many Venezuelan women who lose their identity because of the expectations associated with traditional gender roles."  

Here is one of Doble M's first scenes with her husband Puro, where we see the emblem of their relationship: his obsession with her weight...with a twist--Puro likes chubby women:

(Important: if the youtube version seems to have video and audio out of sync, please click on the second version that requires Flash) 

Here, you can read (it's in Spanish) a fragment of another emblematic scene in which Doble M confronts her daughter's reaction when the latter learns that, unbeknownst to her father,  her mother is working outside her home. 

Ciudad Bendita enjoyed excellent ratings. The audience was particularly interested in Peregrina's storyline. When she, because of her Alzheimer's, gets lost for two days and is finally found by her son, Juan, the episode had a 47.8% share and an average rating of 14 pts. That night, Ciudad Bendita had 8.4 ratings points of difference with its nearest competitor. My study participants also were outspoken about how important they felt this plot was. They liked that Peregrina was "not just the protagonist's mother."

Here's a brief video summary of some of Peregrina's key moments:

1. When she asks La Diabla to tatoo on her forearm the name of her loved ones, so that she doesn't forget them.
   
2. When her son Juan finally finds her after two days. 
   
3. The final resolution to her storyline, one that could not have a traditional happy end.

I believe that in both cases-- Doble M and Peregrina, it's easy to appreciate what can be accomplished when a good script meets performance talent and commitment. 

Telenovelas rarely achieve unanimous approval or appreciation. Hence, the question remains: How big is a telenovela character? Or, in other words, how do we measure the "size" of a character? 

TELENOVELAS: ONE YEAR IN THE BLOGOSPHERE

If you can't see it, here's the YouTube version:

THE FINAL EPISODE

The semester is over and so is my Telenovelas class. And the last class was a nice final episode about final episodes. That day we moved our class from afternoon to evening, and from the classroom to my living room.



My students had already watched the final episodes of the telenovelas they had analyzed throughout the semester: Rubí, Amor Real, Corazón Salvaje, Amarte es mi Pecado, Pasión de Gavilanes, La Mentira, Piel de Otoño, La Usurpadora, Los Ricos También Lloran and Dame Chocolate. That evening at my house we discussed different types of telenovela endings. From the most traditional with weddings and terrible punishments for the villains, to the less typical (and more contemporary) ends in which the protagonists are together, without a classic wedding, and impunity is present as not all crimes receive punishment.

We watched several interesting final episodes. Among them, Juana La Virgen's, which like this whole telenovela, was mostly "rosa" but with an interesting twist. In its final episode: the use of memories and recollections by the protagonists who are now elderly.



We watched the terrible and lesson-laden end to the important Colombian series Sin Tetas No Hay Paraíso, which has many of the elements of a telenovela--melodrama, love triangles and secrets--but it's too short, in my opinion, to be considered one.



We also had a chance to watch on the screen (and read the script) of the last episode of Cosita Rica, which blurred the line between reality and fiction until the very end, by having the character Nixon presenting on the stage of a filled theater the end of each character/subplot.



(Pictures courtesy of Dani, foro Cosita Rica)

We were able to compare the script and mise-en-scene of Ciudad Bendita's last episode, which occurred in the tragic context of the murder of actor Yanis Chimaras, only hours before the last key scenes were taped. This time reality bit fiction. Throughout these examples, we talked about the distance between the script and what we saw on the screen, and the way these episodes were received and read by the public and the entertainment press.

And to honor that this class was an approximation to Latin American culture through its telenovelas, I cooked for my students a typical Venezuelan meal consisting of pabellón criollo and arepas. For dessert, we had what is now my best-known recipe--a Tres Leches cake, which we accompanied with the reading of a letter that actress Marisa Román wrote especially for my students.

It was a great final episode for a semester that enriched us all. Teaching and learning always go hand in hand. As a professor, I'm immensely satisfied and grateful for this experience.

IN MY TELENOVELAS CLASS: LEONARDO PADRON

My telenovelas class is having some special experiences these days. This week we also had a phone conversation with writer Leonardo Padrón, author of the following telenovelas:

Ciudad Bendita (2006-2007)
Cosita Rica (2003-2004)
Amantes de Luna Llena (2000-2001)
El País de las Mujeres (1998-1999)
Contra Viento y Marea (1997)
Aguamarina (1997)
Amores de Fin de Siglo (1995)
Gardenia (1990).

His work goes beyond telenovelas. He's a well-regarded poet:

El Amor Tóxico (2005)
Boulevard (2002)
Tatuaje (2000)
Balada (1993)
La Orilla Encendida (1983)

And film writer:

Miranda (2006), dirigida por Diego Rísquez
Manuela Saenz (2000), dirigida por Diego Rísquez
La Primera Vez (1997), dirigida por Luis Alberto Lamata

In the last two years, Leonardo Padrón has also worked on radio with Los Imposibles, a show organized by seasons in which he interviews 20 personalities that are "impossible to ignore."



I must mention that Los Imposibles 1 and Los Imposibles 2, turned into books, are now editorial successes.

These recognized writer had a very interesting conversation with my students. Among the topics we discussed were:

1. The way he has explored the feminine through characters that break the traditional telenovela stereotype of the submissive and suffering woman who waits for, or needs, a Prince Charming who will rescue her from poverty, or from a loveless or senseless life. In contrast, Leonardo Padrón creates female characters that are warriors, with a will of their own, and who have agency over their destiny. (For example, Miranda in El País de las Mujeres).
2. How he constructed Olegario in Cosita Rica, a character allegorical to President Hugo Chávez. He shared with us his intention that this character would elicit reflection in the audience. We also discussed how the Venezuelan audience read this character, and how the "villain" was in their eyes the most charismatic character of this telenovela.
3. His reasons to choose Roque Valero as the male protagonist of Ciudad Bendita, and the calculated risk he took by having a protagonist that broke the stereotype of the traditional "galán" and a love story that transgressed the established telenovela codes.
4. His interpretation of how the U.S. Latino market is changing the telenovela genre. And his concern that this market, dominated by Mexican immigrants from the popular classes who are used to traditional telenovelas, is beginning to determine the way telenovelas are written and produced in countries like Colombia and Venezuela. (I share this concern as I've expressed before in this blog: 1, 2).

At the end of our conversation, Leonardo Padrón congratulated my students for the level of the questions they asked. My students and I thanked him for the honesty of his answers, and for visiting our classroom. Our telenovelas class would be incomplete without the voice and presence of this recognized author.

IN MY TELENOVELAS CLASS: DANIELA BASCOPE

The semester's end is fast approaching and there are only two weeks left in my Telenovelas class. Yesterday we had a special guest via phone: talented actor, director and writer, Daniela Bascopé, who shared with us her time and experiences.

A few weeks ago, Daniela received the Best Actress Award in the Venezuelan Film Festival in Mérida for her role in film Al Borde de la Línea:



Below, a list of the telenovelas in which she has appeared and the names of her characters:

Ciudad Bendita (2007)- Fedora
El Amor las vuelve Locas (2006)- Rosaura
Engañada (2003)-Gabriela
La Soberana (2002)- Cherry
Toda Mujer (1999)- Elízabeth
Samantha (1998)-Anabella

Daniela talked to us about the hardest character she ever played (was in film), how her acting experience is a great asset for her work as director, and the way real life inspires the films she writes and directs.

When we asked her if, as an actress, she felt any difference between working in a telenovela "rosa" (most of the telenovelas she's worked in are "rosa") or in a more "verista" telenovela (like Ciudad Bendita), Daniela explained that in the traditional telenovela rosa, a character's lines are more farfetched and less realist than in telenovelas like the ones Leonardo Padrón writes. She also mentioned that in the traditional telenovela, actors must handle situations that are even contradictory,  where their characters don't follow a logic line. In contrast, in telenovelas "veristas" or "de ruptura", the words and actions of the characters tend to be more realistic.

Daniela's words resonated with me and echoed those of the many actors I've interviewed during my research. In particular, throughout Ciudad Bendita, many actors told me that their character was a "pleasure" because it was "served" to them.

In sum, it was a special class thanks to our special guest. My students and I sendour sincere gratitude to Daniela.

TELENOVELAS: WHEN THERE IS NO COMPETITION

Last week we read the publication of the shares of Venezuelan television for the month of October:

Venevisión: 58,1%
Televen: 21,0%
VTV: 6,3%
Globovisión: 6,0%
RCTV International: 4,4%
Tves: 4,1%

Source: AGB. Medición nacional. Total televidentes ABCDE de 6 a 12am. Octubre 2007.

In the message board of Television Venezolana e Internacional (TVVI), the reactions (1, 2) have centered mainly on:

* The fact that, even though it is now on cable only, RCTV International, has a bigger share than the government channel that took over its frequency, TVES.

* Whether Venevisión has capitalized the absence of RCTV. In other words, whether it has increased its share now that RCTV is only on cable.

Since I'm completely opposed to the way the government did away with the opposition that RCTV represented (see my posts 1, 2 and 3), I'm happy that RCTV International has a better share than TVES.

As for Venevisión, the network has benefitted from RCTV's absence. Following are the approximate shares during April this year, (RCTV was closed at the end of May):

Venevisión: 35-40%
Televen: 10-15%%
VTV: 5-6%
Globovisión: 2-3%
RCTV: 23-28%

We should note too that both Televén and Globovisión have also increased their shares in the post-RCTV era.

However, and even though ratings and shares are the currency of the television business, I'm concerned tha the lack of competition will change the way television is made in Venezuela.

I'm particularly concerned about telenovelas. I worry that without internal competition, telenovelas will be produced with the sole purpose of international sales. We are seeing it already. Ciudad Bendita, my last case study, is probably the last telenovela broadcast by Venevisión which was designed to win the ratings war in Venezuela. As for RCTV International, it is now co-producing with Telemundo in order to survive and be sure of its international sales. I'm not sure yet what form their productions will take. The first one, Toda una Dama, a fair remake of the extraordinary telenovela Señora originally written by José Ignacio Cabrujas, has a cast in which talent is uneven.

I'm concerned that as priority is given to international sales over local success (which doesn't matter anymore given the lack of competition), Venezuelan telenovelas will lose their local color and flavor. Many believe that there is nothing wrong with this. Furthermore, they think that this is exactly what the Venezuelan industry needs to regain the top place it occupied once in the international market. I disagree. Firstly, because the political economy of the international telenovela business is different to the one that was in place when Cristal and Kassandra conquered the world. Today the global market is dominated by remakes and telenovelas that are both short and formulaic. There is no risk-taking these days. Secondly, because in Venezuela telenovelas and the social formation have a particularly strong dialogic relationship. Without losing the universality of melodrama, telenovelas have spoken to us, Venezuelans, about who we are, how we love and how we stop loving. If we take away the local flavor, we will be closing this important dialogue between television and culture, and we will diminish the space for autoanalysis. We will also ascertain that our local culture isn't good enough to be present in the international arena.

There was a time in which we enjoyed listening to the different accents, words and sayings present in the telenovelas of varied countries. It was a time in which the local conquered the global. We now live the inverse moment: the global imposes itself over the local. And the global is an imposed construction that implies uniformity, repetition and conformity. I believe these three elements are the mortal enemies of creativity, which is the key ingredient that will assure the health and perdurability of this television genre.

FROM MY RESEARCH TO MY CLASSROOM: TELENOVELA RECEPTION

As many of you can imagine, my research on telenovelas has a presence in my classroom. Sometimes more and sometimes less so, but it's always there. These past two weeks, my scholarship was very present in my Telenovelas, Culture and Society class.

These weeks we've been tackling issues related to telenovela reception or consumption. I divided the topic in several sessions in which we read and discussed the place that telenovelas have in Latin American homes and family routines, the role that Internet message boards, blogs and chatrooms play in telenovela consumption, the reception of telenovelas that include political content (e.g.: Cosita Rica), sociocultural content (e.g.: Ciudad Bendita), how consumption is measured (the omnipresent and powerful ratings and shares), and the representation and reception of health and sociocultural issues in a telenovela.

Regarding the latter, we examined the mise-en-scene and reception of plots that include:

- Domestic abuse


Catalina (Elba Escobar) in El País de las Mujeres

- The obsession with plastic surgery


Pamela (Viviana Gibelli) in El País de las Mujeres


Maru (Jessika Grau) in Ciudad Bendita

We also examined the treatment and reception of health-related storylines that can't have a happy end:


Peregrina (Caridad Canelón) has Alzheimer's Disease in Ciudad Bendita.

The latter merits a few lines. The ratings always showed that the Venezuelan audience had an interest and favored this plot. (The episode in which Peregrina gets lost and is found by her son, Juan Lobo, obtained a share of 47.8% and a rating of 14, establishing a difference of 8.4 points with the telenovela that came in second that night). Those members of the audience who participated in my study of Ciudad Bendita wrote and talked to me about how moved they were by Peregrina's story, and the difficult process that her family and caregivers went through dealing with this illness that Nancy Reagan once defined as "a long good-bye."

My students were also moved this week when they watched how Peregrina's Alzheimer Disease advanced relentlessly: Peregrina is confused when she cooks, she misplaces her wedding ring, is suspicious of strangers and friends, forgets how to pray the Our Father, forgets the name of her son, asks La Diabla to tatoo the name of her loved ones in her arm, gets lost, doesn't recognize her family members, etc...

Even though Peregrina's Alzheimer is highly dramatic, it isn't an easy story to tell in a telenovela because it defies the "crime and punishment" logic that so dominates the genre. Peregrina doesn't have a happy end, even though she isn't "evil" or "villanous." This is a storyline with no humor possibilities. Therefore, it must be balanced with lighter, funnier stories. In addition, it must be spiced with lots of love and, if possible, romanticism.

In sum, it is quite a challenge to include a storyline like Peregrina's. Hence, it should be done carefully and responsibly. When this is achieved, the audience responds positively.

Back to my little blue table

I'm finally back in Athens after two intense weeks in Caracas. Two weeks that were certainly different. I'm used to observing and conducting interviews. In this trip it was the opposite: I was observed and I was interviewed. In this sense, I was a bit uncomfortable. However, my current predominant feelings are the emotion of seeing and touching my book, and the immense satisfaction of the comments I've received from those who have read Venezuela es una Telenovela.

Now I'm back in my natural habitats: my classroom and my little blue table in the basement where I work on my research surrounded by the many pictures and gifts that telenovelas have given me. Following are some of the pictures (courtesy of Editorial Alfa, Dragoons, my friend Claudia, and my daughter Carolina) that will be added to that collection. They are part of the path I traveled the last two weeks.































































































































































I want to take this opportunity also to express my gratitude for the support I've received both in Venezuela and the U.S. Venezuela es una Telenovela now belongs to each of its readers. It's my turn, now, to learn from each one of them. Therefore, I look forward to your comments.

My journey continues. I still have more telenovelas to study. The evidence and data from Ciudad Bendita are waiting for me.

I must sit at my little blue table.

If you want to read more about Venezuela es una Telenovela:
Tal Cual
Blog TVVI
El Universal
Diario en Gerundio (El Mundo)

If you want to find out where to get the book, please contact Editorial Alfa: (+58-212) 762 3036 / 763 5676 / 761 3576 or via e-mail: ventas@editorial-alfa.com

Videos (courtesy of Dragoons and blog TVVI) of the presentation of Venezuela es una Telenovela:

Leonardo Padrón
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