UNIVISION'S MISTREATMENT OF VENEZUELAN TELENOVELAS

It's almost impossible to watch Venezuelan telenovelas in Univisión. Programming is designed to attract the U.S. Latino population, which is dominated by people of Mexican descent/origin.

The days in which Univision broadcast El País de las Mujeres (1999) at 2 p.m. are long gone. The Venezuelan "quota" is now the 1 p.m. slot, which is now destined to telenovelas produced by Venevisión-Miami (Venevisión Productions). Never by Venevisión-Venezuela. And telenovelas produced by RCTV are not even in the mix. Hence, we rarely find Venezuelan telenovelas in Univisión. And when we do, it's in some terrible time slot like 1 a.m.

For these reasons, I was happy to hear that my most recent object or study, La Vida Entera, is being broadcast by Univisión at 6 p.m. The time slot is somewhat problematic since it coincides with local newscasts in some cities. For instance, in Miami and San Diego the telenovela won't be seen. But, there are plenty of cities and urban centers in which the affiliated Univisión station doesn't have a newscast. For example, Atlanta. Notwithstanding this issue, the 6 p.m. slot is a big improvement compared with the wee hours of the morning, as was the case with telenovela Torrente.

But, the abuses that Univision commits regarding Venezuelan telenovelas aren't limited to scheduling:

1. The synopsis of La Vida Entera on Univision's webpage is a faint image of the one written by the telenovela's author. The telenovela's essence is all but lost.
2. For most of the day today my TV was on Univision. I didn't see a single promotional of the telenovela. La Vida Entera promotionals don't seem to exist. Hence, the telenovela doesn't seem to exist either.
3. Every one hour episode is being edited so that it's duration is only 30 minutes. Therefore, edition is rough and brutal, and lacks respect for the story. My impression was that the editor only cares for the main love story of Kotufa, Salvador and Cristóbal (this is also reflected in Univision's published synopsis). The rest of the characters only show up in scenes in which they're related to the main triangle. By editing in this way the first two episodes, in which the writer and cast first draw characters and present plots, the telenovela loses coherence, meaning, dramatic structure and strength. In other words, a 120-hour telenovela is being dismembered into 60 meaningless hours.

Given all these factors, should we be surprised if La Vida Entera fails in the ratings? Of course not. When that happens, then it will be said that Venezuelan telenovelas don't work out well in Univision. And, it will be several years before another Venezuelan telenovela is given "a chance," always under adverse conditions that are close to impossible.

This is a sorry state of affairs that disrespects all who work in the Venezuelan telenovela industry and the public. It's also another factor in the current precarious situation of Venezuelan TV, which is caused by government measures intended to stifle dissent and by positions assumed by network administrators and owners.

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.

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.

Understanding Telenovelas: Three Case Studies

To understand how the telenovela "works," I've conducted three comprehensive case studies which have one thing in common: the three telenovelas were written by Leonardo Padrón.


This author's telenovelas are particularly interesting to me because of the way he mixes melodrama, romance, humor and reality in his stories.


El País de las Mujeres (1999).- This telenovela allowed me to examine not only the telenovela genre, but also a society I know well, one in which women are oppressed in overt (machismo, marianismo, domestic violence and male infidelity) and subtle ways (a limiting definition of the feminine, a cultural obsession with physical beauty and the prevalence of Catholicism). El País de las Mujeres afforded me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of how Venezuelan women are socialized into their expected gender roles, and the role media play in this process.


Cosita Rica (2003-2004).- From September 2003 to August 2004, two melodramas threaded reality and fiction as they shared the heated and hypermobilized Venezuelan political stage: The rocky road to the recall referendum of President Hugo Chávez and the telenovela Cosita Rica. This television show, an intriguing example of the telenovela genre, was inextricably linked to Venezuelan reality. As Cosita Rica mirrored, and reflected on, the country’s political crisis, the telenovela became the epicenter in which media, culture and society evidenced the complexity of their articulations.


Ciudad Bendita (2006-2007).- What happens when a Venezuelan author writes a telenovela with the explicit purpose of critiquing Venezuelans’ vanity and obsession with beauty? How does the Venezuelan audience receive a telenovela in which the protagonists transgress the genre’s beauty code, (i.e., the female protagonist has a noticeable limp and the male protagonist is not considered handsome)? How do Venezuelans interpret storylines that criticize the national obsession with physical appearance, eternal youth, weight loss and plastic surgery?

Ciudad Bendita is my current study and obsession.