MICAELA GOES TO W.R. COILE MIDDLE SCHOOL

Yesterday I had a special experience. I was invited to speak to a group of Latino students at  W. R. Coile Middle School. The invitation came from a pilot program organized by the University of Georgia's Institute for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACSI). The program's name is Affirmation of Cultural Identity. Speakers are chosen "for their content knowledge related to bicultural identity and because they served as top-tier Hispanic role models for the children or otherwise had significant interaction with and knowledge of the local Hispanic community."

It was touching for me to return to Coile after many years. You see, my three children went through their middle school grades there. I found a school with changed demographics. In the period of 1996-2002, when Gustavo, Carolina and María Teresa were at Coile, the number of Latino students was exceedingly small. Today, about 20% of the student body is Latino.

The students that participate in this LACSI program had been told that I study telenovelas. Therefore, they wanted to talk about these shows from the beginning. They even told me about the ones they watch (Triunfo del Amor-Univision, and some of them watch La Reina del Sur-Telemundo). I started the session, however, by asking them questions. I wanted to know their origins and personal stories. Most of these students were either born in Mexico or are the children of Mexican parents. (This is one of the explanations of their loyal consumption of Televisa telenovelas in Univision).

I asked them if there is something that they don't like about living in the U.S. They answered "when we're treated bad just because we're different," and proceeded to give me examples of the times they've felt excluded or segregated in their everyday lives. I decided, then, to show them videos of Micaela, the protagonist of the latest telenovela I've studied in-depth, La Mujer Perfecta. Micaela has suffered from exclusion because she has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. In particular, I showed the scene in which Micaela delivers a speech on World Autism Awareness Day:

Día Mundial del Autismo-Micaela-LMP from Carolina Acosta-Alzuru on Vimeo.

Micaela's words had a magical effect on these students. "I'm not inferior, I'm just different" generated a group in-depth reflection about why we exclude those that are different from us. We talked about how exclusion is a two-way street. Sometimes we're the excluded ones, and sometimes we exclude others. To divide the world into "us" and "other" is particularly bad when we assume  that "we" are somehow superior to, or better than, "others," and we don't welcome our differences. This is how intolerance and exclusion begin.

For me, it was certainly a sentimental trip to return to Coile and a great privilege to be chosen to speak to these Latino students. More importantly,  yesterday afternoon showed me, one more time, how the universally melodramatic telenovela can be more than a "simple" love story delivered in daily installments. Telenovelas are entertainment. But, there's an undeniable transcendence in a genre that partly defines many Latin Americans and Latinos who live around the world. Telenovelas are a also a business enterprise. And, even though network executives and other decision makers could care less about what happened yesterday at a middle school in Athens, GA; for those students, these telenovela scenes could be a flashlight illuminating the thorny path of belonging to a social, cultural and ethnic minority.

IS THE VENEZUELAN TELENOVELA DEAD? PART 2

There has never been so much time in-between posts in my blog. But, this semester has been particularly tough given my teaching schedule and my current case study, La Mujer Perfecta.

Last June, I wrote a post titled Is the Venezuelan telenovela dead? Today, December 17, we can say that it isn't dead and that it fights tooth and nail amidst an increasingly difficult and complex context:

• La Mujer Perfecta is the only Venezuelan telenovela on air in Venezuela. (Canal i broadcasts two older telenovelas: Abigaíl and Señora).
• La Mujer Perfecta has done an admirable job of recuperating the audience for the Venezuelan telenovela. Even though it competes with telenovelas produced by Telemundo that have a more expensive and sophisticated production. Furthermore, the latter are not subject to the Venezuelan restrictions of exchange controls and media content laws. .
• In addition to La Mujer Perfecta, Venevisión is producing La Viuda Joven written by Martín Hahn.
• According to reports, Televén has bought Que el cielo me explique written by Cristina Policastro, the last telenovela produced by RCTV Internacional. Its broadcast hasn't been announced yet.
• Meanwhile, Televén's program grid is a catalog of telenovelas made outside Venezuela. In some cases, Telemundo telenovelas have premiered first on Televen's screen than in the rest of the world. (Ojo por Ojo is the most recent example).
• The Venezuelan government has prohibited the broadcast of the so-called "narconovelas".
• President Hugo Chávez has requested extraordinary powers that would allow him to bypass the new National Assembly's approval. (He won't enjoy absolute majority in that new NA).
• The government has introduced in the current lame duck, all-chavista National Assembly a revised Media Content Law that would have important consequences for the telenovela industry. (If you read Spanish, you can read the full text here. Note, in particular: Artículo 7, numeral 3. Artículo 29, numeral 3, literal d. Artículo 35, disposiciones transitorias primera y segunda).
• Frequently, the government interrupts telenovelas to impose a cadena (mandatory broadcast of the government's signal on all radio and TV outlets). This makes more difficult the audience's followup of the dramatic structure. It also interferes with one of the most important characteristics of telenovela consumption: its inclusion in everyday life.

The situation is complicated and worrisome. If you understand Spanish, I recommend you listen to the following interview of Leonardo Padrón, author of La Mujer Perfecta. The interview was done by a Colombian radio station and his words explain the current situation:

RHYTHM IN A TELENOVELA: FROM "NOTHING IS GOING ON" TO "TOO MUCH, TOO QUICKLY"

A couple of years ago, I wrote here about the difficulty of finding consensus in anything regarding telenovelas. I still feel the same way. It's almost impossible to find an aspect of a telenovela in which everyone thinks alike.

This week I've been reflecting particularly on the "rhythm" of a telenovela. That is, on the pace of events that make up the everyday life of a telenovela. This reflection came about thanks to my study of La Mujer Perfecta. I asked my study audience participants about their opinion of this telenovela's rhythm. Their answers varied so much that it was impossible for me to conclude anything! From "there are days in which nothing happens" to "too many things happen and too quickly," and every possible answer in between.

I decided then to list every "happening" or event that has been aired in each of the six main plots of La Mujer Perfecta. The list isn't short. Still, the audience's readings stand, begging for more analysis. Hence, I asked more in-depth questions to some of my participants, and arrived to the following preliminary conclusion:

It seems that each one of us has her/his own measuring stick to assess the rhythm of a telenovela. Sometimes, we're waiting for something in particular to happen, and that doesn't allow us to see the other incidents that are going on in the show. The opposite also happens: we think a lot is going on because what we want to happen is actually on the screen and/or things are happening in our favorite plot. Meanwhile, we might not realize that other plots are somewhat stagnant.

This is one of the many difficulties of writing a telenovela. For things to "happen," the dramatic knot must be constructed carefully. If not, when that knot "explodes," it won't have the force it should have had. At the same time, events and incidents must occur constantly (or write them so that the public has that perception). If not, the audience will feel that "nothing is happening" in the show.

Obviously, "rhythm" is a complex and difficult topic for writers, producers, network executives...and researchers.