TELENOVELAS AND THE SPANISH LANGUAGE

In the recent 5th Congress of the Spanish Language, Jorge Ignacio Covarrubias, secretary of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language, presented a paper about telenovelas and the diffusion of the Spanish language. You can read here an article in Spanish about this. You can also read Mr. Covarrubias' presentation. For this research, Mr. Covarrubias interviewed telenovela writers, actors and producers. He also interviewed me and some of my students in my "Telenovelas, culture and society" class.

TELENOVELA CONSUMPTION: VANESSA'S CARTOONS

Studying telenovelas has given me the opportunity to meet interesting people. Among them is Vanessa, who I met while conducting the fieldwork for my last case study, telenovela La Vida Entera. When I interviewed Vanessa regarding her decoding of this telenovela, she told me that she drew several cartoons of some of the characters in the show. Following are some of her cartoons, along with photos of the characters. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I have. It's another way of observing telenovela consumption, and how audience members appropriate the characters, as they follow their storylines.

Kotufa (Anastasia Mazzone):




Facundo (Carlos Mata):




Olimpia (Beatriz Valdés):

Tata (Marisa Román):

Guille (Luis Gerónimo Abreu):

And this isn't a character, but the telenovela's author, Leonardo Padrón:

This isn't a character either :-) Thanks, Vanessa!

IN MY TELENOVELA CLASS: A conversation with Ruxi

My telenovelas class would be incomplete without the opportunity to talk to people involved with the telenovela world. In previous semesters we have talked to: Leonardo Padrón, Marisa Román, Valentina Párraga, TVVI's moderator, Julie Restifo, and Daniela Bascopé.

These exchanges, via phone or video conference, are always enriching form my students, and I appreciate them very much.

This week, the last of this semester, we're focused on these "Telenovela conversations." Our first guest was Ruxandra Ciobanu, who lives in Bucharest, Romania. I met "Ruxi" through a telenovela message board a few years ago. I also had the privilege of having her as a participant in one of my case studies. I invited Ruxi to my class because I wanted my students to meet her and to learn about telenovela consumption through the eyes of someone who's not from Latin America.

We loved our conversation with Ruxi. She's knowledgeable and has a warm personality. For me, it was truly special to have her in my class.

Following is a video with some excerpts from our "Telenovela conversation" with Ruxi. We appreciate her sharing her time and knowledge with us.

IN MY TELENOVELA CLASS: My students present VI

Presenter: Nicole Foo

Topic: La recepción de Corazón Salvaje

Sources: Message boards, social media and web pages

Presenter: Robyn Abree

Topic: La recepción de La Fea Más Bella

Sources: Message boards, social media and web pages

Presenter: Ben Sidoti

Topic: La recepción de Nada Personal

Sources: Interview with Alberto Barrera, message boards, social media and web pages

Presenter: Sofía Perea

Topic: La recepción de Corazón Salvaje y la reacción ante su remake

Sources: Message boards, social media and web pages

Presenter: Zak Vaudo

Topic: La recepción de Los Ricos También Lloran

Sources: Message boards, social media and web pages

IN MY TELENOVELA CLASS: My students present V

Presenter: Deena Lipson

Topic: The reception of Heridas de Amor

Sources: Social media and webpages

Presenter: Diana Perez

Topic: The reception of María Mercedes

Sources: Message boards, social media and webpages

Presenter: Fatema Bandukwala

Topic: The reception of La Usurpadora

Sources: Message boards, social media and webpages

Presenter: Jenny Sangalis

Topic: The reception of La Mentira

Sources: Message boards, social media and webpages

Presenter: Miranda Lee

Topic: The reception of Mariana de la Noche

Sources: Message boards, social media and webpages