Caray, Caray!

If the topic is the relationship between the telenovela and life, I used to say that one reason why I watched soap operas and eventually telenovelas was because soaps of one kind or another were the only dramas that ever portrayed things that played a big role in my own life--and especially the situation of a long-lost child encountering her parent as well as siblings and other relatives that had never known about her.

Now of course I wasn't going to take Kendall's arrival in Pine Valley (for All My Children fans) or Milagros's experiences in the DiCarlo household (for Muñeca Brava fans) as some kind of model or realistic portrayal. But watching those stories allowed me to work through emotions and questions and issues and possibilities in my head.

I know that my sisters watch telenovelas, unashamedly apparently, and I wonder what they make of those stories. They live in houses not unlike the settings of many TNs, they have maids and drivers, they had a new adult sibling appear in their lives out of nowhere, they've experienced implausible events (a playboy race-car driver marries into the family, and then turns out to be the head of a narco-trafico gang, and this all turns into a scandal that helps bring down the country's president). In some ways the flamboyance with which they live their lives--long-running family feuds, comic scenes such as when my stepfather dressed as a deliveryman and dognapped the Shih-Tzu back from one of my sisters, my nephews going out on surfboards to spread my father's ashes in the ocean by his club, my stepmother and a couple sisters conspiring to send another sister's daughter off to her estranged father in Chile--suggests that they've been influenced by the shows that they watch. They embrace drama and absurdity.
 

Utah Desert, I think maybe TNs are imitating your family, not the other way around! :)

I've been watching soaps, English and tns, my whole life and while I don't think it's made me more dramatic, it has had an impact. When I started seriously dating, I remember a vague feeling of disappointment a few months in that I later recognized was a result of the lack of drama in the relationship. It took me a while to realize that was a good thing :). I come back to novelas to remind myself of what's important when people judge my boyfriend because he's a janitor. I use them to help me be objective when i feel like my mother is being particularly meddlesome or when I'm in danger of letting pride and silence create misunderstandings. There have been SO MANY TIMES that I've wished other people in my life watched the TNs I did so I could reference them. And I mean in serious conversations to make serious points! (See mother-daughter meddling ;))

When I was in communications classes, they said that people who watch romantic comedies and porn are less likely to be satisfied in their relationships. They might want to add tns to that list...at least until I get a serenata ;)
 

Almost every storyline/plot point I have seen in a tn, I have also heard about or seen in real life. The difference is that tn characters have multiple crazy things happen to them, and usually in short succession. Oh, and they have better clothes, makeup, and houses than average folks.

I had a big chuckle over the late night news yesterday because after debating the galan in Corazon Indomable possibly committing bigamy, there was a story about a guy who lives in Arlington, VA (just across the river) who was arrested yesterday, not just for bigamy, but he also impersonated a CIA agent. He had both his wives fooled, and one of his wives is in the Navy and away on a ship most of the time. Life is WAY stranger than tns sometimes.

 

I don't know if telenovelas influence real life behavior, but I think that they reflect real life. There are real villains . My daughter is trying to divorce one. He is a hot mess who has made life miserable for her and our whole family. He harasses her constantly with texts. She is trying to get their divorce finalized and move forward . She just moved into a new house, but he still hasn't found a permanent place to live. She put up with a lot from him including another woman, drinking, drugs, and gambling.Finally, she had to call the police, and she got an order to have him vacate their house. I can definitely relate to telenovela BSC villains who hurt innocents.Welcome to our world.
 

The great love of my life was descended from a family who claimed to have come here before the Mayflower. His maternal ancestors owned a plantation prior to the civil war.

His mother thought that I -- as a first-generation American and first-generation college graduate -- wasn't good enough for him. She was already matching him up with the daughter of her best friend, a Mayflower descendant. In the novela Salome the hero's mother reminded me of her. Other snobbish controlling mothers make me think of her.

Alas, despite his ability to provide hot novela sex and the fact that he was handsome enough to have been an actor, he caved to her threat to disown him if he ditched the "blueblood" for me. She became pregnant as the result of a broken condom and he had no choice left. People who have seen him since have told me that he looks as though he has sunk into depression.

My own mother was a narcissist who was hoping I would be her meal ticket. She did everything in the world to make me not like myself; I was never good or pretty enough. My being a straight-A student meant nothing to her. Eventually I fought back by being secretive.

I was once out of work for a year and never told her until I had a new job. I would have done that again if necessary.
 

Wow, all of you guys really have telenovel alives... I'm not sure that's a good thing, though...

The only tn thing ever happening in my life is the fact that as a teen I fell in love with a boy, , while dating his best friend, let's call him T. But when I finally got the courage to brake up with T, the other guy didn't suddenly turn out to be in love with me, too (tn style), he might have liked me, but he never said a word.
Things got better, though. After a list of bad or lame relationships, I managed to find my drama free prince charming, the same weekend T got married (I took this as a sign, I couldn't find my happiness until he found his).

I started watching tns when I was about 10 and they made me have a pretty unrealistic of love and relationships (see the story above) for a very long time. But there is nothing that real life and karma can't cure.
Now I only watch to keep myself entertained and because I'm just too used with this type of crazy to let it go.
 

I think the Gabriela Spanic poisoning story is truly an example of life imitates art (or is it the other way around?).

When O Caminho das Indias was playing last year, Brazilian women were wearing a lot of Indian saris as pareus.

This also from Brazil, where there seems to be a connection between novela writers and social issues and the government:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/01/us-brazil-women-trafficking-idUSBRE91018P20130201
 

TNs have impacted my wardrobe. I'm more likely to try more colorful combinations, thanks mostly to Lucero, Teresa, and Amores Verdaderos. And I've gotten good comments, like "I wouldn't have thought to put *that* together, but it's working." I leave the hoochies dresses alone though.

I can relate to the Big Secret revelations about birth origin. Several in my extended family didn't find out about their true origin till they were grown or till a pivotal person was in the grave.

 

I know it's not the right thread but I'm just wondering if anyone will be recapping La Mujer del Vendaval? Or wants to comment the episodes?

 

I actually like telenovelas because they're NOT like my life. My life is pleasant, nice, but no affairs, no long lost relatives, no mystery people, no meanness by parents, no disappointments by children, everything is generally fine. But not often exciting. So that's why I watch football, and that's why I love opera, that's why I watch novelas - to enjoy the wild side, perhaps vicariously, which I don't actually experience.
 

Another fun topic UA.

While my life is not perfect (whose is), I'm like Hombre in that I only want to see drama on screen not in my life.

One of the things that does stand out to me is how people can be like TN characters. Specifically I'm referencing how characters who are mostly villains blame everyone else for their problems. When I see people do this in real life, I have a oh my goodness moment.

hellashelle - I wouldn't just point to romantic comedies or tns, I think media in general can influence how people think about relationships and not just romantic ones. I teach a class on romantic comedies and my college students often admit they rely on peers and media for their relationship advice.
 

LIke Hombre and Karen my life is relatively drama free although many of us tend to be dramatic and intense but there are no drug users or people prone to affairs. I like the craziness in TN's and for that matter opera because it make me grateful for what I have.

Thant said there is one episode in the family that could show up in a TN. Years ago one of my sisters got pregnant and gave up her son for adoption knowing she wasn't mature enough to raise him. Years later another one of my sisters daughters was getting married. At the reception the groom's aunt came up to my sister and said we have something in common. My sister wanted to know what and the woman told her "You are my son's birth mother". The woman said she knew it immediately, the entire family strongly resembles each other and people who know nothing about us pick up on it right away. Can you believe it my niece and her groom had a cousin in common. Unfortunately my nephew wants to have nothing to do with any of us but what can you do. Adding to the story when he was born my sister named him for our father. His adoptive family changed his name and knowing none of ours actually gave him my brother's name. Now if that were in a novela they would probably make the groom the brides cousin.
 

Slightly off-topic but perhaps of interest --

Here is an article on telenovelas that some of you might enjoy:

http://chronicle.com/article/Teaching-Telenovelas/140017/

It appeared last month in The Chronicle of Higher Education and was written by scholar of Latino Culture, Ilan Stavans. Prof. Stavans happens to be the son of 50-year veteran novela actor, Abraham Stavans, so he knows a thing or two about the soft white underbelly of the genre.

I was intrigued to see the same Ilan Stavans quoted in a piece in the New York Times a few days ago in a discussion of law, religious freedom, personal names and culture.

http://tinyurl.com/lpfzzgn

[You may, perhaps, have been following the saga of the Tennessee judge who changed a baby's name from "Messiah" to "Martin" and is now being challenged by the ACLU. It turns out, by the way, that there were 762 babies named "Messiah" in this country last year, putting it between "Scott" and "Jay" in popularity.

Anyway, Prof. Stavans weighs in on all the boys named "Jesús," for example, in the Latino world.

And in the same article, I learned that in the Anglo world, it was considered sacrilegious to name your baby girl "Mary" up until the 12th century.]
 

Urban:

Thanks so much for this great topic.

I too am in the camp of my life is normal, no drama, so I watch these TN's to see the drama ; )

I am also in the camp of those that get ideas for fashion and also food. I get tons of ideas from watching these TN's that display the food porn. Especially QBA, PEAM and the gone but not forgotten AV.

Violeta:

I don't know if anyone will recap. Depending on interest maybe we can put up a comment thread for La Mujer de Vendaval. Keep checking back.
 

Wow, Urban, you certainly are on topic with what's happening in the Mexico and the U S and probably in many newly succrssful economies. Today in the Los Angeles Times, Monday, there's a whole article a
on a movie that's based on ART IMITATING LIFE.

The article is titled "Cinematic slap at Mexico's elite" where a now enlightened young elite has made 'Nosotros Los Nobles' a movie about the Nikkis of A V and so many spoiled rich offspring of Mexico especially the nouveaux riche. "The movie tells of a wealthy construction tycoon, his spoiled good- for- nothing adult children; and his scheme to pretend he's gone bankrupt to force them -horror of horrors - to get jobs."

It sounds like a lot of spot-on fun and is breaking box-office records in Mexico.

I am technically challenged so I apologize for not knowing how to send you directly to the article. The article itself is enjoyable to read.

Urban, thanks for the thought provoking subjects for the weekends. It's appreciated.

GinCA


 

Thanks for the heads up GinCA. It looks really funny. Here is the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDF_ZdL7G9o

I see it's already on Amazon for sale, but not on Netflix yet.
 

Thanks so much, Vivi. Have to check out Amazon.

GinCA
 

Thanks Urban for another great topic. Unfortunately, all I can add is that my life has been more than one or two great telenovelas which would fill page after page. My friends tell me my family stories would make a fortune.

I watch telenovelas because it's my own version of therapy; my shrink agrees. Telenovelas are much better than murder, mayhem, terrorism, politics, -- anyday of the week. And at least you learn a language and different culture.
 

I kind of hope telenovelas don't influence behavior - I don't think we need more slapping or fake pregnancys in the world :)
But seriously even the PSAs are so off sometimes I hope most people aren't taking them seriously.

I know that one of the reasons I kept watching telenovelas after the first one I started watching ended, was that I was having some ongoing family drama tn style and watching other people's drama and how they dealt with it, or didn't deal, made me feel better. I don't know if it made me behave better, but as far as going 'well at least none of *my* family members have ever pushed me down the stairs' it did make me feel better.