Be Happy Because Your Father Isn't Your Father: An Analysis of Colombian Telenovelas

Abstract

Critics of mass‐mediated culture have long maintained that media such as television, radio, and newspapers are instrumental in propagating class values. In his analysis of Colombian telenovelas, Azriel Bibliowicz argues that this apparently harmless form of entertainment also has a political and ideological base whose implicit messages serve to make its viewers forget reality. Just as Levi Strauss believes that mythsplay a central role in society, Bibliowicz claims that the purpose of myths in telenovelas is to have us lose sight o f the origins of the eristingsocial order and to exonerate the dominant class which controls society's means of production. He gives us an overview of the Colombian television industry, describes how a telenovela is made, and analyzes one‐“Manuela”‐which contains a social message. Readers will find some interesting similarities and differences between this study of a Colombian popular art form and the articles by Flora and Bonilla de Ramos which focus on the fotonovela and radio in the same country.