Mexican Telenovela Research Articles

“A Spanish version of EastEnders”: a reception study of a telenovela subtitled using MT

This article presents the results of three AVT reception experiments with over 200 English-speaking participants who watched a 20-minute clip of a Mexican telenovela in three different translation modalities: human-translated (HT), post-edited (PT) and machine-translated (MT). Participants answered a questionnaire on narrative engagement, enjoyment, and translation reception of the subtitles. The results show that viewers have a higher engagement with PE than HT, but there is only a statistically significant difference when PE is compared to MT. When it comes to enjoyment, the differences are more pronounced, and viewers enjoy MT significantly less than PE and HT. Finally, in translation reception, the gap is even more pronounced between MT vs. PE and HT. However, the high HTER scores demonstrate that a substantial amount of edits are necessary to render the automatic MT subtitles publishable. It is not clear that results would be comparable were subtitlers not given sufficient time or remuneration for the post-editing task.

Mexican telenovelas in Brazil: a cultural and social approach

This research’s main objectives are to understand how Mexican society is portrayed in telenovelas and how this representation might be conveyed to and interpreted in Brazilian society using cultural and social perspectives. The article will also discuss why Brazilians adopted these melodramas, most of them from the 1990´s and 2000´s, making them a highly popular domestic genre. It is no secret that Mexico exports many TV shows, and these works became very popular in South American society between the 1980s and the present. The Brazilian public occasionally notices significant differences between the TELEVISA network’s Mexican telenovelas and the GLOBO network’s Brazilian productions, which provides us with comparative issues concerning the cultures of both societies. The essay will also cover other topics, such as the shows' dubbing for the Brazilian audience and the peculiar names of Mexican soap operas, since they frequently serve as pretext for debauchery.

The Tyrannical Mother in Mexican Telenovelas

Motherhood is an identity category that carries considerable weight in Mexican society and cultural expressions. The cult of motherhood means that a woman and her worth are often measured by her relationship to maternity. The closer that she comes to meeting the standards of Marianism (modeled by the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe), the more likely she is to be seen as a good woman. This trope is a standard feature in telenovelas, where the good woman (la buena) is or longs to be a mother, whereas the bad woman (la mala) rejects maternity. There is another female character, however, who eludes these categories—the tyrannical mother. She is a woman whose controlling, manipulative, and often criminal behavior lands her squarely in the category of la mala. Yet she is not subject to the same terrible fate that befalls the childless mala, often in the form of death, disfigurement, or imprisonment. Here I argue that it is maternity that provides the tyrannical mother protection from the more extreme punishments experienced by childless malas. The examples that I point to are Cuna de lobos (1986, 2019), Soy tu dueña (2010) and Abismo de pasión (2012).

WOMEN’S LANGUAGE OF MEXICAN FEMALE CHARACTERS DEPICTED IN TELENOVELAS: AN AMERICAN STUDIES


 The issue about gender equality seemed in its glory in all over the world. Women might enjoy the equality and even they had a chance to promote themselves to become the future woman leaders. Not even Mexican-American women who got the impacts of the movement of gender equality. However their telenovela show told the opposite. This study aimed to examine the female characters of telenovela through the language choices. This research wanted to prove that by having telenovela as the soap opera, Mexico had their female characters to be the subaltern which showed the inferiority toward male characters. The objects of the research were two newest telenovelas aired during 2015-2019: Vis a Vis (Locked Up) and Tiempos De Guerra (Morocco: Loves in Times of War). Descriptive qualitative method was used to comprehensively analyze the language choices by female characters in those three telenovelas. The study showed that although Mexican telenovela had improved their female characters to be the stronger ones, their language choices still depicted their inferiority toward male characters.

Miracles from Mexico: Christianity, corporate restructuring, and the telenovela in Nigeria

ABSTRACTWhen DStv, the main digital satellite television provider on the African continent and a subsidiary of the South African conglomerate MultiChoice, began offering the Nigerian soap opera Taste of Love in early 2015, it promoted the series as ‘Nigeria’s first telenovela’ - the culmination of MultiChoice’s efforts to combine two distinct yet frequently entangled entertainment forms: Latin American, Spanish-language telenovelas, which have long been broadcast in Nigeria via terrestrial and satellite television, and Nollywood films, which MultiChoice began broadcasting via its satellite channel Africa Magic in 2003. With its formulaic emphasis on heterosexual romance amid the ‘dirty dealings’ of superrich rivals, Taste of Love resonates not merely with Latin American (and especially Mexican) telenovelas but also with those recent Nigerian films and television programs that similarly centralize sex, scandal, and multibillion-dollar deals. As Latin American telenovelas gain an even greater prominence and respectability in Nigeria thanks to a range of corporate interventions, media producers and media critics are embracing them as explicit influences on local representational styles. This article offers a tentative history of this intersection by addressing the significance of certain corporate restructurings and their effects on the production and circulation of what might profitably be termed ‘Nigerian telenovelas.’

Um “ofício de cartógrafo mestiço”: a proposta metodológica de Jesús Martín-Barbero como base para um estudo de caso da telenovela mexicana Rubi

Tomando por base as propostas teóricas e metodológicas de Jesús Martín-Barbero, em seus livros Ofício de cartógrafo - Travessias latino-americanas da comunicação na cultura e Dos meios às mediações: comunicação, cultura e hegemonia, o presente artigo busca discutir a cartografia como inspiração metodológica para se analisar objetos televisivos e suas narrativas na contemporaneidade. A partir desse aporte, pretende-se ilustrar o mapa das mediações a partir das telenovelas mexicanas reprisadas pelo Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT), com ênfase na produção Rubi, exibida pela quarta vez em 2017. Os itinerários desse estudo se guiam pelas complexas relações entre comunicação, cultura e política, que ocupam um lugar central no mapa das mediações, principalmente no eixo diacrônico entre matrizes culturais e formatos industriais. Dessa forma, inspirada pelos estudos culturais e com uma perspectiva interdisciplinar, a investigação proposta se desenvolve considerando as complexidades da cultura popular segundo a concepção de Stuart Hall e os processos de mediação que a mesma proporciona, exemplificada em alguns produtos midiáticos.

Taming the Wild Woman in Twenty-First-Century Mexican Telenovelas

Abstract A genre within the genre of Mexican telenovelas is the rurally set production that establishes a feudal-like context for characters whose attitudes and behaviors are anachronistic and migh...

Transnational Telenovela Remakes: Challenging Dominant Models and Old-Fashioned Heroines

This article begins by engaging with Mi pequeña traviesa and its leading actress, not only to illuminate the significance of this Mexican telenovela, but also to lead into an examination of the industry oppositions between Televisa and TV Azteca. These two Mexican media conglomerates, which have always been in direct contrast, are then placed in relation to Mexico’s and Brazil’s own telenovela productions and dominant models: Mexican sentimental telenovelas and Brazilian realist telenovelas. Binary distinctions and territorial homogenisation are problematised when considering the contracts that have emerged between Televisa and Brazil’s TV Globo, Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão, and Record. Finally, the discussion of the industry is followed by a comparative case study, through textual and narrative analyses, of the first episode of Mi pequeña traviesa and its Brazilian remake Pequena Travessa. The comparison of the two lead characters demonstrates that sentimental telenovelas have the potential to move beyond old-fashioned representations by assigning realist characteristics to their heroines. This article argues that this type of overarching comparative analysis will enhance our understanding of cultural nuances and regional differences as manifested through telenovela remakes: the more specific our knowledge, the broader the depth of our national understanding, which will increase our awareness of transnational (dis)connections.

Representation and Disjunction: Made-up Maids in Mexican Telenovelas

Telenovelas, located in the margins of Film and Television Studies, are often dismissed as lacking cultural value. These televised melodramas, however, should not be overlooked as they offer an opportunity to understand the social representations and dynamics of a country. This paper focuses on one of the most common plot devices in Mexican telenovelas: centring the story on a domestic worker, or muchacha (maid). Stories of poor, beautiful maids attract large audiences within Mexico, however the actresses portraying these characters do not convey a believably indigenous or rural background. The ‘made-up maids’ of Mexican telenovelas simultaneously make audiences look at and overlook this sector’s experience. Telenovelas offer a fitting entry point into the plight of domestic workers as both exist in the socio-cultural periphery. Racial misrepresentation in telenovelas marginalizes the struggles of real-life domestic workers in Mexico, a country where race is not at the forefront of the social consciousness.

Laughing All the Way to Tolerance? Mexican Comedic Telenovelas as Vehicles for Lessons Against Homophobia

The use of telenovelas as didactic tools to educate the viewing public about a variety of social issues, ranging from drug abuse to domestic violence, is not a new phenomenon. In Mexico in particular, telenovelas have been used strategically for several decades to target particular groups with messages intended to curb or in some way alter behavior and attitudes. In recent years, an increasing number of Mexican telenovela productions have adopted a comedic tone and forgone the unrelenting melodrama that has defined the genre during its half century of history. Like their more melodramatic brethren, these comedic telenovelas entertain and, at times, educate the viewing audience about various social issues. Homophobia is a relative newcomer to the list of societal concerns that telenovelas address, and comedic telenovelas have proved to be fertile ground for the inclusion of didactic messages that promote attitudes oftolerance toward homosexuals. This investigation highlights this trend and examines how three telenovelas in particular, La fea más bella (2006–2007), Yo amo a Juan Querendón (2007–2008) and Las tontas no van al cielo (2008), participate in an evolving popular narrative of tolerance.

Laughing All the Way to Tolerance? Mexican Comedic Telenovelas as Vehicles for Lessons Against Homophobia

The use of telenovelas as didactic tools to educate the viewing public about a variety of social issues, ranging from drug abuse to domestic violence, is not a new phenomenon. In Mexico in particular, telenovelas have been used strategically for several decades to target particular groups with messages intended to curb or in some way alter behavior and attitudes. In recent years, an increasing number of Mexican telenovela productions have adopted a comedic tone and forgone the unrelenting melodrama that has defined the genre during its half century of history. Like their more melodramatic brethren, these comedic telenovelas entertain and, at times, educate the viewing audience about various social issues. Homophobia is a relative newcomer to the list of societal concerns that telenovelas address, and comedic telenovelas have proved to be fertile ground for the inclusion of didactic messages that promote attitudes of tolerance toward homosexuals. This investigation highlights this trend and examines how three telenovelas in particular, La fea mas bella (2006–2007), Yo amo a Juan Querendon (2007–2008) and Las tontas no van al cielo (2008), participate in an evolving popular narrative of tolerance.

Cinderella's Having a Ball

“Ugly Betty Mania” has created numerous versions of this telenovela across the globe. This paper explores the representational schema within the franchise's Cinderella/Ugly Duckling narrative, whilst focusing on the exclusionary notions of beauty in Mexico's hit 2006 production La Fea Más Bella (“The Most Beautiful Ugly Girl”). By reading the slapstick comedy within this version through feminist theories of laughter, this paper identifies representational modes that challenge traditional Manichaean formulas within the Mexican telenovela, which are tied to notions of good (beauty) and evil (ugliness). Examining this telenovela's popularity through a cultural and industrial analysis, this paper uses data from interviews with industry professionals to consider how an increasingly disengaged Mexican telenovela viewership may have been recaptured through the slapstick gender dynamics of La Fea Más Bella.

Redefining Mexican Masculinity in Twenty-First Century Telenovelas

Telenovelas are the most widely viewed television format in Mexico, and their storylines and characters reveal important clues about how different identities are understood and negotiated in a Mexican context. Gender identity in Mexico has traditionally been understood as a strict binary in which stereotypically feminine behaviour is attributable only to women and homosexual men, while stereotypically masculine behaviour is the exclusive domain of heterosexual men. This binary has a special significance in Mexico because of the historical importance placed upon exaggerated forms of masculinity as a key ingredient in the national character. In recent years, the addition of openly gay and bisexual male characters has in some ways reinforced and in other ways challenged the gender/sexuality binary. This investigation offers a genealogy of the evolving representation of masculinity in Mexican telenovelas and highlights the importance of the characterization of gay and bisexual male characters in this process. The telenovelas in question are read against gender theory and sociological research that focus primarily on a Mexican context.Las telenovelas son los programas de televisión más populares entre los telespectadores mexicanos. A través de sus historias y personajes se observan indicaciones importantes respecto a cómo se entienden y negocian las diferentes identidades en el contexto mexicano. En México, tradicionalmente, la identidad de género se ha entendido como un binario estricto, según el cual el comportamiento femenino estereotípico corresponde sólo a las mujeres y a los hombres homosexuales, mientras la conducta masculina estereotípica es del dominio exclusivo de los hombres heterosexuales. Este binario tiene un significado especial en México dada la importancia histórica que tiene la masculinidad hiperbólica como ingrediente clave del carácter nacional. En los últimos años, la inclusión en las telenovelas de personajes gay y bisexuales unas veces ha reforzado y otras ha desafiado este binario de género tradicional. Este trabajo presenta una genealogía de la representación de la masculinidad en las telenovelas mexicanas a lo largo de la primera década del siglo XXI, destacando la importancia que la caracterización de los personajes masculinos homo- y bisexuales tiene en este proceso. La teoría de género así como diversas investigaciones sociológicas llevadas a cabo en el contexto mexicano constituyen la base teórica de este análisis.

Rebel love: transnational teen TV vs. Mexican telenovela tradition

The Mexican telenovela's romantic love story has been a staple of the nation's TV landscape for over 50 years. In the 1980s and 1990s, these love stories boomed as an export commodity, with viewers across the world finding resonances in universal themes, melodramatic emotion and endings of happily ever after, despite the localized cultural references and nationalism at their heart. Now, just as local audiences are waning, international audiences searching for cultural proximity are also decreasing, as foreign markets produce their own versions of serial melodrama, with their own cultural references. Within this climate, Mexican TV executives must search for new telenovela models to capture a decreasing local and international market share. The popularity of Rebelde (‘Rebel', Televisa, Mexico, 2004–2006), within the teen telenovela subgenre, indicates one telenovela that has successfully maintained the reach of the Mexican telenovela industry, within this new market context. It is argued that Rebelde's investment in developing a form of [sub]cultural proximity for the transnational youth market breathes new life into the classic Mexican telenovela by challenging its traditional and exclusionary narrative in unprecedented ways.

Glocal gender identities in market places of transition: MARIANISMO and the consumption of the telenovela Rebelde

This article follows recent calls to take the study of gender construction beyond the affluent cultural contexts of Northern America and Western Europe. The article examines the negotiation and representation of gender in the Mexican telenovela Rebelde. The study analyses the identity positions and tensions in the cultural product as well as analyzing consumer interpretive strategies to negotiate countervailing gender ideals. The article analyses how processes of market place transition and the negotiation of gender are handled by navigating between countervailing cultural meanings of tradition and modernity, conformity and rebellion, in glocalized forms.

Distorting the Picture: Gender, Ethnicity, and Desire in a Mexican Telenovela (El vuelo del águila)

In 1994, Mexico’s powerful television network, Televisa, aired a biographical telenovela, which intended to rehabilitate dictator Porfirio Díaz (1830–1915) as part of the neoliberal revision of history. Early episodes featured Díaz’s relationship with a young indigenous cigarette vendor, Juana Catarina Romero (portrayed by Salma Hayek). Romero’s historical role was almost completely expunged, and she appeared mainly as the exotic sexual aggressor in one of Díaz’s romantic dalliances. In reality, she risked her life as a Liberal spy in the struggle against Conservative armies. In later decades, she emerged as the richest merchant, sugar refiner, and philanthropist in her region. This study argues that Romero’s representation is emblematic of the treatment of women and indigenous peoples in Mexican history, the erasure of their agency not only by nineteenth–century nation builders but also twentieth–century neoliberals. While it reconstructs Romero’s actual role in history, it demonstrates how this telenovela perpetuated gender, racial, class, and ethnic biases that serve neoliberal interests and the increasing social inequalities they generate.

Fact or Fiction?

Telenovelasare to Mexico what soap operas are to England—an essential ingredient in the tradition, culture, and history of the country. As a television genre in a constant state of process, telenovelas represent an important element of television programming in Mexico, with as many as ten to twelve different productions being shown at any one time on the two main channels run by Televisa and TV Azteca. This article will attempt to show that there is a mixture of fact and fiction in the narrative structure of the Mexican telenovela, that the resemblance to the world in which we live is recognizable but is more a likeness than a replica, and that the new tendency to feature a narrative style incorporating a more socially realistic treatment takes us closer to reality while keeping us firmly in the world of fantasy and illusion.

Multiple Proximities between Television Genres and Audiences

How can a Mexican telenovela be more attractive to viewers in Brazil than a nationally produced telenovela? This seems to be the question posed by the increasing transnational flow of cultural products. Most of the data indicate that viewers prefer locally produced programs. Nevertheless, some of the transnational success of Latin American telenovelas abroad seems to question this truism. This article argues that audience preferences are formed within the overall trend toward cultural proximity within both national and cultural-linguistic boundaries. However, within this logic of cultural proximity, other forces also apply. It is important to understand cultural proximity working not only at the national and supranational levels but also at the subnational and regional spheres. With this in mind, the authors first examine the attraction or proximity of genres, from the virtually global attraction of melodrama, as a macro genre, to subgenres within the telenovela. Second, they discuss the sense of shared historical experience of specific groups within nations and how this particular form of proximity might operate at the reception level.

Living Telenovelas/Telenovelizing Life: Mexican American Girls' Identities and Transnational Telenovelas

This article examines the local reception of global Spanish-language soap operas, or telenovelas. Developed from a 2-year ethnography of Mexican American media consumption in San Antonio, Texas, this article explores how young people talked about Mexican telenovelas in daily life. The researcher selected one telenovela to analyze as it was watched from its beginning to end. From the data, the researcher concluded that the telenovela, within certain limits, reflected some of the national, ethnic, gender, and class tensions that defined the viewers' identities as working-class, Mexican American girls.

Closing the Telenovela's Borders: "Vivo Por Elena's" Tidy Nation

The popularity of the Latin American telenovela has engendered a number of studies that range in focus from content analysis to the consideration of the audience's reception. The ideological and economic interests of cultural production have also been considered, with a particular and well-developed focus on the representation of women and sexuality. However, while there have been some critics who have begun to delineate the national character of specific telenovelas (particularly in regards to Brazilian soaps), the telenovela has yet to be considered a site where nationality, nationalism, and Nation are produced and reproduced.1 In other words, no extended critical work has examined how the telenovela defines and reiterates a specific national community/' whose meanings change over time and are capable of being transplanted and consciously enacted (Anderson 4). Nationality appears in the telenovela as the marker by or the degree to which individuals inscribe themselves within the national imagined community. Oftentimes these questions of nationality emerge, Eve Sedgwick notes, unbidden and unremarked,,' and are merely assumed as the defining limits of our public or private identities (143-44). This seems particularly patent in Mexican telenovelas, a genre which until recently was produced primarily by one corporation (Televisa) that has had strong ties to the Mexican state (through the PRI, for instance).2 I would like to offer five approaches to understand the complexity of Nation-construction that occurs in Vivo por Elena, a recent Televisa telenovela. (1) Mazzioti (1993) has argued that Mexican telenovelas are?in contrast to the Latin American genre as a whole?more playfully melodramatic, the scenery more baroque, the narrative fuller of pathos and more inclined towards tragic heroes. I will consider the melodramatic aspect?taken up in other authors, but always abandoned?and consider whether Mexican telenovelas present a specifically National melodrama. (2) Telenovelas present a limited number of characters and only a few sets to the audience. These characters only interact with each other and seem to have no knowledge of larger social, political events. They therefore present a closed community which is complete and autonomous unto ^he notable exception is Ana Lopez's excellent article on Latin American telenovelas which argues that *'the telenovela can be understood as an agent for and participant in the complex processes of Latin American modernization, nation-building, and increasing transnationalization (Our Welcomed Guests 257).