From tequila farmer to First Lady of Mexico: Popular novela actress Angelica Rivera is famous for numerous roles, especially her character "La Gaviota," a noble and hard-working jimadora, or tequila farmer. Now she lives in a novela turned reality as the current First Lady of Mexico.
Telenovelas reveal a culture
about passion
Telenovelas
have been a constant during the last three to four generations of my family’s
identity. Growing up, I learned that my dad watched fútbol and my mom watched novelas.
Inevitably, I perceived these to represent rituals celebrated by men and women
separately. Soon enough, I realized my confusion about not knowing which gender
exhibit to follow, instead pretended not to be more eager about dramatic love
stories than twenty two men chasing a soccer ball.
Eventually, my closer relationship
to my mom allowed me to gravitate more to soap operas and gradually consume three
hours of every weekday night through the time I finished high school. Although the development of telenovelas in
Mexico during the late 1950s was intended to educate women about social values
including work ethic and religion (some say as a political campaign from
Mexico’s 71 yearlong “dictatorship” to brainwash
or educate the population) they
became the most common television entertainment for Mexico during the 1980s and
1990s. Ultimately, numerous novelas have been exported; either translated or
modified to non-Spanish speaking countries to create a powerful international
industry for Mexico. Perhaps this product has remained so appealing because it
commercializes Mexican culture. The unique excitements created by the words and
combination of these existing only in Spanish, the nostalgia of old hacienda
backdrops, or the exotic regional landscapes culminate in a product about a
passion for romanticism.
Essentially, these stories describe
a very basic love story that is melodramatic, but also uncomplicated, illustrating
characters and situations that are either very “good” or “bad.” The emblematic
story expressed hundreds of times is most successful: the poor girl who falls
in love with the rich man and must challenge a conservative society’s stigmas
to reach a happily ever after. Effectively, this poor girl resembles the best
virtues of a Mexican character past-and-present. She is the hard working,
generously sympathetic, always brave, and piously Catholic who will stop at
nothing to reach her goals of providing for her family. All her honesty will
pay off and suffering will end during the final episode’s elaborate wedding
scene. All, or most novelas, end with marriage accompanied by the cursive words
“FIN” (or END) flying across the TV
screen. “The point here is that while
Latin American soaps may showcase morals and values… they are ultimately about
the value of the family and the authority of tradition, which are reaffirmed by
rewarding the good, the moral, and the worthy (that is, the asexual, pure, and
innocent woman, and the remorseful and repentant man), with heterosexual love,
marriage, and fortune.” (Davila, Arlene. Latinos Inc. p169)
Accordingly, I consider telenovelas
responsible for indirectly creating a perspective for many Mexicans that represents
the ideal sequence of life events leading to a romanticized outlook of a
prosperous life. They continually instill Mexican and Latino families to be “traditional and committed to family, to
community, and to the espíritu de superación (spirit of overcoming)” (Davila, Arlene.
Latinos Inc. p158)
Nonetheless, this everlasting concern
for being romantically hard working, yet romantically family oriented is what
makes Latinos so different from White Americans. In my opinion, success in the USA
is measured by how busy a person can be. White virtues are not so much about being
a certain character, or displaying values like sympathy or nobility, but more
about what you do. Typically adventurous, self-confident, White Americans
portray an attitude that is down to
business, or sometimes competitive. “Hispanic
marketers’ emphasis on speaking to people’s hearts, and the sensitive nature of
the ethnic consumer, who does not demand information so much as words spoken to
the heart.” (Davila, Arlene. Latinos
Inc. p240)
Perhaps novelas’ emphasis on love is
evidence that Latinos are a more sensitive people. Novelas are proof that the “spiritual
Latina” is passionate about dreams coming true through reverence for tradition
and family. “You should do things because of your family, you should do this
because it’s protective of the land, you should do this because it’s going to
make you feel more like a man, this macho thing.” (Davila, Arlene. Latinos Inc. p239). The “rational Anglo” is also passionate,
but maybe their passion lies more directly to themselves, becoming a person about tight
schedules, balanced budgets, and calculated adventures.
