As I seem to be in "save and savor the soap" mode this week (I have in me, I hope, a manifesto on the future of the daytime serial in North America, coming soon), I thought I'd share a memory that came up at dinner last night with my friend The Music Lover. And that is, a recollection of Salma Hayek in the role that first brought her major attention, at least in Mexico and Latin America, as the heroine in the telenovela, Teresa.
This is pretty much how I remembered the show from watching some episodes on the Galavisión network, way back when I lived in Texas and my Spanish was much, much better. These were repeats--the show originally aired in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
This promo piece from Galavisión pretty much explains the premise behind the show--
--And that would be that Salma Hayek stars as Teresa, a beautiful and intelligent young woman who tries to escape poverty. To do so, will she follow her true love? Or will she go with the man who can provide her with wealth and a fabulous lifestyle? Pathos, tears, laughter, drama, and love ensue.
Now if you've ever watched a telenovela, you'll realize that this variation sur la thème de Cinderella makes up the plot of about 90 percent of the shows. They can be, to say the least, a little predictable--but they also deliver a lot of storyline satisfaction, focusing on interpersonal relationships, friendships, families, the eternal quest for true love, dramatic events, and big emotional payoffs.
. . . And let's not forget hair, makeup, and clothes . . .
Which is something our soaps did at one point but totally seem to have lost (if you'll pardon the expression) the plot over the years. Maybe The Young and the Restless still does that, and I think One Life to Live manages it well for the most part. But that's about it.
I'm getting ahead of myself--I'll save the rest for the manifesto.
Anyway, I once read an interview with Salma Hayek in which she talked about being on the show. She never expressed any shame over doing telenovelas. Nor should she, in my opinion, but I'm sure there are some actors and actresses who would rather forget about their past career experiences when they become famous in more mainstream TV and movies. Thus, it was especially gratifying to see Julianne Moore return to As the World Turns before it went off the air last year. It has been also wonderful to see Josh Duhamel, Eva LaRue, and Sarah Michelle Geller return to All My Children in its final weeks. They didn't have to do it, but it's a nice way to acknowledge their history, celebrate the show, and give something to the fans that supported them along the way.
In the case of Salma, from the interview I gathered that she was proud of her work, the show, and the genre itself. I remember her explaining something about how Teresa was somewhat of a traditional telenovela but with a twist, in terms of characters, plots, and the actors' looks. A case in point: No one would ever deny that Salma Hayek is gorgeous, but she isn't necessarily the typical-looking telenovela star. Despite Mexico being something of a mestizo nation with many people having a mix of European and Native ancestry, often the telenovelas feature more European-looking casts (lots of blonds, lots of blue eyes).
It's not that the blonds and blue eyes (along with reds, greens, hazels, browns, blacks, and more) don't exist in Mexico and Latin America. The novelas, being a huge international entertainment industry, pull in actors from other parts of Latin America, such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, et al.); it's just that they seem to predominate among the casts of the novelas. Much in the way that on American TV, everyone is gorgeous with perfect teeth, hair, bodies, noses, when the reality is a tad different from that.
I think, too, Salma's work to bring the nighttime serial, Ugly Betty, to American audiences also indicates her appreciation of the telenovela. Yo Soy Betty La Fea, the original upon which the American version was based, was a hugely popular Colombian telenovela, one that, when I lived in San Antonio, had a big following, among both men and women. Again, it followed the rags-to-riches story of an unattractive girl who succeeded in career and love, despite the odds--and who turned out to be beautiful once she took off her glasses and upgraded her wardrobe. It happens all the time.
Salma, the writers, the directors, the cast, and the crew went beyond the standard trope, however. I never paid as much attention to Ugly Betty as I should have, but I could say that for practically any TV show these days. But in Ugly Betty, there were points, larger and smaller, they were trying to get at--the importance of friendship and family; finding the right kind of love; the ethnic and class differences that often divide us but can unite us; the cool kids vs. the uncool ones and learning to work through the ghosts from high school and other past, negative, "outsider" life experiences; accepting people for who they are and how they look, even if it is "unbeautiful" or "non-standard"; the realization that no one is truly evil or truly good (a theme worked over too often in many soaps and shows); and the ability of women (and maybe all of us) to succeed on their own terms, not those of others.
Plus Ugly Betty did a lot of front-and-center, gay-positive storylines, something that is still all too rare on American TV.
During the series last season, Betty was transformed into a more confident and successful woman, one who was beautiful, but as my friend the Music Lover pointed out, "beautiful in a Betty way," not a glamorous model way.
And, from what I recall, Betty did it all while keeping her glasses on the whole time.
This is pretty much how I remembered the show from watching some episodes on the Galavisión network, way back when I lived in Texas and my Spanish was much, much better. These were repeats--the show originally aired in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
This promo piece from Galavisión pretty much explains the premise behind the show--
--And that would be that Salma Hayek stars as Teresa, a beautiful and intelligent young woman who tries to escape poverty. To do so, will she follow her true love? Or will she go with the man who can provide her with wealth and a fabulous lifestyle? Pathos, tears, laughter, drama, and love ensue.
Now if you've ever watched a telenovela, you'll realize that this variation sur la thème de Cinderella makes up the plot of about 90 percent of the shows. They can be, to say the least, a little predictable--but they also deliver a lot of storyline satisfaction, focusing on interpersonal relationships, friendships, families, the eternal quest for true love, dramatic events, and big emotional payoffs.
. . . And let's not forget hair, makeup, and clothes . . .
Which is something our soaps did at one point but totally seem to have lost (if you'll pardon the expression) the plot over the years. Maybe The Young and the Restless still does that, and I think One Life to Live manages it well for the most part. But that's about it.
I'm getting ahead of myself--I'll save the rest for the manifesto.
Anyway, I once read an interview with Salma Hayek in which she talked about being on the show. She never expressed any shame over doing telenovelas. Nor should she, in my opinion, but I'm sure there are some actors and actresses who would rather forget about their past career experiences when they become famous in more mainstream TV and movies. Thus, it was especially gratifying to see Julianne Moore return to As the World Turns before it went off the air last year. It has been also wonderful to see Josh Duhamel, Eva LaRue, and Sarah Michelle Geller return to All My Children in its final weeks. They didn't have to do it, but it's a nice way to acknowledge their history, celebrate the show, and give something to the fans that supported them along the way.
In the case of Salma, from the interview I gathered that she was proud of her work, the show, and the genre itself. I remember her explaining something about how Teresa was somewhat of a traditional telenovela but with a twist, in terms of characters, plots, and the actors' looks. A case in point: No one would ever deny that Salma Hayek is gorgeous, but she isn't necessarily the typical-looking telenovela star. Despite Mexico being something of a mestizo nation with many people having a mix of European and Native ancestry, often the telenovelas feature more European-looking casts (lots of blonds, lots of blue eyes).
It's not that the blonds and blue eyes (along with reds, greens, hazels, browns, blacks, and more) don't exist in Mexico and Latin America. The novelas, being a huge international entertainment industry, pull in actors from other parts of Latin America, such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, et al.); it's just that they seem to predominate among the casts of the novelas. Much in the way that on American TV, everyone is gorgeous with perfect teeth, hair, bodies, noses, when the reality is a tad different from that.
I think, too, Salma's work to bring the nighttime serial, Ugly Betty, to American audiences also indicates her appreciation of the telenovela. Yo Soy Betty La Fea, the original upon which the American version was based, was a hugely popular Colombian telenovela, one that, when I lived in San Antonio, had a big following, among both men and women. Again, it followed the rags-to-riches story of an unattractive girl who succeeded in career and love, despite the odds--and who turned out to be beautiful once she took off her glasses and upgraded her wardrobe. It happens all the time.
Salma, the writers, the directors, the cast, and the crew went beyond the standard trope, however. I never paid as much attention to Ugly Betty as I should have, but I could say that for practically any TV show these days. But in Ugly Betty, there were points, larger and smaller, they were trying to get at--the importance of friendship and family; finding the right kind of love; the ethnic and class differences that often divide us but can unite us; the cool kids vs. the uncool ones and learning to work through the ghosts from high school and other past, negative, "outsider" life experiences; accepting people for who they are and how they look, even if it is "unbeautiful" or "non-standard"; the realization that no one is truly evil or truly good (a theme worked over too often in many soaps and shows); and the ability of women (and maybe all of us) to succeed on their own terms, not those of others.
Plus Ugly Betty did a lot of front-and-center, gay-positive storylines, something that is still all too rare on American TV.
During the series last season, Betty was transformed into a more confident and successful woman, one who was beautiful, but as my friend the Music Lover pointed out, "beautiful in a Betty way," not a glamorous model way.
And, from what I recall, Betty did it all while keeping her glasses on the whole time.
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