Mario Carballido was named 'Mr. Mexican Tourist' at Nuevo Progreso's Day of the Tourist event on Sunday. (Photo: RGG/Bill Rovira)

NUEVO PROGRESO, March 23 - Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do telenovelas drive social values in societies where they are religiously watched by housewives, their children, their spouses, their aunts, parents and grandparents?

Or, are telenovelas driven by the social norms and values of the day? Does a telenovela carrying the message that family planning is a good thing, promote birth control or does a society’s new-found tolerance of family planning provide just another script for a telenovela?

A few weeks ago this reporter covered an event at South Texas College in which Dr Petra Guerra of UT-Pan American University warned that telenovelas promoted stereotypes of submissive, self-sacrificing, suffering women she referred to as “Marianista” that could perpetrate women accepting repression and even domestic violence against themselves by identifying too heavily with the melodramatic characters of serials such as Alborada.

On Sunday, at the Day of the Tourist Celebration in Nuevo Progreso, Mexican actor Mario Carballido, himself a protagonist in the telenovela “al Diablo con los Guapos” felt that the opposite thesis applies: “Telenovelas historically and contemporaneously reflect the social values of the times. More than changing the values of those that view them, they adjust to the changes in values which evolve with time,” said Carballido in an exclusive interview with the Guardian.

“Attributing great social changes or upheaval to telenovelas would be overestimating their real impact in my opinion,” continued Carballido. “In my experience, the writers simply observe the social mindset of the day and produce accordingly. If a given message were too contrary to what is already a popular belief, the telenovela is not likely to be viewed, not likely to be popular.”

Carballido basically echoed the same warning as Guerra in regards to becoming “hooked” on telenovelas. “Addiction is not a good thing no matter what one is addicted to. The telenovelas addict can be harmed by not separating reality from fantasy. The telenovelas is only meant to be a distraction from one’s normal everyday life, not a substitute, not an alternative reality,” he said.

The handsome actor who represented Mexico on the Day of the Tourist as “Mr. Mexican Tourist,” described the evolution of the telenovelas from mostly portraying either the upper class or the lower class in the past, to greater representation of the middle class and their lives and issues. He also praised the telenovelas of Colombia for their strong element of reality; in particular the telenovela “Café con Aroma a Mujer. “A drama that deals with the dynamics of a coffee plantation in Colombia,” said the actor.

While the writers of telenovelas are primarily men, their embedded message is profoundly influenced by women since women are the overwhelmingly the viewer base of the novella and the consumers of the products that provide the commercial sponsorship, according to Carballido.

“While the writers themselves are still primarily men, they must write according to the mentality of their audience which is primarily feminine. The influence of women in the scripts is proportionate to their numbers in the audience,” Carballido said.

Click here to hear the theme from “Al Diablo con los Guapos.”

Write Bill Rovira

Printable version