Sharing Latin Loves in Lithuania
When I was growing up in Lithuania, at the time the country transitioned from the Soviet rule to independence, my grandmother and I used to watch Mexican and Venezuelan telenovelas…
Category: Vignettes
Sensual Women, Lush Wetlands and Cool Caimans
As a child growing up in Brazil, I’d settle down with my family every evening after dinner to watch the national news on TV. And after the news, it was time for the telenovela. I wasn’t…
A Letter: Narciso Esparragosa and other Tales From Guatemala
You are not going to believe the telenovela I’ve been watching—I’m sitting here at home on Boston’s North Shore but streaming it from Guatemala. The historical plot is supposed to take…
Loving Escobar, Hating Narcos
Stumbling across the Colombian narconovela Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal on Netflix was a minor highlight of my recent sabbatical at DRCLAS. For one, it provided the perfect antidote for…
Learning from Telenovelas
Like most people, some of my fondest childhood memories are from times spent in the kitchen. Yet few recollections are as vivid as racing back from preschool to turn on the kitchen TV in time…
Jane, Rogelio and Me
One thing I love about telenovelas is that the characters live in between the real world and a fantasy world where anything can happen at any time. Telenovela characters do some stupid…
Mother and Son
My mother, Lilia de la Carrera (1921-2012), was a fan of telenovelas. In fact, she began to listen to such programs on radio well before they became common fare on Cuban television in the…
María la del Barrio
Growing up in Virginia in the ’80s, I didn’t have a lot of access to telenovelas. If asked, my parents would probably joke that they had emigrated from Argentina to escape high drama. After years…
