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The Thrill of Music in La Reina del Sur

As we discussed last week, music plays an extremely vital role in the composition of telenovelas. For example, playing a telenovela on silence or mute completely eliminates the dramatic essence. Personally, the use and manipulation of music to suit the telenovela really fascinates me because it serves as an emotion itself. La Reina del Sur is a great example of how a telenovela greatly depends on music and musical queues. One of the biggest and most prominent area where music is largely focused is the theme song. It is safe to say that the theme song of La Reina Del Sur automatically becomes ingrained in the audience’s head because of its melodic tune and its lyrics that narrate the plot. The theme song also offers a cultural insight of traditional Mexican instrumental sound. Music emphasizes the dramatic love and chemistry between Teresa Mendoza and her lovers. For example, when Teresa flashes back to her tender moments with El Guero, a soft mexican accordion instrument
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La Historia De Rosario Tijeras Llega a La Pantalla Chica

In the wake of this odyssey class’ end, I have found myself becoming both critical yet more appreciative of telenovelas through writing these critically thought-out, open topic blog posts. Specifically, I believe telenovelas themselves have drawn me in as a viewer into the process of the cultural and media production behind it, surrounding its extended global influence. While I had never thought to analyze the purpose behind having incidental music tailored towards the emotions/characters in the storyline or the influence of the actors’ superficial characteristics as it is perceived by both the director/writers and the audience, I can confidently apply these connections and new analytic skills towards telenovelas as I now watch them in my own free time. Personally, I am very elated with my choice of “Rosario Tijeras” as unlike the traditional rosa telenovela or Cinderella stories that were fed to me throughout my childhood, I am able to relate to Rosario in the terms of her dynamic de
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How Regulation in Venezuela has Affected Foreign Journalism

Though this is not a journalism class, I cannot help but discuss this topic because when we discussed regulation in class, it is an event that I immediately drew a connection to. A couple of months ago, Mexican and world-known journalist Jorge Ramos and his team in Univision travelled to Venezuela to interview Nicholas Maduro, whom considers himself President of Venezuela. I remember sitting at watching, ironically enough, a telenovela when it was interrupted by breaking news. The news was the Jorge Ramos and his camera team in Venezuela were detained where the interview with Maduro had taken place. Jorge Ramos and his team were later released and revealed to the public that Maduro, cut the interview early after some questions that Jorge asked him that weren't of his taste and  the team was put into a dark room and their cellular devices and cameras, along with the interview footage, were all confiscated. Weeks after, Univision was able to gain the interview footage back and it ca
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Musical Nuance in "La Esclava Blanca"

In the telenovela “La Esclava Blanca,” music plays an extremely large role in the portrayal of main themes and in the presentation of emotion. The telenovela theme, in which the main titles and actors are presented, tells the story of the protagonist, Victoria, in the style of an African working song; it is done this way as to show the meshing of the white Victoria with the black family who raises her. The theme also includes an intense section where drums and chanting can be heard, normally accompanied by important and powerful scenes from past episodes. This portion of the theme can also be heard in critical parts in the plot, such as when Milagros, Victoria’s sister, is searching for poison in the river. The majority of these pivotal scenes are associated with the slaves on the Eden plantation, as they make moves to overthrow their masters and to support the anti-slavery movement. This may be why the music contains such extreme drumming and chanting as the sound of d
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Societal pressures in Telenovelas

In the novela El Cartel there is an evident and recurring theme of societal pressures that ultimately influences the poor choices made by Martin as he considers the balance between his love life and the persuasive drug cartel. The ever present temptation of money causes Martin to make rash decisions, but eventually love prevails. However, the internal battle was expressed through the actions of the protagonist and the effects, both positive and negative, that it oftentimes had on the people around him. Although, this is not the only situation where societal pressure is the dominant influencer on a situation. In other novelas, societal pressure can be expressed in the ever present relational drama between the protagonist and various other influential figures. For example, the presence of an overbearing parent or even a villain can influence the ultimate decision of the protagonist. In the case of El Cartel, Martin's love interest, Sofia puts pressure on him to choose love, rathe
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Cinderella Portrayal

As the class comes to an end and I’ve read more and more blogs I have noticed a similarity between the blogs and the class. The blogs, just as mine, review the telenovelas that everyone is watching on their own. In the telenovela I am watching, La Piloto , we see that the female protagonist Yolanda fulfills the typical Cinderella story as seen in many other blog posts throughout the semester. This Cinderella makes the telenovela so drawing in which the protagonists questionable decisions creates suspense. How does this create suspense? Well take La Piloto for example. Yolanda has an opportunity to try to become a pilot but is aware of the consequences that that means she would be getting involved in a drug cartel. This naiveness is seen within most telenovelas and makes the female protagonist so obtainable. This falls into the cinderella category just as much as many other characteristics. Look up any telenovela and more times than not the female protagonist is beautiful and
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La Piloto: Coming to an End

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La Piloto: Coming to an End As my time watching “La Piloto” draws to an end, I realize that in my time viewing this telenovela I have truly learned a lot about not only the cultural values of telenovelas but also the personal value they have to myself. This course has allowed me to open myself up to new areas of the film industry and analyze and discuss the many different aspects that are considered when creating these action-packed stories. “La Piloto” has shown the resilience of Yolanda Cadena as she has faced a multitude of obstacles in her path to achieve her dreams of becoming a pilot, as well as a goal that has surfaced along the way which is to find love. While maintaining supportive for a female protagonist in a seemingly all male world, the audience and myself are captivated by the twists and turns in this jaw dropping telenovela.  I was never a big watcher of telenovelas and had very little knowledge surrounding their history, or the magnitude at which they were once
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Globalization of La Reina del Sur

La Reina del Sur is a show that first came to television in 2011. It aired on Telemundo, and it quickly became a hit show. It was based of the book by Arturo Perez-Reverte. It had people all across Latin America hooked. Unfortunately, it was not allowed to be aired in Venezuela due to censorship. They didn’t like how La Reina del Sur seemed to romanticize drugs and violence. When it did become readily available to the masses on Netflix, even more people who may not even watch telenovelas were exposed to it. I very rarely watch television shows outside of Netflix mainly because I can never keep up with watching every new episode when it airs. I also love having the freedom to binge watch shows rather than being left on a cliffhanger every week. In 2016, it was remade into the American version called Queen of the South. This version was very popular in America, but it didn’t take too well in Latin America. Latin Americans felt as if the role of Teresa Mendoza could’ve b
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Why Teresa Mendoza Can’t Be Replaced

Teresa Mendoza’s role in La Reina del Sur is played by the actress Kate del Castillo, a Mexican sweetheart and one of the most prominent actresses in Latin entertainment. The show drew 4.2 million viewers for its finale, including viewers from Miami, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. After such a successful series, La Reina del Sur 2 was released and shockingly did even better than the first according to many dedicated viewers. Regardless of language, Kate del Castillo is generally known as the best, and only true Teresa Mendoza. The United States Network released an English version of the series, Queen of the South , and it’s ratings were nowhere near as successful as the original. After reading tons of viewers thoughts, it became clear that people were unsatisfied with Alice Braga’s performance as Teresa Mendoza. She was considered “un-animated” and “blank”, surprising words to describe an actress playing in such a dramatic telenovela. I have not personally seen an episode of Que
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La Niña- Final Episode

Throughout the show Belky was always targeted by someone. As her being apart of la Guerrilla for about seven years and being el Comandante's favorite, she had many enemies all around her. They all wanted to kill her when she finally escaped and made a better life for herself through studying to become a doctor. Belky was targeted by men who were apart of the military, other of her ex-Guerrilla people, and even her own Professor. Slowly, but surely as the telenovela was coming to its end all of the bad guys were taken to jail and locked away. This in turn made the audience happy since all of the pieces were finally coming together to allow Belky to live the life she deserves. Although there is typically a stigma in Colombia concerning members of la Guerrilla, this story allows viewers to empathize with the protagonist and want her to live a better life. Although it may be a perfect ending by having all the bad guys in jail, that simply was not enough for the telenovela. There was s
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Telenovelas: A Worldwide Sensation

With the chaotic entanglement of details combined with long string of episodes of telenovelas it is hard to believe that they would be so commonly reproduced. However, these long series of entertainment provide a satisfying entertainment not found in many other types of typical television. Some of the most popular and successful telenovelas have been recreated multiple times and can be seen in countries across the globe, far from their point of origin. This common reproduction of telenovelas demonstrates their widespread popularity and highlights the public's desire for satisfying stories of romance and chaos in many parts of the world. One of the most popular telenovelas reproduced was "La Reina del Sur" which was most commonly broadcasted throughout Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela made it's way to the United States in 2016 in the American adaptation, "Queen of the South". However, due to the success of the Spanish original show, the Americanized adaptation
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"La Reina del Sur" Across Borders

As I near the end of “La Reina del Sur” I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the impact that this telenovela has had on me and changed my perspective in many ways. I was never an avid viewer of telenovelas before I started watching “La Reina del Sur” because I was frustrated with the damsel in distress trope that seemed to be ingrained into every story created. Teresa has broken through that glass ceiling for me as her love stories become subplots to her rise to power as an independent woman. “La Reina del Sur” showed me that telenovelas can be more than entertainment and can be a means of empowering women across the globe with stories that show that women have the power to take control of and better their own lives. This realization made me more interested in the production of “La Reina del Sur,” which belongs to a unique group of telenovelas in that it is a U.S. production. This fact is not directly obvious simply by viewing the telenovela as the show is shot on location in
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