What Telenovelas Mean to Me - Julianna Hayunga

    Entiendo más de lo que puedo hablar. It’s my default phrase for when someone asks if I can speak Spanish. My mother may be Colombian, but I am well aware that my Latina roots are barely threads. I can eat as many buñuelos as my abuelita can make and cheer as loud as my tío during fútbol games, but I am still a gringa at the end of the day. I do my best to immerse myself in my heritage; I take Spanish classes, study on my own, watch videos, and listen to artists like Yatra and Camilo. But sometimes the Spanish lessons become too overwhelming as familiar information is relayed in unfamiliar terms. Sometimes I have to slow down the videos or search for the lyrics to fully understand the message of the speaker. Often, I experience embarrassment when my teachers learn I’m not a “native speaker.”  No matter how much enthusiasm I begin with, my motivation eventually peters out as I exhaust myself in my journey.

    A journey that has led me here. When I was searching for my first-year odyssey, I just wanted something that was unrelated to my major. I didn’t have a specific idea in mind, but seeing the word “telenovela” in the list of courses immediately stopped my scrolling. For me, “telenovela” invokes childhood memories of playing on the worn living room carpet while my mother folds laundry on the couch.  I might not have understood the conversation on-screen, but I remember the beautiful actresses fighting over a subpar man and the scheming parents-in-law working together to ruin the poor village woman. Seeing “telenovela” and remembering such fond moments pushed me to sign up, despite the three back-to-back classes I have to endure beforehand.

    To me, telenovelas are a bridge between my personal experiences and my family’s heritage. I recognize the emphasis on beauty, the reinforcement of machismo, and even unfortunately the often unexplored racism prevalent in Latin America. To see and understand the significance of these elements on-screen makes me feel connected to more than just the characters or storyline. It’s astounding to me, for example, to watch episodes of Escobar: El Patrón del Mal and realize that my mother grew up in his reign of terror. Even the most dramatic parts of telenovelas arise out of true emotions, behaviors, or events, and it is these scenes that enable me to recognize parts of my mother’s home from my own.

    Telenovelas are also useful in a practical sense, especially for someone trying to practice language comprehension. Through telenovelas, I not only listen to regularly-paced conversations, but also introduce myself to the different dialects, accents, and even slang of true native speakers. Of course, telenovelas don’t strictly have to be in Spanish, but watching Brazilian, Korean, or Turkish dramas also allows for a window into different lifestyles with the same type of flair and enjoyment.

    And of course, it’s that element of flair that makes telenovelas what they ultimately are: an escape. Rosa telenovelas play into such familiar stereotypes that the entire story feels so stretched from reality, regardless of the actual plot. There’s a certain relief gained from watching telenovelas: no matter how stressful one’s life is, at least it’s not as convoluted as a telenovela. Even de ruptura telenovelas, with their likeliness to reality, manage to enrapture audiences with their shocking twists. Many people may believe telenovelas to be a waste of time, but there’s a purpose to these shows. They don’t have to be meaningful; they just have to mean a lot to their audience, including me.

    I’m currently working my way through my list of telenovelas, but I know that no matter which one I select, I’ll find satisfaction in exploring something so dear to me and my family. Yes, telenovelas are melodramatic, repetitive, and even problematic, but they’re also comforting, helpful, and ridiculously addicting. For me, they simply mean home.