A Reception Analysis: Latina Teenagers Talk About Telenovelas Kristin C. Moran University of San Diego kmoran@sandiego.

edu Results The results gathered from the focus groups and interview data indeed reveal that Latina teenagers interpret television messages through their unique and complex web of perceptions. The interpretive strategies used by the teenagers were influenced by their families, religion, culture, peers and previous media experience. Throughout the data collection process it became clear that the teenagers actively engage with the messages to evaluate the characters actions. Respondents were chosen because of their expressed interest in telenovelas. The focus groups were conducted at private Catholic high schools. The teens that attend these schools are generally middle to upper class and have strong religious beliefs. The homogeneity of the sample must be noted when interpreting the results. Many of the students were from upper-class Mexican families. Telenovelas are a popular form of entertainment for all Latin American family members especially teenage girls. Most respondents indicated that they watched telenovelas frequently and usually in the company of other family members. In addition, many teenagers stated that they preferred telenovelas to American programs (although many said they were fans of Dawsons Creek). The viewing of telenovelas seems almost habitual. When I initially asked if the teenagers watched telenovelas, they answered me in a tone that implied "of course, what a silly question." Many of the teens explained that they grew up watching these programs, often in the company of other family members which in turned encouraged this activity. The participants explained that they do not usually talk about the stories with their friends indicating either that it is not worth mentioning because it is inconsequential or because it is such a part of daily life that it is redundant to discuss whether or not one saw the telenovela last night. I believe it is the latter. The teens based much of their interpretation about the actions on the telenovelas by looking at what is "right" and "wrong" according to what had been taught to them by their families and by their religion -- Catholicism. Most agreed that they were going to wait until marriage to engage in sexual intercourse, but they also believed that many teenagers today are sexually active. It was clear through the discussion with the teenagers that all of them plan to marry and have a family. It was an assumption that was taken for granted. The interpretative strategy based on the perceptions of right and wrong was frequently voiced by the participants. They were eager to judge a characters actions and did so from a dualistic perspective. Granello (1997) explains that as children develop, they move from dualistic to multiplistic to relativistic thinking. Teenagers who are still in the dualistic stage see things as black or white. As they develop, they learn that issues become more complex. Therefore, because of their developmental stage (most were fourteen), the teens tended to dichotomize issues and without considering possible extenuating circumstances for a characters action. For example, Barbara, a character on Tres Mujeres, had an adulterous affair; the teenagers judged this behavior as "wrong" based on their own value system. By acknowledging and judging some characters actions as "wrong," the teens tended to reinforce their own idea of what is "right" and reinforced their desire to be "good." For these teens, viewing characters engaging in premarital sex or other sexual activity did not influence them to imitate the behavior, but rather to condemn it, reaffirming their own values. This interpretative strategy is consistent with

Fingersons (1999) findings that indicated that girls interpret televised messages from within a certain moral framework. When first asked if they thought there was too much sex on telenovelas some nodded yes, but they viewed the portrayal of sexual interactions as relevant to the stories and somewhat realistic. Although, not overtly stated, they agreed that many people in "real life" engage in the type of sexual activity depicted, emphasizing their own personal lack of experience with which to compare the representations. The focus group and interview participants were asked with whom they usually watch telenovelas to established the context of viewing. The respondents indicated that they usually watch telenovelas with other family members or it was other family members who first introduced them to the programs. The teens sometimes poked fun at older generations for getting "too into" the telenovelas because they consider themselves savvy media consumers. Conclusion The data from the focus groups and interviews indicate that the most significant role that television plays is the reinforcement of existing perceptions about romantic relationships. Their own cultural and social perspective informs the interpretive strategies used by the teenagers. Indeed, the Latina teenagers derived meaning about sexual information by using their own value system. The information they have stored about sexual activity comes from a variety of sources including their families, formal sexual education in schools, peers, and television. They project all this information every time they evaluate a characters behavior. The stories on the telenovelas provide an opportunity for the teenagers to articulate their own beliefs about life since they are eager to judge the characters actions as right vs. wrong or realistic vs. unrealistic. In this sense, television provides models of certain behaviors and situations that teenagers anticipate happening in their own lives or as "wrong" and something they will avoid. For example, when they discussed behaviors that were contrary to what they believed was right, their statements reinforced their values rather than changing them. This was evidenced by Anas comment regarding "sleeping around." She explained that "you shouldnt do that." The theme of marriage was something the teenagers did discuss. Since all of the teenagers saw themselves as getting married in the future and because of their own personal lack of experience, they viewed the representations of marriage as fairly realistic. They tended to believe that adultery was common in marriage -- a prevalent storyline on the telenovelas -although they hoped it would not happen to them. They also agreed that a scene on Sin T, depicting a characters first time on her wedding night, was realistic. The teenagers in this sample, perhaps because of their family life as well as their religion, did have an idealized version of marriage and losing their virginity. The role of the telenovela in this instance reinforced this fantasy. What is particularly important to note is that unlike previous studies that have assumed that the portrayal of explicit and frequent sexual activity will influence teenagers to act in this way, this sample of teenagers reaffirmed their own values and expressed desire not to engage in premarital sex. While they deemed some actions as inappropriate for themselves, they did believe that the representations of some romantic relationships were representative of other peoples behavior. The teens sampled were predominantly Catholic with strong ties to their families. Many of them stated that they did not plan to engage in sexual activity before marriage so that the information about birth control methods was not necessary for them, but they felt strongly that this type of information should be included for teenagers who choose to engage in premarital sexual

intercourse. One participant, Alexa, made the point that the reality is that teenagers do have sex and therefore they should know how to protect themselves. She also stated that entertainment television was an appropriate venue for this information because teenagers do indeed view telenovelas and they can learn from what they see. Although these findings do not support direct observational learning in line with social learning theory what is supported are disinhibitory effects (Baran and Davis, 2003). In many cases the teenagers saw the consequences of sexual behavior as undesirable. In other words, the characters were "punished" (at least from their point of view) in the storyline and therefore this lessened the likelihood of identification and imitation. Nevertheless, the teenagers in the sample believed that "other" teenagers may indeed be affected by these images of romantic relationships. In this instance, the teens may be exhibiting the third person effect the idea that the media does not affect oneself, but it may affect others. It may be that the teenagers could not be self-reflexive in thinking about the role the images of romantic or intimate relationships play in creating their understandings. This should be investigated in a future study. A limitation of the study is that it only looked at one particular socio-demographic of Latina teens. It is important to include other Latina teenagers who are not from the upper to middle class with strong family and religious ties to reveal is their viewing experiences are much different. Another limitation, which is common with focus groups and interviews, is the willingness for the participants to disclose, in this case, private and potentially embarrassing information. It is hard to say how much the teenagers were holding back because of the research setting, but they did seem eager to express their thoughts. Each inquiry into understanding the relationship between television messages and their audiences provides another piece in a very complex puzzle. This study offers insight into how cultural context influences a particular interpretive communitys interpretation of televised images. Teenagers are actively engaged in deconstructing what they see on television and whether they learn how to behave or how not to behave telenovelas provide much information about romantic relationships. http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/sp03/gmj-sp03-moran.htm

TV TRAVELLER BLOG- MATT GRAHAM (June 3, 2011) What is a Telenovela? Latin American TV has often been derided as trashy and low quality, saturated by US shows. This isnt true any more. In fact, Latin America has contributed its very own genre to global programming. Its called the Telenovela. In this region, its the most popular form of television program, second only to live football! Ive lived in both the USA and Latin America for nearly ten years. The changing relationship between these two areas interests me a great deal. Its a relationship increasingly in the public spotlight in the United States. The simple fact is that the ethnic fabric of the United States is changing and rapidly. The 2010 U.S. Census found that people of Latin ethnicity account for more than half of all population growth in the U.S. in the last decade. Some areas of the United States are now majority Latin including parts of California and Texas. Tapping this new population segment offers a huge reward for television producers, yet many network executives still find themselves confused by what exactly is meant by: Latin tastes. My first blog entry will examine the question of what is a Telenovela? A Telenovela is a limited serial, lasting an average of 120 episodes. They usually air 5 or 6 times a week. Each Telenovela is an individual, stand-alone story in its own right, usually driven by a forbidden romantic relationship. In other words: its Romeo and Juliet, divided into 120 small parts! The head of Telenovela development at Telemundo said: A Telenovela is all about a couple who wants to kiss, and a scriptwriter who stands in their way for 150 episodes. The first Telenovelas were produced in Brazil, Mexico and Cuba in the 1950s, but they became truly international in 1979 with The Rich Cry Too, a Mexican Telenovela which was exported to both The Soviet Union and The United States. One of the most popular Telenovelas of all time was Isaura the Slave, a slavery era Brazilian novella, based on an old 1876 novel. It was so popular that it was remade in 2004. Telenovelas are today an international product, and have found markets outside of Latin America. The biggest countries producing them are Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico. They are exported to not only the United States and Europe, but now to Africa and Asia. In Russia and the Arab world they have acquired a cult following. Depending on which part of Latin America they are from, Telenovelas show distinct regional variations. For example, Telenovelas from Mexico almost always seem to end with a wedding! Telenovelas from Argentina are more similar to European drama shows, reflecting the countrys own close ties to European culture.

Here is a sequence from the famous 2006 Argentine novella, Montecristo (based on the 1844 Dumas novel of the same name). Variety magazine called Montecristo the hottest Telenovela in Argentina. It was the first popular TV program to deal directly with Argentinas military dictatorship (1976-82) and tells the story of a man returning from exile in Spain to seek vengeance on the Military men who killed his father. In this scene, he confronts his enemies openly for the first time. Another regional variation is found in Telenovelas originating from Brazil. These Telenovelas are more likely to deal with the countrys diabolical social problems; after all, amazingly, Brazil is officially the worlds most unequal country! Perhaps for their class-conscious nature, Brazilian Telenovelas were a big hit in the Soviet Union where they were first imported in 1988 and today they remain popular in the Russian Federation. Their popularity in Russia is no anomaly; Telenovelas are popular around the world in the most unlikely places, including Africa, and the Arab world where they have a cult following. Where they were once laughed at as cheap and badly made, today, theyre glamorous and exotic with high production values, and are often shot in attractive foreign locations with stunning lead actors and actresses. Their simple, clear melodrama can be followed by any audience. Below is a trailer to the hit 2008 Colombian Telenovela El Fantasma del Gran Hotel. http://www.attentional.com/their-tv-blog/2011/06/what-is-a-telenovela/

Novelas, Novelinhas, Noveles: The Evolution of the (Tele)Novela in Brazil Cacilda M. Rgo The University of Kansas [email protected] The novela as an evolving genre An understanding of the novela must begin with the recognition that it is the result of a process of evolution. Its roots date back to the 18th-century English novel and the 19th-century French feuilleton (serialized fiction)a literary genre highly regarded by contemporary newspaper readers. The feuilleton (Port: folhetim) crossed the Atlantic (in translation) circa 1836, finding an avid readership in Brazil and other Latin American countries. The enthusiasm for the genre is amply demonstrated by the fact that by 1838 works by prestigious writers like Jos de Alencar began to appear in this form in major Brazilian newspapers of the period (Ortiz et al., 1988, p. 17). The influence of the feuilleton on the dramatics and popularity of the novela has been stressed by Meyer (1996) and others. For one, Martn-Barbero (1995) argues that the semi-open structure of the feuilleton"carried out according to plan, but open to the influence of its readers reactions"not only "propitiated the (con)fusion of fiction and life," but "continues to constitute one of the key elements in todays soap operas both in its configuration as a genre and in its widespread success" (p. 277). The availability of the feuilleton in electronic form (the soap opera) was the most significant development in the genre during the 20th century. Created by the soap and detergent industry, the soap opera first appeared in the U.S. as a radio program around 1930. Before disappearing in its radio form around 1960, the soap opera had already been consigned to daytime television broadcasting, appearing 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year in all three main U.S. networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC (Mattelart & Mattelart, p. 10). While the complexities and nuances of them reveal differences, it is nevertheless possible to say that the soap opera met many, if not most, of the configurations of the serialized newspaper fiction (Martn-Barbero, 1995). One major difference, perhaps, was that, aimed at daytime audiences composed primarily of housewives, the soap opera was considered (by critics) a frivolous form of entertainment and despised for years as a "womens genre" (Geraghty, 1991). At a certain point, the same "soap" companies (Colgate-Palmolive, Proctor and Gamble, and Gessy Lever) that were instrumental in producing the U.S. soap operas introduced the genre to Latin America. With the largest number of radio sets, Cuba ultimately proved itself the most fertile market for the (radio)novela, becoming thereafter the main producer and exporter of the genre to the rest of the continent. In the hands of Cubans, and later Mexicans and Argentineans, the Latin American novelas became more melodramatic than their U.S. counterparts. When they arrived in Brazil in 1941, they already had all the classic elements of the melodrama (romance, intrigue, betrayal, etc.) that would immediately endear radio listeners to them. A decade later, with the advent of television, the novela gained its modern visual form. The same corporate advertisers that underwrote the (radio)novelas were critical in pushing for the development of the (tele)novelaa relatively cheap daytime program geared toward the same kind of female audience that their radio counterparts had until then. With few exceptions,

novelas were still written outside Brazil during the 1950s. Over the years, as Brazilian playrights began to also write novelas, television viewers no longer awaited for the next adapted import. By the mid-1960s, they relied increasingly on novelas "made-in-Brazil", even if these remained thematically alien, even irrelevant, to what was happening in Brazilian society. This began to change in the latter part of decade with Beto Rockfeller (Tupi, 1968-1969), a landmark in Brazilian television drama, for it represented the first serious attempt to create an "original" Brazilian novela, in both thematic and aesthetic terms. The increase in the number of Brazilian novelas from the early 1970s on brought a renewed concern on the part of novela writers and producers to create a national interpretation of the genre. Brazilian novelas began to comment on contemporary social and political issues, and distinguished themselves from their Latin American and U.S. counterparts "by a higher degree of artistry in which the skilful audio-visual composition [displayed] the fine settings, the exterior scenery and well-designed costumes" (Trinta, 1997, p. 276). By the early 1980s, the genre had became Brazilian(ized), however ambiguous this term can be, showing itself capable of changing and adapting itself in myriad styles in order to find new viewers and new markets, even in seemingly improbable countries such as China, Bosnia, Indonesia, Poland, Russia, and Chad. In what follows, I discuss the evolution of the Brazilian novela as it took place along the past decades. In the end Ever since the first novela appeared in 1951, hundreds more have been produced by Brazilian television, especially by TV Globo. For a number of years now the network has a monopoly on novelas, although more recently the SBT has started to invest in the production of its own novelas, attempting to use them in the competition with TV Globos prime time programs. While originally modeled on the U.S. soap opera, the novela stands as a truly Brazilian(ized) television genre today. It would be indeed simplistic, if not misleading, to call Brazilian novelas "soap operas"a term that carries a different meaning in the U.S. (Allen, 1995). In addition, as Aluzio Trinta correctly remarks, "on the whole, Brazilian telenovelas have gone a step beyond the traditional paths followed by American soap opera. [They have] made remarkable progress in both thematic and aesthetic terms, developing into a new form of dramatic expression" (p. 276). Today, Brazilians believe themselves to be the masters of novelas (Daniel Filho, 2001)a genre that is much more popular (and seemingly much more important) in Brazil than in the U.S., due mainly to structural differences in the industry itself. This is reflected in the fact that, except for Vale A Pena Ver de Novo (a program of shorter reruns of Globos most popular novelas of the past), which is televised daily at 2:10 p.m., Brazilian novelas are broadcast six rather than five times per week over an eight-month period during prime time viewing hours (between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.). More important, perhaps, Brazilian novelas have a closure, whereas U.S. soaps continue for years (or until they are canceled). The final episode of any novela is broadcast Friday and rebroadcast Saturday, with a new one moving into its slot the following Monday. It has been a common practice for a new novela to go on the air with 15 or so episodes written, and for the rest to be written in accordance with the audiences reaction, in which case the development of the plot can be modified, and the role of characters either lengthened or shortened depending on their popularity (Jambeiro, 2001, pp. 116-117). Considering all networks, there are, on average, two novelas beginning each month. Each novela episode starts with a replay of the previous nights last scenes, followed by an opening sequence of the days episode. Next comes the theme song, which serves as background music for detailed cast credits. (In 1969, Globo created the label Som Livre to market the theme songs of its novelas.) Appearing every 12 minutes, advertising breaks are preceded by ganchos (cliffhangers), which keep the audience in suspense until the next scenes within an episode, or the next day (Pallottini, pp. 120-124).

Moreover, todays Brazilian novelas are not limited to any particular style: they may be dramatic, comic, sentimental, or a variation of the three. They have made their authors national celebrities, launched the careers of new actors, directors and musicians, and assumed a tremendous level of importance in Brazilian society, even more so than soccer, one of the greatest Brazilian passions. Networks work strenuously to "discover" new professionals, and TV Globo maintained the Casa de Criao Janete Clair (an in-house creation center named after Janete Clair) for a short period (1984-1986), in order to provide supervised training to new authors. Given, however, the high costs of production, it became safer for the network to continue to rely on its seasoned writers. In 1995, the network inaugurated the Central Globo de Produes, an in-house production center known in Brazil as PROJAC, a state-of-the-art television production facility that rivals a Hollywood studio (Jambeiro, p. 97). With ratings that outstrip any other of television programs and the highest rates of advertisers, prime time Globo novelas are entitled to the biggest production budgets, with the cost of making a single episode sometimes exceeding $ 100,000 (Jambeiro, p. 119). In order to defray costs, the network makes use of commercial merchandising, which serves a validating function to new consumer products introduced into the market. Commercial merchandising has become so important indeed that Globo has its own company (Central Globo de Comunicao) to exclusively deal with it: The best use of [merchandising] is to create new habits and establish new products. Kellogg was wasting its time trying to convince Brazilians to eat Corn Flakes for breakfast with traditional advertising. Brazilians arent used to eating breakfast. Its a public service were performing [sic], teaching them to eat well in the morning. We teach hygiene, too, like when novela characters go and brush their teeth. (In Wentz, 1984, p. 25) Unless one has seen Brazilian novelas, it is hard to imagine how strong an impact they have on public opinion, taste, and social mannerisms. Their appeal stem in part from the fact that, since censorship began to fade in the mid-1980s, they have become even so more "realist" by touching on controversial political and social themes such agrarian reform, racism, abortion, drug abuse, environmental degradation, homosexuality, corruption, and cloning, mixed in, of course, with themes of passionate romance, intrigue and betrayal, with justice and love always triumphing in the end like in any classic (melo)drama.[vii] Whichever way, this has created the opportunity for viewers to debate and reflect on many relevant contemporary issues which, inserted deliberately in the plot of the novelas, have well-defined educational purposes. Such a practice, implemented systematically by TV Globo some 12 years ago, is known as social merchandising. Laos de Famlia (Family Ties; 2000-2001) was a case in point. It featured the story of a girl, Camila, who had been diagnosed with leukemia, a type of cancer that affects millions of Brazilians every year. The characters desperate search for a compatible donor for a medulla transplant seemingly encouraged thousands of Brazilians to donate medulla throughout the country. Soon thereafter, Brazilian newspapers and magazines started calling the phenomenon the "Camila Effect," a movement that indisputably raised social awareness to the problems of blood and organs donation in the country, and apparently helping hospitals to perform thousands of life saving transplants ever since. More recently (June 2002), Glria Perez, author of O Clone (The Clone; 2001-2002) received from former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso an award for promoting social awareness of drug abuse and pregnancy among teens, and for educating Brazilians about the Muslin culture (Organizaes Globo, 2001; Population Media Center, 2003). But like the characters they portray, Brazilian novelassynonymous today with Globo novelas have also had their own ups and downs. Daniel Filho (2001), director of Central Globo de Criao, an in-house creation center, has just recently confirmed that despite the international success of the Globo novelas, TV Globo is losing its hold in the Latin American and U.S.-Latino markets due to increasing competition from Mexican and Venezuela novelas (pp. 341-348). Had this not been enough, Slvia Borelli and Gabriel Priolli (2000) have also given an indication that, despite its

undisputed supremacy in the field, TV Globo is losing its edge at home. Titling their book A Deusa Vencida (The Loser Goddess) after a novela by Ivani Ribeiro (Excelsior, 1965; Bandeirantes, 1980), they have interpreted the decline of audience ratings in the past decade (from 70-100% in the 1970s and 1980s to 30-45% since the early 1990s) as a crisis in the genre (pp. 33-41). Perhaps statements like that "the networks repeated use of well-worn plot lines and characters in the novelas ran the risk of boring audiences" (Page, 1995, p. 464; see also Borelli & Priolli, pp. 33-41; Daniel Filho, p. 71; Mattelart & Mattelart, pp. 56-58) is no longer a forecast into an unforeseen future, but a very real episode in todays TV Globo. Think only of Esperana (20022003), the latest novela by Benedito Ruy Barbosa, also responsible for one of TV Globos most successful novelas in the 1990s: Terra Nostra (1999). Both novelas were top-notch productions featuring the tales of Italian immigrants to Brazil but, contrary to Terra Nostra, which daily commanded a crowd of about 47 million Brazilians (in reality, a much smaller crowd than that of his earlier novelas), Esperana failed to maintain a satisfactory IBOPE rating (above 40%) as expected. Barbosa, known as "the king of the 8 p.m. slot" ultimately "quitted" the novela, whose story line was revamped by Walcyr Carrasco. However much disappointment it might have been to Barbosa, Esperana has ultimately proved that there is no sure-fire formula for success. In any case, Globo has learned to live with the so-called "tyranny of the IBOPE," even successfully counter-attack it, by continuously polling the audience (sometimes by means of organized group discussions) and giving noveleiros (novela enthusiasts) new plot lines for daily gossip and entertainment. But even if the so-called "golden age" of novelas has passed as the work of Borelli and Priolli indicates, TV Globo is not about to renounce its big-budget, high-quality productions that can be seen all over the world (Daniel Filho, p. 352). It just might want to watch out as novela authors like Manuel Carlos have been increasingly lured by foreign networks interested in fine tuning the genre to the tastes of their own audiences and in eventually distributing their own novelas in the international market (Melo, 1995, p. 8). http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/sp03/gmj-sp03-rego.htm Gender, Class and Suffering in the Argentinean Telenovela Milagros: An Italian Perspective Giovanna P. Del Negro Texas A&M University [email protected] Abstract In the 1990s the Argentinean telenovela Milagros was broadcast on network television in Italy. The show was enormously popular with the residents of Sasso, a hilltop community in central Italy where I conducted my fieldwork. The women with whom I watched the program identified with the protagonists circumstances and shared a special kinship with her. A modern day Madonna figure, she was deeply admired for her courage and elicited an almost religious devotion from her fans. In the face of rapid social change, this pious vision of femininity valorizes suffering and provides a metaphor for understanding broader gender inequalities. In the mid-1990s an Argentinean telenovela (Spanish for soap opera) named Milagros (Miracles) was broadcast on network television in Italy. The show attracted a wide audience, and was particularly popular with the residents of Sasso,[i] a prosperous small town in the central Italian province of the Abruzzo. While a cross-section of Sassos population was familiar with Milagros,

its most ardent followers were older, working class women from the ages of fifty to eighty who spent their time tending to older relatives and grandchildren and preparing meals for their extended families. Mostly married or widowed, these homemakers work hard to maintain filial ties and diligently use their skills, resources and knowledge to help with household expenditures. They are unremunerated members of the hidden economythose whose invisible work, efforts and competence often goes unrecognized by society (Smith, 1987). A report on the local reception of a transnational media product, this article explores the relationship between gender, class and religion in Sassani womens viewing of Milagros. Based on interviews with the women and fourteen months of participant observation fieldwork in Sasso, I hope to show how the use of traditional Catholic imagery allowed a televisual narrative from Latin America to resonate with conservative viewers from a forgotten segment of contemporary Italian society and help them make sense of their lives.[ii] This research is part of a larger study which examines how contemporary Italians use both traditional practices such as the passeggiata (ritual promenade) and a variety of newer expressive forms (postcards, community games and local responses to national media events) to think about and respond to the forces of modernity. Unlike accounts that focus exclusively on large-scale social forces or universal theories of historical change, my larger project centers on the experiences of ordinary people and the culturally specific ways that modernity manifests itself in a particular place. To understand how gender, class and religion play themselves out in the television viewers of older Sassani women, one must know more about the town and its social life. The hilltop village of Sasso is located half an hour away from the Adriatic Sea and has a population of approximately three thousand people. Most Sassani work in factories in the town's industrial zone. This area has seen strong growth in the last twenty years because of tax incentives, cheap labor and the government connections of local officials. Also present in the village is a small group of artisans and self-employed entrepreneurs. About 50 percent of the full-time wage earners own small plots of land in the surrounding countryside, and farming is a weekend or holiday activity that contributes to the family larder. In the local imagination, Sasso has often been viewed as a modern, cosmopolitan village with close affinities to the nearby coastal centers. The townsfolk affectionately call it la piccola Parigi dell Abruzzo (the "little Paris" of the Abruzzo) and point to its attractive thoroughfare and well known passeggiata as a sign of the towns civility and enlightened modern spirit. In the first part of the twentieth century, however, Italy was far from a modern nation and Sasso was not the thriving small town it is today. Much of Italy, both rural and urban, was decimated by the Second World War, and electricity and indoor plumbing only became widely available in rural areas in late 1960s. After the war, the countrys economic devastation drove millions of Italians to emigrate abroad in search of better lives. In the late 1940s and early 1950s fully half the population of Sasso left the town, many resettling in Canada, Belgium, Argentina, Australia and the United States. The Italian construction boom of the 1960s, however, bolstered the national economy and brought about a period of affluence, and this general prosperity helped pave the way for the emergence of large scale consumer capitalism in the Italy of the 1970s. The central region of the Abruzzo profited greatly from this economic upsurge, and, in many ways, post-war Sasso is a case study in the modernization of rural Italy. In this period, corporate investment and economic development dramatically changed this once agricultural community into a local center of light industry. The former Sassani contadini (peasants) were transformed into the impiegati (wage earners) of the modern labor force. The towns former mayor held a number of posts in the national government, and his political connections have been partially responsible for Sassos recent growth. Cheap labor and subsidies from la Cassa del Mezzogiorno

(a national agency that provided funds for economically underdeveloped areas ) not only paved the way for the development of the towns industrial base, but supplied steady employment for the residents of Sasso and the surrounding towns It is within this broader context of intense economic development and rapid social change that we must understand the meanings that Sassani women bring to their interpretations of the Argentinean telenovela Milagros. With varying degrees of acceptance and resistance, almost all of the older women of Sasso have been informed by traditional Catholic notions of womanhood. Born before World War II, they are too old to have taken advantage of the broadened gender roles and career opportunities that younger Sassani women enjoy. Whether they view the women of the postwar era with scorn or longing, those of the previous generation cannot fully share in the new found freedoms. Further, older working class women have reaped the least economic benefit from Sassos industrialization. While they have known the pleasures of child rearing and domestic life, they look out at todays society and see images of gender and class progress that they know they will never directly experience. The term "modernization" is commonly used to refer to a group of closely related social changes--the development of an industrial economy and consumer capitalism, the growth of mass mediated popular entertainments and the emergence of new gender roles. Although this term is not without its problems, "modernization" succinctly describes the kinds of sweeping transformations that struck Italy in the post-war period, and we may say that Sassos working class women have found themselves to be doubly marginalized by modernity. Seeing their role as mothers and matriarchs devalued, but unable to enjoy professional careers or substantial upward mobility, these women are precariously perched between the present and the past. During my fieldwork in Sasso, I wanted to understand how working class women might deal with their situation, and I searched for a way to get closer to their experiences. Engaging with the everyday life of the community and making my daily rounds of Sassani shops and homes, I quickly learned that the Argentinean television series Milagros had a loyal following among this group. Every Wednesday evening, they tuned their televisions to Channel 4 and enjoyed this two-hour telenovela. At first, I believed that watching Milagros was a trivial pastime, and I had little enthusiasm for the hours which awaited me if one of my research participants invited me to spend a Wednesday evening at her home. It was only after several months, however, that I realized the importance of this show for these women. Milagros was the entrance for which I had been looking. The story, dubbed in Italian, is set in turn-of-the century South America and revolves around a young woman named Milagros who struggles to become reunited with her long lost mestizo lover. Throughout the series, Milagros becomes embroiled in a string of ill-fated events that test her honor, virtue and perseverance. Despite her trials, Milagros remains steadfast in her female chastity, her Catholic faith and her fidelity to her absent partner. Across the span of the series, she fends off her evil stepbrothers sexual advances and desperately tries to evade the malicious strangers who cross her path. In one episode she is duped into joining a brothel and is saved from a tragic end by a sympathetic prostitute. The experience of watching Milagros in the Italian home is an active one. The actors in the series are well known in Italy, and families all over Sasso discussed the episodes and bantered about the gyrations of the plot in their living rooms and kitchens. The women with whom I watched the program identified with the protagonists circumstances and shared a special kinship with her. A modern day Madonna figure, she was deeply admired for her courage and elicited an almost religious devotion from her fans. As we will see, this characters troubled life parallels the trials

and tribulations of female Catholic martyrs. In the face of rapid social change, this pious vision of femininity valorizes suffering and provides a metaphor for understanding the social inequalities of class and gender. This traditional model of womanhood ultimately helps older, working class Sassani women make sense of the social changes that they have experienced. One of the reasons that Milagros is able to appeal to its fans is its well known cast. As a genre, telenovelas usually employ nationally recognized writers, directors and performers (Leal & Oliven, 1988, p. 85). Grecia Colmenaris, the actress who plays Milagros, has acted in a large number of both evening and daytime series. The leading man, Osvaldo Laport, a performer not unlike Fabio in appearance, is an established actor who also starred in a variety of equally successful shows. The director of the lavish show Omar Romay shares co-production credit with Silvio Berlusconi, a wealthy television mogul and Italys current prime minister. Popular with Italians and a wide range of Latin Americans, Milagros draws on longstanding Catholic images and ideas about gender, and distinct from American soap operas, it is part of a larger international, pan-Catholic media culture. The women with whom I watched Milagros greatly admired the actress who played the leading role. Light-complected, with long, straight, auburn hair, a moon-shaped face, and an angelic smile, she bore an uncanny resemblance to Renaissance images of the Virgin Mary. This affinity was not lost on the Sassani women who would reverentially say, "Sembra una Madonna" ("She looks like the Madonna"). The dramatic close-up shots of celestial adoration and despair often reminded me of the stylized portraits of Maria Addolorata (Maria of the Suffering) which I had seen in Italian churches throughout the country, including Sasso. In these depictions Maria Addolarata is almost always seen pleading and her pain is clearly visible. This supplicating pose was frequently affected by the actress who played the lead role in Milagros. In Catholicism, beauty and suffering are often essential to the attributes of female saints and martyrs. The theme of the fair and dutiful daughter who endures great misery is a leitmotif in Catholic folk legends. In keeping with this tradition, Milagros undergoes various forms of humiliation before she can achieve salvation. As Kathy Figgen argues in Miracles and Promises: Popular Religious Cults and Saints in Argentina, "The physical subjection of the body to the pains and ordeals of ascetic discipline [is] an integral part of sanctity" (Figgen, 1990, p. 68). As the quintessential martyr, Milagros is continuously resisting rape and defending her chastity. The perils of sexual contact are omnipresent. The Catholic pantheon is replete with the stories of victimized women who are praised for their courage and stamina in the face of adversity. In her book One Hundred Towers, anthropologist Lola Romanucci-Ross describes the popularity in central Italy of such a martyr as Santa Rita (1991). In the small town of Ascoli-Piceno, legend has it that after Santa Ritas abusive husband dies, she has a vision from God and enters a convent where she develops the gift to heal the sick and the infirm. The travails of Santa Rita are especially well known to the women of the town, who hold her devotion to family and husband in high esteem. In Argentina, one of the telenovela centers of the Spanish speaking world, writers have borrowed from the rich tradition of Catholic folk religion by adapting the stories of the saints for radio and television (Figgen, 1990). Like Milagros, the popular folk legend Defunta Correa deals with a womans search for her lost companion. Unlike Milagros who is blissfully reunited with her partner, Correa is found dead with her newborn infant sucking her lifeless breast (Figgen, 1990, p. 172). In both accounts, the heroines are recognized for their ability to "triumph over the demeaning circumstances of the feminine role" (Romanucci-Ross, 1991, p. 123). Their characters

are, in fact, defined by their abiding sacrifice and submission. While these legends clearly endorse gender inequities by promoting female compliance, they also speak of freedom from bondage and servitude and celebrate the power of divine intervention to restore justice in the world. Such suffering is often viewed through the prism of class in Milagros. The animosity between the landed aristocracy and the rural peasants in the show clearly resonated with many Sassani viewers. The women with whom I watched the telenovela identified with the characters humble origin; all of them were from modest, working class backgrounds who themselves remember long hours of agricultural work. Crucial here is that, underneath her tattered clothes, Milagros is from a noble family. Unbeknownst to her mother, Milagros is switched at birth with her wicked aunts illegitimate child. While she is raised by a poor but loving family of carnival entertainers, her cousin enjoys the benefits of affluence and respectability. The ambiguity that we find in Milagros class status is echoed in her native-American love interest. Of Spanish and Indian background, Catriel also betrays his fine pedigree. Both noble savage and urban intellectual, he writes popular novels under a pseudonym but is disqualified from enjoying the privileges of class and wealth by his racial background. While his marginal status excludes him from the world of comfort and power, it also frees him from the racist confines of the white mans world. Like Milagros, Catriel seeks the higher goals of truth and justice. This theme of dual identity is crucial to the telenovela. The protagonist is not really a downtrodden peasant girl but a member of the upper echelons of society; her boyfriend is not the savage society believes him to be, but the child of a misbegotten love affair between a wealthy white man and a common Indian woman. Milagros and Catriel have a hidden virtue which their assigned roles obscure and are larger and more complex than the labels that society has placed upon them. Their commitment to honor and justice is the outward sign of the nobility they hold within. What is it about Milagros that resonated so deeply with my informants? Employing powerful imagery from the Catholic tradition, the Milagros telenovela allows Sassani women to make sense of the difficulties in their lives. They identified with Milagros experiences of gender, and class-based oppression and her ultimate triumph gives them hope. The protagonist is a genteel aristocrat who appears to be a peasant; identifying with Milagros, the women ultimately transform their female and working class status from a marker of social disadvantage into an almost mystical sign of inner nobility. Even the smallest indignity of everyday life becomes a reminder of hidden grace and a promise of eventual redemption. It is not surprising, then, that these older Sassani women preferred the Latin based telenovelas to the America style soap operas such as The Bold and the Beautiful (broadcast in Italy under the English title Beautiful). The viewers of Milagros found little solace in the machinations of rich people who work in lavish corporate offices and commit adultery. The travails of a humble peasant girl vividly speak to these women's memories of the devastating effects of World War II and the oppressive class barriers of their youth. Identifying with Milagros, the women see her story as a confirmation of the values of nurturance, sexual chastity and self-sacrifice--values whose transgression is the main theme of Americas soap operas. In sum, the soaps from the New World celebrate a decadent American modernity, while Milagros valorizes the tenets of traditional Catholic culture. If Sassos older women do indeed look out at

todays society and see images of gender and class progress that they know they will never enjoy, they also see pitfalls which they are glad they will never have to face. While they may envy the opportunities that young women have and the wealth of Italys postwar middle class, they also see consumerism as shallow and the search for individual fulfillment as self-centered. Alienated from the benefits of modernity, they are both attracted to and repelled from this modern world that they constantly see but cannot possess. Ironically, it is Milagros--a product of the transnational, pan-Catholic media culture--that offers an alternative. Milagros celebrates a traditional Catholic ideology and provides a critique of modern society that both validates the womens experiences and gives meaning to their suffering. http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/sp03/gmj-sp03-delnegro.htm