During my group’s consumption presentation last week, we talked how the political storyline in Al Otro Lado del Muro was consumed by the audience and what the producers had in mind when it came to the storyline. I have to admit when we were doing the research, I was shocked to see Telemundo’s president who stated that this show wasn’t meant to push a political viewpoint over another. As Dr. A mentioned, Telemundo has been walking a tricky line with Hispanics in the United States ever since the 2016 presidential election. In 2016, Trump kicked out beloved Univision Jorge Ramos. Univision took a strong stance to defend their reporter announcing it would no longer show the Miss America and Miss Universe beauty pageants Mr. Trump was in charge of, among other things. Telemundo obviously saw this as an opportunity and have been broadcasting Mr. Trump’s pageants ever since. This puts Telemundo in a tough situation of not wanting to be seen as sympathetic to the Trump administration (for obvious reasons) while also trying to remain in President Trump’s good graces.
As I’ve been watching Al Otro Lado del Muro, I definitely felt that it was pushing a more liberal perspective on immigrants in the United States. For example, in one episode, Alejandra is at the Mexican embassy giving a speech about migrant mothers and mentions that “some people say that we don’t send our best...however, these women are the very best, the best people” This is a clear dig at Trump from when he was on the campaign trail and even though he is not mentioned, the audience is able to know and understand who Alejandra is talking about.
Additionally, throughout the telenovela, characters oftern express their negative attitudes towards the immigration policies that the United States has. Carmen, Eliza’s mom, in particular makes no secret of her distaste for the United States, the wall, the immigration policies, among other things. During the first half of the telenovela, in particular, there would be short clips of “news” stories running in the background that would serve to create a context for the upcoming scenes. In one the reporter talked about protestors calling for comprehensive immigration reform while in another, they talked about the current administration’s policy of separating families. Although these clips are simply meant to set up the context for events such as Sofia crossing the border illegally or Cumming’s new child trafficking ring that preys on the daughters of undocumented immigrants, it makes me wonder if the writers are speaking through the characters they have created to push a certain perspective?
I think that in a way they are. Although Telemundo is profiting by broadcasting Trump’s pageants, at the heart of their company they are a Spanish-speaking network that serves a large Hispanic population within the United States. Whether intentional or coincidental, I think that the writers of Telemundo were trying to remind the audience that they stand with the immigrant community, with the undocumented community, with the Hispanic community. Even though they probably couldn’t say outright that the show was meant to show people the difficulties that immigrants (of all types) face in the United States, they definitely showed the difficulties and were able to create a more empathetic lens through which to view the topic of immigration.
What about you? Do you think the writers of Telemundo were making a political statement with Al Otro Lado del Muro? Or of the president of Telemundo is right -- there is actually no political preference within the telenovela and anything the audience finds within the story is more of the audience projecting rather than planned?
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ReplyDeleteHi Glanny,
ReplyDeleteI really liked how specific your analysis and thoughts were surrounding the issue of consuming a political storyline. It was great to include an in-depth example from a recent telenovela. I never thought of how a tension could result between a network wanting to establish a stance on certain issues and between the government, especially in our country. I believe that it explores how censorship can be more subtle than we think. Furthermore, the ways that the networks battle with censorship and areas of conflict are more creative than I thought. I think it's interesting how you spoke about Telemundo using their characters to push a certain perspective on these issues. As viewers, we all know what they are playing at and I Think we appreciate the subtleness of the presence of these themes. If it's too outward, we often see the content as campy and annoying. Great post!
Glanny, thank you for this post! I think you bring up a lot of good points here. One thing I've realized through our discussions and our interview with Leonardo Padrón is that the authors of telenovelas realize that they have a platform to "say something" in their telenovela. I would be very surprised if the author of Al Otro Lado del Muro didn't recognize this fact and take advantage of it. Now, it is a little confusing that Telemundo would broadcast the pageants when Univision dropped them. It would seem like Telemundo and Univision are both working towards the same thing politically, but that must have been done from a business standpoint, not a political one. This is a great post!
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