Cinderella in the Modern Telenovela

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. A lectured on the concepts of representation and identity, specifically the story of Cinderella and how these characteristics became woven into the protagonists of telenovelas rosas. What caught my attention is how deeply ingrained and prominent these archetypes are, even in more modern telenovelas de rupture like Al Otro Lado del Muro.

First, we have Eliza. Eliza is a baker who emigrates to the United States with her two children in hopes of finally sharing a home with her husband, Max, who has lived in the United States for many years. Eliza embodies a lot of the Cinderella qualities we talked about in class. For example, while she’s not really poor, she does come from a working-class family and is of a lower socio-economic level than her husband who owns his own construction company in the U.S. She is also a little naïve – she has lived apart from Max for many years and fully believes him when he claims he can’t visit Mexico because of work and when he fails to pick them up at the bus terminal, she worries and assumes he is hurt, when in reality, Max is with his second family. She is also deeply good, going as far as to care for a stranger in the hospital because she “knows her husband is out there and hopes someone is also taking care of him”.

On the other extreme, we see Paula, the governor’s secretary, who fits the archetype of the antagonist to a tee. As Dr. A mentioned with most antagonists, she is very smart, as evidenced by the fact that she is responsible for building Ernesto’s political career from the ground up. She is also not afraid to use her sexuality to her advantage, having an affair with Ernesto and having sex with Don Chente’s son to get him to tell her about what they wanted to do to Ernesto after part of their sex trafficking scheme is exposed by Sofia. She doesn’t show remorse for her actions and does not like being questioned, particularly when it comes to decisions she makes about Ernesto’s political career and her quest to remain in power.

Perhaps more interesting than the stereotypes themselves, is how even the way the characters are dressed serves to remind the audience about these overarching stereotypes. Eliza is shown wearing longer, more modest dresses with low, sensible heels. She does not put a lot of effort into her hair and wears minimal makeup making it easier for the audience to identify a little piece of themselves or someone they know and love within Eliza.

Paula, on the other hand, is often dressed in tight, dark clothes more fitting for a catwalk than an office. She is wears sky-high stillettos, leather skirts, and dramatic makeup and uses a more dramatic style of makeup to highlight her sensuality.

I think it is interesting that even though this is definitely a modern telenovela, the basic characters are still found in stories created for a younger, more diverse audience. I am also interested to see how Eliza and Paula will change as I get deeper into the story. Cinderella characters are almost always transformed and become assertive in someway as the story goes on, but antagonists are not. Will Paula ever be redeemed or will she meet a timely demise the same way antagonists before her did?