Unsettling a sacred relationship: The mother–daughter–man romantic love triangle in telenovelas

ABSTRACT

Telenovelas are serialized melodramatic love stories whose happy endings are postponed by intrigues and obstacles. The main source of these impediments is also the basic building block of every telenovela: the love triangle. Because they unsettle the mother–daughter relation, mother–daughter–man triangles can be risky. But they can be successful too. This study examines the production, representation, consumption, and social regulation of the mother–daughter–man love triangle in three telenovelas: Ciudad Bendita (2006, Venevisión-Venezuela), Doña Bárbara (2008, Telemundo-USA), and La Mujer Perfecta (2010, Venevisión-Venezuela). Located under the umbrella of cultural studies, the study uses a multimethod approach that includes textual and ethnographic methods. The analysis underscores the writing and production challenges of this particular love triangle, considers the fit, or lack thereof, of the mother–daughter dyad with the virgin/whore dichotomy present in the majority of telenovelas, and fleshes out the nuances of audience reception of this type of triangle.

Notes

¹ Books that mix telenovelas and soap operas are not uncommon. In addition to Rios and Castañeda (2011b), other examples include Allen (1995), Stavans (2010), and López Pumarejo (1987), who even conflates telenovelas with the U.S. primetime serials Dallas, Dynasty, and Falcon Crest. In some of these works, the difference between soaps and telenovelas is well established. In others, it is blurred and even muddled.

² Telenovela producers have been wary about the inclusion of homosexual love stories. However, we are beginning to see these as subplots in some telenovelas, especially in Brazil. These love stories also include love triangles (Joyce, 2013; La Pastina & Joyce, 2014).

³ In 1989 Ana Maria Fadul called for more research on telenovelas (Fadul, 1989). Today the genre remains understudied. But scholarship about it has been growing steadily—particularly in the last decade. In addition to the already mentioned volumes edited by Rios and Castañeda (2011b) and Stavans (2010), a few recent examples include, but are not limited to, Acosta-Alzuru (2014, 2015), Artz (2015), Benavides (2008), Jonas Aharoni (2015), and Oguri, Chauvel, and Suarez (2009).

⁴ These nontraditional telenovelas are also called “neo-baroque” by Calabrese, quoted in Steimberg (1997), and “stylistically postmodern” by Adrianzén Herrán (2001), Steimberg (1997), and Valenzuela (2012).

⁵ Since 1999, the love triangle has been present as one of the story’s building blocks in all the interviews I have conducted with Venezuelan, Colombian, and Mexican telenovela authors, producers and directors. Even authors of narconovelas, such as Luis Zelkowicz and Roberto Stopello, include the romantic triangle as one of the main elements in the dramatic structures of their successful El Señor de los Cielos and Señora Acero (R. Stopello, personal communications, February 25, 2012, and February 16, 2016; L. Zelkowicz, personal communications, October 13, 2014, and February 23, 2016).

⁶ Valenzuela, himself, uses a love triangle that includes two brothers as the main source of impediments in his latest telenovela, Santa Diabla (2013).

⁷ About 40% of Venezuelan mothers are single: “‘Cerca del 40% de las mujeres en Venezuela son jefas de familia’, revela estudio” 2012). And 70% of households under the poverty line are headed by a single woman (Foro Permanente para la Equidad del Género quoted in Pineda, 2005).

⁸ At one point Darwin has five simultaneous romantic relationships.

⁹ The pícaro machista is a recurrent character in Venezuelan telenovelas. “These characters represent a societal paradox. Culturally, the womanizer is condemned, but he’s also celebrated and glorified, even by women. Humor is one of their tools and they use it to seduce. They seduce the audience too” (Padrón, quoted in Acosta-Alzuru, 2015).

¹⁰ “Desleal,” “una cualquiera,” and “una ramera” were recurrent terms about Mialma among Ciudad Bendita audience members who participated in this study.

¹¹ An interesting contrast with actor Carlos Montilla’s reading of Darwin’s end as “definitely too harsh” (C. Montilla, personal communication, April 14, 2007). Montilla personified Darwin.

¹² Among them stand out the 1943 Mexican version, directed by Fernando de Fuentes, starring María Félix and Juan Soler, and the 1998 Argentinean “Doña Bárbara” starring Esthér Goris and Jorge Perugorría and directed by Betty Kaplan.

¹³ There have been at least four telenovela versions of Gallegos’s book. Two were produced in Venezuela, one in 1967 and the other in 1975. (The latter was critically acclaimed.) There are also a Cuban version produced in 1978 and the latest one made by Telemundo in 2008.

¹⁴ Originally, the network requested 130 episodes. But due to its success, the telenovela ended up having 191.

¹⁵ Gallegos (1929) uses the term guaricha to describe Bárbara as a mestiza, the daughter of a white man and an indigenous woman: “De allá vino la trágica guaricha. Fruto engendrado por la violencia del blanco aventurero en la sombría sensualidad de la india, su origen se perdía en el dramático misterio de las tierras vírgenes.”

¹⁶ She was systematic in her revenge over those who raped her as a teenager. She dismembered one of them by having his body pulled from opposite sides by two galloping horses. Another of her rapists was thrown in a piranha-infested river after receiving superficial knife cuts all over his body. A third man, who led a military unit, was killed with a trident, cut up in pieces, cooked, and fed to his own men.

¹⁷ Until recently, Telemundo always came in second after Univision. Hence, Telemundo executives would measure the network’s telenovelas against each other. In 2008–2009, Doña Bárbara achieved some of the highest ratings Telemundo had seen on prime time.

¹⁸ Peruvian actor Christian Meyer personified Santos Luzardo.

¹⁹ La Mujer Perfecta was broadcast at a difficult time in Venezuela, when domestic melodramas had fallen to second place due to several factors related to the country’s political and economic context. However, the telenovela regained the first place for network Venevision, blowing away the competition with a 31.6% share on its final month (Acosta-Alzuru, 2013).

²⁰ The actors’ age difference was really 40 years. Marisa Román played Lucía. She was 28 years old while 68-year-old Eduardo Serrano personified Guillermo.

²¹ During their love scenes, “they gross me out” was a common expression among some of the participants of my study and on Twitter.

²² Audience participant “ROSA” probably best summarized this assessment, which was recurrently mentioned both in my study and in social media: “Eduardo Serrano and Marisa Román together? Nooo [sic], he was a protagonist in Las amazonas and El sol sale para todos when she wasn’t even born! This is crazy!”

²³ Audience participants who liked Guillermo and Lucía’s love story kept pointing out the social stigma associated with age difference in romantic relationships.

²⁴ Actors who work in telenovelas personify characters whose stories are being written. This is quite different from working in film and theatre, where the script is complete before the actor undertakes the role. In addition, audience reactions and measurements continually modify the stories and the character’s importance in it. Working in telenovelas is also different from working in U.S. television because—generally—telenovelas have no seasons and are broadcast daily. Therefore, their production is intense and at industrial speed that does not allow the actor much time to prepare and rehearse scenes.

²⁵ Dame Chocolate (2007).