Category: Bellos and Hippolyte Ortega

Siendo un fanatico del futbol, estaba esperando con ansias esta lectura. El futbol, para muchos latinoamericanos es mas que un deporte mas. Es una pasion; es parte de la vida de uno. Uno va al estadio y practicamente es como un jugador mas en la cancha. Esta ahi gritando y sudando la camiseta y mas que nada quiere que su equpio gane y salga campeon. Es cierto que el futbol genera pasiones y sentimientos muy fuertes, sin embargo esto aveces es llevado a extremos y se puede convertir en algo negativo. En Peru por ejemplo hay barrios en donde la mayoria, si es que no son todos, son hinchas de un equipo. Si uno va a ese barrio con la camiseta del equipo contrario practicamente se puede despedir del mundo. Esto es algo que genera esta pasion por el futbol. Crea hinchas de distinto equipos y estos van a defender la camiseta y el honor de su equpio no importa que.

Me gusto la lectura ya que podemos ver que tan grande es la influencia del futbol en Brazil. Bellos utiliza el mundial de 1950 para ilustrar su punto. Este mundial resulto ser una gran sorpresa para todos ya que nadie penso que Uruguay iba a ganarle en Brazil y menos Brazil estando de local. El mundial resulto ser muy importante para Brazil ya que fue un evento el cual les servia para demostrarles al mundo quienes eran. La construccion del estadio maracana representaba un simbolo de progreso y orgullo para los brazileros en un momento en el cual estaban construyendo su identidad nacional. El perder la copa del mundo para los brazileros fue un golpe muy bajo y una decepcion muy grande. El hecho de haber terminado con una dictadura, ser anfitriones del mundial y construir un super estadio al parecer no tuvo el impacto que tuvo al comienso ya que todo se vino abajo cuando perdieron la copa.

La segunda lectura la verdad que no me intereso ya que pienso que las telenovelas son de los mas estupido que hay y al intentar ver una ves una novela me quede dormido. Creo que si algun uso tienen es que si uno quiere dormir y no puede, mirar una telenovela ayudara en esto. Lo peor es que estan practicamente en todos los canales latinos y a casi todas las horas. Algo que tampoco me gusta de las telenovelas es que estas se situan en mundo ideal y la gente se cree esto. Como dijo Salavador, en la novelas el bien siempre gana, el pobre se convierte en rico, etc, etc. Tiene toda la razon y pienso lo mismo. Es una misrepresentacion de la vida real.

I really liked this weeks readings regarding the history of futbol and prominent futbol players in Latin America. The videos that we watched in class furthered my understanding as well. I believe this topic was so interesting to me because it was easily related to my own life and upbringing where pretty much everyone plays futbol in elementary school. After that the popularity somewhat wanes but many stick with it at least a recreational level throughout high school. Its almost impossible for me to imagine my childhood without the practices and games not to mention the after game snacks. The funny thing is that I was never really that crazy about it, but I am an only child and I think my parents really wanted me out of the house. In their defense I did go through a biting phase. Anyway back to the readings, I was amazed to learn about the long lasting effects of the world cup in 1950. I can’t imagine having an entire nation feeling that much sadness over something where no one person was physically hurt. A good point was made in the article though that really nothing that tragic had ever occurred in or to Brazil before. They do seem like fun-loving people and it hurts to see the film reels of so much silence and shock. On the other hand I also felt bad for the people in Uruguay who died of excitement!I suppose I would rather die at the happiest moment of my life than at the saddest Furthermore the level of recognition or remembrance that the Uruguayan players received was short lived. To this day on July 16th the Brazilian team gets calls while the Uruguayan team “lived in the moment” and when it was over so was their fame. Although . Again back to the reading I also loved learning about Garrincha, the angel with bent legs. What I found most intriguing was the comparison between Garrincha and Pele, with one being “adored” and the other “revered”. Pele was a business man he invested his money and new how to market himself. He got better because he trained hard and focused on his ultimate goal of fame, the fame his father never received. Garrincha did not want to play professionally he just loved the show, the spectacle. Like a futbol globe trotter he would pull stunts with his famous dribbling no matter what his coach had instructed him to do. To everyone’s surprise it worked, for him it was never about the money which he stored in “fruit bowls” but as a means to be a clown without having to wear the makeup. I believe that I too if I had been alive at that time would have liked Garrincha better without being able to explain why but in a way this big futbol player never really grew up something I also never wanted to do.

I found Bellos’s paper on futebol to be very intersting. The represenation and meaning behind futebol in Latin America became very aparent to me and its outstanding powers on the public, the players, countries as a whole and invevitably the world in one way or another. Its clear that futebol is much much more then just the simple game of futebol in Latin America. For me this was hard to comprehend because personally a game to me is just a game and thats as far as i take it. Futebol as shown in this article however means everything to alot of people. It made me curiuos to why this is so… how such importance and prestige could be layed on such a simple game. It also made me question why this tendency for futebol to be ‘everything’ and be such a big part of everyday life was more consistent in Latin America rather than North America. It appears as though larger  political meanings are attached to futebol in Latin America or atleast are more evident than in North American leagues. An interesting aspect realating to this is the Olympics where the power of sports is truly showcased. However, this force that connects people through sports can also tear others apart and create grudges/hatred not only between individual players or athletes but on larger scales of countries or regions. At the end of the day it is clear that sports are an extremely strong force with unbelivaibly strong powers globally.

The first article regarding popular culture as mass culture is “The Fateful Final” about the world cup final between Brazil and Uruguay in 1950 in which Uruguay beats Brazil in the final 12 minutes of the game. Football in Brazil is a major/mass pastime that acts almost as a national religion. When I was younger I played soccer for 13 years and my team won the BC provincials one year. Throughout this article I could really imagine this fate full game and the emotions that came with it. To some extent at least I can identify with the change in mentality that you have when playing as well as when you’re watching a game from the sidelines. The strong connections between team players and their desire to win can bring everyone into the present, forgetting past and future and simply being in the now. This is an amazing power of sports, and extremely difficult to do when you are in your daily life. Anyways, I guess I can say that if you have never played in team sports and the amount of emotion and intensity that is written about in this article might seem weird and excessive (which it very well might be). But there is something to be said for experiencing the act of being in team sports or even just watching. I feel like it does bring people together creating a sense of community whether that is in a small town and a group of children, or on the national level. I guess what the author of this article exemplifies how nations as big as Brazil can come together as an imagined community, all intimately connected. In the article I became aware of the extent of the emotions that were on high at the Maracana. The emotions could be defined as almost scary or fanatical with a sort of mob mentality that I would probably want to stay away from. However I did think it was interesting to learn that only one person got knocked over when leaving the Maracana after the game and that violence was minimal.

In the second article, “Big Snakes on the Streets and Never Ending Stories” we learn of Venezuelan Telenovelas, another form of popular culture as mass culture.

The telenovela is popular all around Latin America and “is the main source of support for several television channels in Latin America”.  We learn about novellas on the radio in the 1900s and their influence on telenovelas of today. You can go back farther and trace the telenovela to “popular forms, beginning with the folletin, or newspaper serioal, itself transitiona…”(pg67) It continues to evolve as a genre, acquiring different nuances in different countries. Most of them however are organized and produced in a similar way… “a story in which a man and a woman fall madly in love, but before they can live happily ever after, they have to overcome a series of obstacles.”(pg69)

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Si hay dos cosas que se asocian con Latinoamerica, son el futbol y las telenovelas.  Aunque hay gente que no se vuelve loca por el futbol, siempre van a tener algun equipo favorito.  Pasa lo mismo con las novelas, por ejemplo, me crie en una casa con una mama medio gringa medio tica que nunca vio, ni ve novelas… pero yo si vi algunas, y aunque no seguia ninguna en particular, si sabia cuales estaban en la tele y a veces hasta quien era quien.

In this response I want to switch it up and talk about the second article first “Big Snakes on the Streets and Never Ending Stories: The Case of Venezuelan Telenovelas” by Nelson Hyppolyte Ortega. In this article, Ortega talks about the telenovela phenomenon that is so central in Latin American popular culture and how it has evolved over the years. He talks about how the radio novelas that were prevalent in the early 1900’s were most likely the historical ancestor to the modern day telenovela. One aspect of the essay that I found intriguing is how Ortega compares soap operas and tlenovelas saying that soap operas are for entertainment and represent the upper class, while the telenovela’s “mission is show reality and to teach about the affective, social, and political problems of contemporary society” (Pg. 65), while appealing more to the working class. The article focuses a great deal on one specific telenovela called Por estas Calles and its direct influence on Venezuelan Culture. This particular telenovela uses plots that are based on actual issues within the country, or as Ortega puts it “successfully exposed the national reality” (Pg. 72) such as scandals, corruption, drug trafficking, and money laundering etc. It has been heavily criticized by many scholars because of how real it is and how it can often depict powerful people within the country in such a negative manor. For example, there was an episode that had a a metropolitan police officer rented his revolver to certain delinquents in exchange for drugs. This telenovela is a great example of how the public consciousness has changed throughout the years in Venezuela. Overall, it was an interesting read and had some person elements for me because my Abuelita loves telenovelas and is hooked on them watching everyday.

As I expect, learning about Brazil through fuetbol was probably one of the most exciting things we have done in this class. “Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life” is done very well. Bellos tells the story of Brazil through events such as the 1950’s World Cup of Soccer and profession athletes like Garrincha. I had an idea of how import the 1950’s World Cup because I had heard it from someone while I was in Brazil. It was one of the largest upsets according to the individual I talked to about it. Uruguay was seen as a large underdog going into the match. It is unfortunate that is how they see the event, because despite it being the most important game played there, it still is just a game. The things leading up to this event and game were more important to the foundation of the country( i.e. breaking free of dictatorship and building a stadium and hosting the championship game) but the people let the game symbolize more than it’s worth and “blamed” some for the loss. Specifically individuals, like Moacir Barbosa, lives were made so horrible for just trying to represent their country at the national stage. He was quoted as saying “The maximum punishment in Brazil is 30 years imprisonment, but I have been paying, for something I am not even responsible for, by now for 50 years”. I understand that futebol is extremely important to Brazilians, but isn’t there a point to which it’s too important. When I think of this it brings to mind how much focus on hockey is in Canada. I have heard horror stories of coaches being killed or assaulted (by parents) because they didn’t play a certain player. I enjoy sport especially soccer/football and I am a competitive person, but it isn’t the point of sports to bring people together, not single them out especially as scapegoats. Another point is how much this would discredit the win. Uruguay must have fought hard to achieve that victory, and Brazil though almost always a favourite, can’t always win. Soccer players are only human, and humans make mistakes.

The second article was not nearly as enthralling as the first, but it was still very relevant to Latin American Culture studies. Nelson Hippolyte Ortega’s small overview of telenovelas, explaining how and why they came into existence was quite interesting. The highlighting of works such as Rowe and Schelling show the culture process at work. In his introduction Nelson however loses me somewhat because he compares soap operas and telenovelas. He says that telenovelas are to incite “reality” and “teach about the affective, social and political problems of contemporary society”, and that soap operas are simply to entertain. I agree that there is much more substance in telenovelas, as they have some cultural value, but that does not mean that they do not also intent to entertain. When it comes down to it both soap operas and telenovelas serve to make money through media.

I found both of the articles for this week interesting and well written. I will admit, while I appreciate soccer to a degree, I am not a huge sports fan in general, and have never really understood the craze and obsession that goes along with it. However, after reading the article about futbol, I feel that I have finally come to understand the reality of the importance that futbol means to people. To many people in around the world, with Brazil being an epicenter to the excitment, futbol is not nearly just a game but rather is a canvas for which great cultural meaning and identity is constructed. Futbol is not mearly people kicking a ball around a field for entertainment sake, but is a site in which people come together to create a larger narrative about their lives and identities. In the example of the game in the 1950’s, for Brazilians, this does simply represent a game that was lost, but rather is highly symbolic of greater loss. It was an event that came to speak as a national narrative of the people. The staduim that was built in preperation of the game was also not mearly a fancy staduim but rather a symbol of progress and pride for the Brazillian people at a time when they were constructing their national identity for themselves and the world to witness. I think this quote sums it up well: “the 1950 game is perhpas the greatest tragedy in contemporary Brazilian history. Because it happened collectively and brought a united vision of the loss of a historic oppurtunity. Because it happened at the beginning of a decade in which Brazil was looking to assert itself as a nation with a great furutre. The result was a tireless search for explications of, and blame for, the shameful defeat.’ Reading this article made me think about how popular culture in general can come to have great signifigance when it is taken in by the people a symbol of national pride, nation and identity constructing.

As far as soap operas go…I will admit…I used to watch All My Children for many years when I was a child, namely because my Mom was into it, but I can definitly see the appeal. I mean, if you are going to watch bad television, why not just go all out for the aweful stuff rather that the mediocre stuff that tries to present itself as ‘good’ ? Soap operas and telenovelas get a lot of criticism, most of which is entirely valid, but I feel that they do play a role in bringing to light (an an entirely overly exagerated way) real issues that people face within society. In the case mentioned in the article, Por estas calles even acted as a mirror for political reality that people in Venezuela faced at the time. According to the article, “Por estas calles cannot be understood outside the context of Venezuela’s political, economic, and social situation in the last decades of the twentieth century.” Likewise, the author suggests that, “all feel affected by the world created in the telenovela, as long as it raises problems they beleive they have gone through themselves.” Telenovelas can be a medium that bring family together to view characters and stories as they experience real drama that is often, an exaggerated version of problems rooted in reality. As we discussed in class, telenovelas often bring up isses in society that are highly taboo. They flirt with these issues, but almost always tend to be intensely moral; wrong doers will not come out on top in the end. These shows raise forbidden topics in order to demonize them.

So we’ve finally reached that point in the semester when we are given concrete examples of this elusive popular culture that we’ve all been searching for.  Futebol and telenovelas are certainly (in my humble opinion) excellent examples of contemporary popular culture in Latin America, and I feel that these two articles do an excellent job of defining the aspects of these pasttimes which make them so accessible and important to the general public.  National identity and national unity seem to be the common themes expressed in both articles.  Futebol and telenovelas serve the purpose of unifying a nation’s people under a common identity (in the case of futebol) and in common experiences and moral values (telenovelas) such that  both give a public form to conceptions of what it means to be Brazilian or Venezuelan.  In the case of both activities, the common citizen is merely a spectator to the action, yet they feel as though they are a part of a larger whole which is represented in the drama played out–within the telenovela or on the futebol field.
While initially Brazilians’ obsession with their 1950 World Cup defeat baffled my sport-resistant sensibilities, as I read further, I began to understand the role that futebol plays in the lives of many and the stakes each individual has in the national game.  The game and its players represent much more than a simple game, but rather the opportunity to create and maintain an international image of prestige and power; something which is often achieved only in such practical interactions such as as international warfare or economic trade.
Telenovelas too, have the ability to define and create national identity and unity in their portrayal of a ‘heightened reality” of the average citizen’s everyday reality.  As Venezuela’s example demonstrates, a forum such as the telenovela provides the opportunity for group unity in suffering and strife–in this case exemplified by economic and political turmoil–and for the experience of catharsis in being able to identify with so many others in a communal struggle.
Ultimately this week’s readings led me to ask myself what aspects of American popular culture have led me to feel a part of a unified national group; a question I could not honestly answer.  The telenovela has no true equivalent in (for me) in American culture, while my absolute aversion to sport isolates me from the feeling of group unity found in cheering for a sports team.  Both futebol and telenovelas, while seemingly simple examples of popular pasttimes in Latin America, provide us with examples of the exceptionally important role popular culture plays in forming our everyday realities and group identities.

I didn’t have time to read the whole texts, especially the one about football which was very long so I will expand on what we discuss in class last Tuesday: the relation between sport and politics. Sport is a kind of peaceful way to make war. It is a field where countries could confront themselves on equal terms. Sport is based on physical strength and no political or economic power so it is a way for the developing countries or the one which are not very powerful on the diplomatic sphere to prove that they are as powerful as the others and could also defeat them. It is an opportunity for them to show they have talent. Sport is a field where any country be brilliant at. Football is definitely part of the Brazilian popular culture because it is a democratic sport accessible to everybody. It is a sport played by the people, the nation so it is very symbolic: the nation has to fight for the homeland, to defend it abroad. As Bellos says, the defeat of 1950 against Uruguay was a real tragedy « because it happened at the beginning of a decade in which Brazil was looking to assert itself as a nation with a great future ». Sport mobilizes masses, it is an element of social cohesion. Football is symbolic because people transfer all their expectations of a better future on it.

Finally, I think telenovelas are also part of the popular culture. As Hippolyte Ortega says in his text, telenovelas and soap operas reflect the aspirations, in a certain way, the values of a society: soap opera stage American middle-class only interested in sex and money while telenovelas get into themes like love, family, contrast between rich and poor. The themes reflect the worries of one particular society because people must identified themselves to the characters.

Both football and telenovelas are elements of mass culture which I think could enable us to understand how they think.

The readings for this week talked about two very important areas of Latin American popular culture: futbol and telenovelas. The first reading, by Alex Bellos, is entitled Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life, and it underlines the prominent position of futbol in Latin American culture in general, and Brazilian culture specifically. One of the defining moments in Brazilian futbol outlined by the article was the loss of the World Cup in 1950 to Uruguay. In fact, this was such a momentous blow to Brazil that the article opens with a quote likening this ‘irremmediable national catastrophe’ to the bombing of Hiroshima. While in my view this is an exaggeration, it does demonstrate the importance of futbol in everyday life. Futbol can unite or divide a people, depending on the teams playing.
In the case of Brazil’s loss to Uruguay in 1950, the effect on the nation was a lasting one. One of the quotes which struck me the most in the reading was said about the goalkeeper, Barbossa, 20 years after the match- “He is the man that made all of Brazil cry”. I think this quote perfectly captures the mentality of any nation which loves futbol and has suffered a crushing blow; it illustrates just how entrenched futbol is in everyday life. I think that people who don’t live in a place with such strong ties to a sport find this hard to understand; even Canadians, with our supposedly legendary love for hockey, don’t come close to matching the fervour of Latin American nations for futbol.
The second phenomenon of Latin American culture is the telenovela. I had always thought of these programs as soap operas; however, Ortega delineates the differences between telenovelas and the North American soap operas. Telenovelas have more evolving storylines, while soap operas remain fairly unchanging and get repetitive; most importantly, soap operas show an “artificial” world and are based on the lives of the class. Contrary to this, telenovelas show “reality”, and they show the contrast between rich and poor.
Seeing as I have never watched a telenovela, I have no personal experience to draw on here; however, from the reading it seems that these telenovelas generate a far greater audience than the soap operas here, and thus have a far greater impact upon culture and society.

I was waiting for weeks to get to this reading about futbol and culture and it did not let me down, it was really enjoyable and fascinating along the whole step of the way.

Futbol, like many other sports, is not just something that you simply see, but you also live it and feel it. As Bellos puts it, there is always a before and an after. Latin America, in general, is renowned for having various champions in distinct disciplines such as futbol, baseball and boxing, however without a doubt futbol is the one that “mueve masas”. The nation, for many, is an imaginary community in which people who have never met before feel they have a common bond, and I believe that (in the case of futbol) the national team serve as a way in which to cement that bond among the people in this “imaginary community”. El Maracanazo is a perfect example of that; it united Brazilians before the game with a general feeling of confidence and one of sadness at the end. Ultimately, most Brazilians were going through the same phase together before and after the Maracanzo.

I personally have a connection with that, like the Brazilians I had my own Hiroshima that had to do with futbol. To spare the details, all that has to be known is that I (and the majority of us) were confident that we would emerge victorious, however futbol is “la mecanica de lo imprevisto” and we lost to them. Until this day I still have not watched any replays of that match, not even to make sure if that was penalty or if that should of been a red card or not, I just do not want to go back and relive that moment. And of course I wasn’t the only one affected, it’s one of those moments when the whole nation seems to freeze and even though we are carrying our daily duties as usual, it is not as it was before. I remember the next day I had to go to work and one of my co-workers was also avid fan of the national team, and on that day we never spoke about The Game. I knew that we wanted to say something about The Game, but we just didn’t know what to say. A week later we finally discussed The Game and its consequences; that conversation lasted for almost 3 hours.

Ultimately el Maracanazo and my Hiroshima reaffirmed something to me; futbol is not a game of 20 men (or women) who run for a ball and 2 men (or women) who stand beneath 3 goal posts. No. Futbol is a game of 20 men (or women) who run for a ball, 2 men (or women) who stand beneath 3 goal posts and all the souls who wait for the result.

Telenovelas have been something that has characterized Latin American culture for a while and is probably the one of best indicator of true popular culture in Latin America because I’m sure everyone is familiar one way or another. When I was young and my parents weren’t home, nana would always put her novela while waiting for me to sleep so I’ve been (unfortunately) familiarized with them. I don’t particularly see what the deal about them is since they always have practically the same plot and structure, yet they are still as popular as futbol is to Brazilians or Argentineans. One of the things I noticed was that most of the people who sit and watch these novelas are from the lower and lower-middle class, particularly maids. I remember in my childhood how nana would talk with the other maids of the building about the episode from last night. One thing that I’ve always found funny was when they complained how much the ending sucked, I just find it funny simply because it ends the same way the other novelas have ended.

ps: There’s this satiric show in Panama that did a “Top 10” on novelas a while back. It outlined the ten characteristics of a novela, basically if you do not most of these in your novela, then you’ve failed as a director. Part 1,Part 2 and Part 3.

I remember when I was in living in Peru last year, every night the eldest teenage daughter and Rutty, the lady who cleaned, cooked and took care of us (also my close friend by the end of the trip,) would watch telenovelas as if it were a sort of religious ritual. If I came home in between the hour that the telenovela was on, it was like everything was put off, the broom sat against the wall with a pile of dust beneath it waiting to be swept up and homework splayed halfway complete across the dinning room table. Now that I look back, it is evident that telenovelas’ influence on people and also culture is significant. Interestingly however, throughout the three months I was there I never ended taking the time to watch a single telenovela. I never watched one probably because I found them uninteresting or hard to relate to. Perhaps this is the very reason why telenovelas are so popular in Latin America. Nelson Hippolyte Ortega refers to the telenovela as being based upon “daily life”, if this is so, then the everyday individual could watch the telenovela and relate to it.
But why do telenovelas try so hard to relate to the audiences? I believe it primarily has to do with generating profits. People will watch whatever they find interesting. The more people watch, the greater profits television stations make, as advertisers bid higher prices to plug their products. Ultimately this creates a new dynamic for both the show and audiences. We see that futebol in many instances seems like a sport that has sold out, can we say the same about the telenovela?

Throughout reading Ortega’s article, I kept thinking about the similarities between the telenovela and Keesing’s metaphor of culture as a “coral reef”. Both share that defining characteristic of continuously reshaping itself through time and interactions. The coral reefs changes with every layer of whatever grows, or attaches itself to it just like how the telenovela is reshaped through commercialization, people’s interests, politics, etc. It is apparent that there are so many forces that readjust how the telenovela is produce.

I am curious though, is there something is this readjustment that has schematic way of doing so? Ortega suggests the some telenovelas are created or change schematically in terms of a homogenous/similar plot line that they follow. This begs me to rethink then my idea of how culture evolves. The issue of the telenovela following a prescribe routine in its interactions makes me questions whether this is true for popular culture. Do all interactions follow the assumption that contamination upon interaction is inevitable?

All in all I found that Futebol and Telenovelas share many similarities in its interactions within political, social and economical dimensions. All seem to act as function of one another and are continuously being redefined.

Las lecturas de esta semana describen dos fenómenos o dos partes muy características de la cultura latinoamericana: las novelas y el futbol. La primera de ellas, escrita por Alex Bellos es Futebol: The Brazilian Way of life a pesar de que es una lectura larga es interesante y fácil de seguir, narra con detalle esa parte esencial de la cultura brasileña. Inicia el capítulo recordando el famoso Maracanazo, día en que Brasil perdió la final de la copa del mundo en su propio país contra Uruguay en 1950, es tal la adoración que se tiene por este deporte que la derrota se compara con la tragedia de Hiroshima.

En la lectura de Bellos podemos ver el proceso de transculturación que se ha dado del futbol en el país y la forma en que los lugareños de la región ha impreso su toque típico a este deporte, pues en todos lados es bien conocido el estilo brasileño. Sin lugar a dudas el futbol es el deporte nacional en Brasil, en cierta parte el autor da a entender que es una forma de unificación de la población, diferentes clases sociales, ideologías, etc. en torno a un objetivo, una idea, un equipo; dejando fuera los problemas sociales y olvidando al menor por 90 minutos los problemas del gobierno.

La segunda lectura es de Nelson Hippolyte Ortega, quién escribió la obra “Big Snake son the Street and Never Ending Stories: The Case of Venezuela Telenovelas”. El autor se centra principalmente en la telenovela Por las Calles, la cual cambio la forma de hacer telenovelas en latinoamerica. Me parece importante analizar más alla de la lectura, que uno de los principales objetivos de las telenovelas es que el público se entretenga, distraerlo de los problemas de mundo real y que por un momento este más preocupada por qué paso con el galán de la novela en lugar de preguntarse cómo va la crisis económica; es decir, hasta cierto punto son utilizados por el gobierno como distractores. El caso de México es similar al de Venezuela, y es algo que se ve en todas las clases sociales, aunque ligeramente más marcado en la clase baja.

• Popular Culture Transformations
  Nowhere else is the matrix of popular culture, its transformations, and all of its offspring – even challenging the number offspring produced by Garrincha – more apparent than in Alex Bellos’ “Futebol”. Bellos has the Midas touch in the blending of the divisions between specific forms of popular culture through the topic of futebol. Instead of pretentiously plucking the targets of his desires, he extends his reach beyond its capacity with a greedy (and indulgent) finesse. Futebol becomes the muse for Art Literature both in the form of the Maracanã match (where the “radio commentary was republished” (44) leading to the production of several books), in the styles of Garrincha who aroused even the imagination of poets such as Paulo Mendes (102) and Vinicius de Moares (110) and in the style of Zizinho who attained a comparison to an artist, “Zizinho as Leonardo da Vinci ‘ creating works of art with his feet on the immense canvas of the Maracanã pitch” (48) . Futebol becomes the central station of nations and their respective popular cultures, where in some cases such as Argentina and Brasil, their distinct features collide. In Brasil the Fateful Final is a resonating tragedy, whereas in Argentina it is a source of joy, earning the nickname of “maracanazo” and causing argentinos to “[rub] their hands in glee” (44). Bellos makes a point of incorporating iconic events that are relics of popular culture in other countries to compare and develop the monumental impact of the Uruguay vs. Brasil match of 1950 in the popular culture of Brasil, as well as entrenching the parallels found between nations. The United States is widely used for his comparisons: the final Uruguay goal is allied with JFK where “the goal and the gunshot that killed Kennedy both have ‘the same drama… the same movement, rhythm…the same precision of an inexorable trajectory” (54); Elza Soares the legendary samba singer is mentioned among the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, and her songs seen as “torch songs” (116) a genre that is heavily centered around Billie Holiday and her contemporaries. Futebol becomes a Myth/Legend in order to satisfy Nation Building which also has its grubby fingers in the sugary-sweet honey jar of Politics: the Maracanã tragedy serves as a national myth creating a “united vision” (45) even noted as having a place among “things that build nations, a people drenched in their own pain” (54), where “the defeat transformed a normal fact into an exceptional narrative: it is a fabulous myth that has been preserved and even grown in the public imagination” (57). Besides being a narrative, the “Maracanã [also] fostered a football-inspired patriotism” (46); futebol once again contributing to the Nation. Futebol in/with/and Music is mentioned several times by Bellos who masterfully stitches (yet again) two forms of popular culture specifically Chico Buarque (52), (97), (116), Carmen Miranda (99), Caetano Veloso (128), Elza Soares (see: garrincha). Garrincha in turn is employed by Bellos to introduce Futbeol with the Indigenous (another apparition of popular culture!): where zicunati(78) is compared with futebol, where ” ‘play[ing] like an Indian'” is a manner of playing synonymous with “constantly attack[ing] and never defend[ing]” (87), and finally where the indigenous rituals gain rituals from football warm-ups in classic case of transculturation (88). The overriding popular culture transformation is the sheer commercialism of Futebol; Bellos illustrates this efficiently with his comparison of Pele and Garrincha (112-115), the hijacking and subsequent owning of the football strip by Nike, and the questioning of fanatical authenticity where money and logos are involved (*Cotton Bud*), every mode of Popular Culture into which he integrates Futebol is also another opportunity for capitalist expansion, where Art, Music, Literature, Politics, Nationality, Myths and Legends, the Indigenous and Folk all are subject to the same game of Profiteering.

  The Brazilian Image

• Grandeur (as a pretext)
  – “blow their own trumpets they have a tendency to use global superlatives” (45)
  – ” size of country mirroring language and ufanismo “excessive arrogance based on the potential of Brazil’s vast resources” (45)
• Maracanã (largest stadium in the world)
  – “our prestige and sporting greatness” (46)
  – symbol of Brasil’s placement “in the modern world” (46)
• Jersey
  – “yellow is such a strong primary colour that it perfectly synthesised with the flamboyant, flash Brazilian style” (67)
  – “golden yellow adds a warmth and luxuriousness that complements prodigal Brazilian skills”
  – “evocative, visually unmistakable and iconic”
  – “personifications of golden statuettes”
  – “a touch of the exotic, like something you would expect from Africa”
  – “national identity – citixenship” (68)
  – “since football is the strongest symbol of national identity wearing a football strip asserts a utopian Brazilianness” (127)
  – Exaggeration of themselves as luckless… another form of grandeur (extremities)
• “Stray Dog Complex” (55)
  – “the inferiority with which the Brazilian positions himself, voluntarily, in front of the rest of the
  – “lack of moral fibre” (55)- “Brazil is not a country of winners. It is a country of a people who like to have fun” (115) –> national motto(?)
  – “Brazilians, the cliché dictates, have taken carnival to the football terraces” (123)

Carnival with a Twist

• merging of 2 culturally defining aspects of Brasil established on consumerism basis
• “carnival competitive” “football matches carnivalesque” (124)
• “motivations were no especiallly philanthropic – he did so because it increased general interest in football, generated more copy and sold more papers.” (124)
• “business mind and a literary bent to the sports pages” –> corrupting?
• Torcedores
• Cotton Bud
  “Professional Fan” (129)
  “Companies know that I will be on the television a lot and in newspapers, so they give me clothes and plane tickets in exchange for a logo on my Brazil shirt” (129)
  –>cheapans authenticity… parallels with Pelé

The Case of Venezuelan Telenovelas

• “is the continuation of a family: to fall in love, to marry, to have children” (65) and “contrasts rich and poor, good and evil” etc.
• Golden rule: “man and woman fall madly in love, but before they can live happily ever after, they have to overcome a series of obstacles” (69) … “finally, either two men fight for the love of a woman, or two women fight for the love of a man”
• Differentiation from American soap operas… history: U.S. Soap operas –>;Cuba —>; telenovelas –> rest of latinoamerica
• Cuba: “theme of children born out of wedlock” (68) “exercise of suspense…use of music, and in the characters’ histrionic tone”
• Mexico y Venezuela: “schematic..conflicts develop around familly relationships…manichean” , “linear…tend to focus on the male and female protagonists”
• Brasil, Colombia: “class and territory, sex and procreation…advertising, and music videos”
• Brasil: “complex series of plots and subplots”

This week readings are about two of the greatest vices that Latin American people have, futbol and telenovelas, eventough both genders enjoy them; futbol is seen as a manly thing and telenovelas as a girly thing.
Is not a secret that soccer in Latin America is huge, but in Brazil it’s something else, actually there are people that consider it a religion and not a sport, and we could get a scoop of that in this text. One of the phrases that I liked the most of the reading is: “Only three people have, with just one motion, silenced the Maracana: Frank Sinatra, Pope John Paul II and me” (Gigghia). It’s amazing how important is soccer to Brazilians that a single action can silenced a whole country, or on the other hand, engage all the people with a huge celebration. The Maracanazo is the biggest example of this, because for the Brazilian’s this has been the biggest tragedy that has ever occured in their country, but it wasn’t only because of the game; it was also because of the moment when it happened. In Latin America futbol is nearly the only thing that has the power to bring a whole nation together when the national team is playing, but also it has the power to divide the nation when the two biggest teams play against each other. Futbol is a party and as such the whole nation is paralyzed when an important game takes place, most countries are “soccer ruled” and the country moves and works according to the games or soccer events.
Telenovelas are mostly enjoyed by women. These shows usually involves ridiculous love stories, a lot of drama, things that will never happen on real life and people that are extremely good looking that makes you doubt if they are real. They are compared to soap operas, but there have several differences, for example telenovelas eventually get to an end, as soap operas don’t have a final episode. Because of the way they are developed and their structure they really get people consumed on the story, tuning it everytime it is on. It is always on people’s conversations the day after, and sometimes even a couple of minutes after the episode is done. People always wait eagerly for the end of the telenovela, but they feel that there is an empty space after it is done.

This week’s articles displayed popular culture through mediums which I most identify as being representative of Latin American popular culture: football and telenovelas. I felt like both articles, particularly the article on Brazilian football, did an excellent job of tying together all the different concepts we have discussed in class up to date.

I really enjoyed the reading Futebol: A Brazilian Way of Life. It was entertaining to read, and tied in many of the concepts we have discussed in class, from the people, to issues of race, to concepts of cultural mixing. Since the reading was rather long and included a variety of topics, I’ll focus on a few that I found particularly interesting.

The reading begins with a look into what is known as the “Maracana Tragedy”. The author analyzes reasons for why this event became so important in the lives of the Brazilian people as well as key in the history of the country. The author quotes Roberto daMatta who believes that this loss of the World Cup in Brazil’s own backyard was so influential to the Brazilian people because “it happened collectively and brought a united vision of the loss of a historic opportunity.” These collective events and memories are often the subject of popular art and culture, which brings us back to the key element of popular culture that people must be able to identify and relate to it.

The occurence of transculturation, for lack of a better word, is also included in the discussion of Brazilian football. The author mentions the contributions that the Brazilian indigenous people have made to the game of football. The indigenous people taught the Brazilian football players their style of football, later called “headball”, in which they passed a ball around using only their heads. Brazilian players later incorporated this element into their football style, and now this is recognized as a defining element of Brazilian-style football.

Football has also been widely accepted by the indigenous people. To be able to make it as a professional football player is a way for indigenous people, considered to be at the bottom of the social ladder, to climb the ladder up to the higher social classes. Some believe that the indigenous peoples’ acceptance of football is a way to bring modernity to their cultures. However, at the same time, it is also a way for them to preserve their culture, as the author mentions that indigenous teams, when playing non-indigenous teams, would shout “commands to each other in their language.”

Lastly, what I found most interesting in this article was the story of the Brazilian football legend, Garrincha. I felt that through the telling of his story, I was better able to understand how something comes to be recognized as part of popular culture. Garrincha reminded me in some ways of Eva Peron, in that the people of his country strongly identified with him. Alex Bellos, the author, quotes Jose Sergio in his article, who stated that Garrincha “never lost his popular roots. He was also exploited by football so he was the symbol of the majority of Brazilians, who are also exploited.” This quote further strengthens the fact that a defining element of popular culture is that the people must be able to identify with it. They must see a relation between them and it. I felt that the depiction of popular culture was clearest in the comparison between Pele and Garrincha. The two players could not have been any more different. Although both were loved by the people, I believe the people saw Garrincha as one of them, and were able to see themselves in him, and identify with him. Bellos writes that “Garrincha indulged in most of the vices available to him, Pele behaved always as a model player.” The average person cannot be perfect all the time. Everyone has flaws. Garrincha wasn’t ashamed to show his flaws, and people recognized him as therefore being human. He was accepted by the people, similar to how Eva Peron was accepted by her people.

In Big Snakes on the Streets and Never Ending Stories, the case of Venezuelan telenovelas is explored. In particular, the author focuses on one telenovela, Por estas calles. This telenovela in particular changed and re-defined the genre in Latin America. This redefinition was mainly due to the change in subject matter of the telenovela. While most televenovelas follow a similar storyline, Por estas calles tried to break conventions and include different subject matter.

However, even prior to Por estas calles, telenovelas were widely watched by the Latin American people. Telenovelas, which we can consider to be a part of popular culture, often include elements of melodrama, which Peter Brooks defines as “a popular form not only because it is favored by the audience, but also because it insists– or tries to insist– on the dignity and importance of the ordinary.” We can tie this quote back to the article by Raymond Williams who stated that “culture is ordinary.” Melodrama can be considered a popular form because it relates to the ordinary or things we experience every day in our lives, but makes it into something more.

However, the main point of the article in its analysis of Por estas calles is that this telenovela became such a defining part of the genre and of Venezuelan popular culture in general because it was real. The topics and storylines covered in the telenovela were reflections of what was actually going on in the country at the time. Therefore, viewers were able to identify with the storylines AND the characters. The telenovela was, in essence, a reflection of their lives.

For me, the major takeaway from both articles was that a defining characteristic of popular culture is the ability for people to recognize and relate their lives to it. If the people don’t feel that the subject matter is relevant to them, they will not accept it. And if it is not accepted by the people, we cannot consider it to be popular culture in its truest form.

Even though it’s half expected, it is amazing how much you can learn about Brazilian culture through futebol. Bellos’ “Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life” does it quite well. He tells Brazil’s story through events like the 1950 World Cup and athletes like Garrincha. I never knew that the 1950 World Cup was so important to Brazil and it was a little surprising to read just how important is was, and is. I think it’s too bad the Brazilian people let the loss plague them, and especially plague those who were sometimes “blamed.” It seems to me that the fact that they broke free of dictatorship, hosted the championship, and built the huge stadium to show for it is much, much more significant than winning or losing against Uruguay. I can see how it could be a let down, but for it to be a bitter memory for so long and to have it so negatively affect the lives of the players who were there, like Barbosa, makes me think that a lot of people need to get their priorities straightened out. Football is important to Brazil – fine. But Brazil must always win? I don’t know. I think that a popular disheartened response is appropriate for a while, but at some point becomes almost selfish, especially toward Uruguay who must have played hard to win. At the end of that chapter, when Gigghia says “In Uruguay we lived the moment. Now it’s over,” despite all previous explanation I still fail to see why the losers can’t feel the same way. I guess that has little to do with the topic of our class, but it’s by far the strongest feeling I got out of the text.

Nelson Hippolyte Ortega’s little overview of telenovelas, how and why they came to be was pretty interesting. The cultural processes at work really become illuminated, even if the best examples of this are when he cites Rowe and Schelling. I have a problem with a statement in his introduction, though. When contrasting soap operas and telenovelas, he says “The soap opera’s intention is to entertain; the telenovela’s mission is to show “reality” and to teach about the affective, social, and political problems of contemporary society.” I think that this distinction is irrelevant because it’s quite obvious that telenovelas also intend to entertain, just as soap operas also try to underline certain themes in life. It seems like he is trying to say that soap operas, as in the U.S., are purely commercial products whereas telenovelas have some cultural value. I would say that when analyzed as Ortega does here, either can be understood culturally, although both are generally hollow dollar-sign forms of media.

I quite enjoyed the 4 articles by Alex Bellos that were extracted from “Futebol: The Brazilian way of life. The first chapter was written very passionately with excerpts from other authors that add to the strength of the emotional connection that Brazil has to this sport. Here, Bello’s talks about ‘The Fateful Final,’ Brazil’s devastating loss to Uruguay in the 1950 World cup. Bellos goes on to carefully describe the final moments, the rare silence of the stadium, the individual reactions and the outcome of the player’s lives. The game seemed to change some aspect of each individuals life that witnessed or even heard about the event. This was not just because a ‘game’ was lost, it was because ‘hope’ was lost.

The Brazilian team had been immensely successful up until the end, and this success had broken boundaries between this diverse country and united everyone together in hope and equality. On Page 54, Bello’s says that “Second place in a World Cup was Brazil’s best ever result yet it felt like a failure.” On page 55 he follows up to this by quoting writer Jose Lins do Rego who stated “I saw a nation defeated—more than that—on without hope.”

The second chapter was more of a historical tale of the history and formation of the sport. The third chapter told the story of ‘The Angel with Bent Legs,’ the story of a wildy successful football player, with below average intelligence and malformed legs that was a sports icon. Bello’s contrasts him to another famous footballer, Pele, who was the super-athlete, highly successful, good body, and highly organized. Pele assisted in the wins of 3 world cups, which is more than anyone else as a player.. but never really stood out like Garrincha in the publics eyes.

Garrincha’s story was controversial; he was born with a natural ability, and lived a life of vices and foolishness. However, the public simply adored him. Partially due to a general obsession with a life gone sideways, but also possibly due to his humble background, his overcoming of the odds, and never living like a wealthy man making it so that is some roundabout way, he was ‘ordinary.’

The last chapter, carnival with a twist, displayed more of Bello’s passionate prose once again as he talks about particular eccentric futebol fans in addition to Brazilian futebol fans altogether. A particularly meaningful line in this chapter is on Page 127 when he says “The Brazilian urge to dress up—which turns football in to carnivalesque blocks of color—seems to be particularly powerful because beneath the clothes there are few countries as racially diverse or socially unequal.” By uniting together for their team, they can, if only for that game, ‘forget their violent differences that mark day-to-day life” (127). This drives home the point from the first chapter of the utter despair felt when it was all over for them, when they lost the game, their moments of unity had ended.

The second reading on Venezuelan Telenovas was quite interesting. Although they are similar to typical American ‘soap operas,’ they have much more cultural significance in Latin America then they would to the average American. By intending to represent everyday life in Latin America, they attempt to emphasize the importance of the ordinary and bridge the contemporary worlds of the rich and the poor.

Telenovas have branched off in to different types, including historical and political ones that focus on economic and political situations in the country that instigated public interest and debate. The author focuses particularly on one Venezuelan telenova, Por Estas Calles, that went so far as to ‘threaten the political life’ of the country by bringing up controversial issues that got the public talking.

I think that in the first reading Bellos explains different aspects of the Brazilian culture that are somehow related to soccer. I enjoy the reading even though it was really long. It was very easy to understand and interesting at the same time. I like how the author uses different examples of fans, and players to show things that we have discussed in class; like the need to feel associate with more people creating aspect of popular culture (fans dressing up and supporting the teams). I found very interesting on page 127 how through the carnivalesque uniforms people in Brazil try to deny racial and class differences. I think that just as murals in Mexico, and soup operas in Venezuela people are always trying a way to create change in order to integrate the “different” groups of each society.
I liked the part on page 122 where the author writes about Joe Radio and Dona Miriquinha and how they are considered role models but if it was England they would be seen as “eccentric”. I think that these people are like “magical realism” because it gives people the illusion and happiness that is needed to carry on with their lives.
I liked the second reading as well. I think that it pretty interesting how “por estas calles” started as a new project showing the reality of Venezuela and it the end it changed and lost it force. I used to get really upset when people were discussing soup operas in Mexico instead of discussion other issues that I consider more important. I thought that the government wanted people busy with the soup opera´s reality instead of seeing their own reality with problems. After reading the article I felt that soup operas create some sort of illusion that make people have hope that eventually their lives will change for better as the live of the protagonist of the soup opera.