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.
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It was interesting to read in the paper on 'telenovas' how much significance they were claimed to have in the lives of the Latin American people. This is especially true when he emphasizes that the occurances in the show were meant to represent in some round about way the average struggles of the people. Clearly they are exaggerated scenerios, but one can only wonder the thought process that goes on when watching a telenova. Is the viewer re-thinking social issues, or trying to escape from reality, the purpose which most television serves?
ReplyDeleteI liked your part about telenovelas. As I wrote in my blog I think that telenovales are somekind of thing that latin American governments used to make people not to think about real things in their lived. I also liked the quote you took from the first article. I think that shows how important is a sport in Latin America and in this case in Brazil.
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