Spanish Telenovelas

Spanish telenovelas include telenovelas made in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Venzuala. Brazilian telenovelas are typically filmed in Portugese but remain with those listed above as the most popular sources for telenovelas in the world.

Spanish telenovelas focus on the romantic entanglements of the young people.

In Spain, many telenovelas are imports from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Telenovelas in Spain are also known as culebrones which means "long snakes". They earned this name for their often long and complicated plots.

Complicated plots include:

• In Amor Real, Matilde is tricked into marrying the wealthy Manuel by her aristocratic mother. She spends a long time regretting that decision and longing to be with Adolfo, the poor soldier she loves. But she develops real love for her husband and eventually the two are united.

• Novela Del Mar is a trilogy of telenovelas featuring the Latin American singing sensation Thalia. The singer often portrays poor girls or street urchins with powerful, caring hearts. In all of her telenovelas she must overcome many obstacles to find love.

• El Pantanal offers a different take on the traditional telenovela by adding a woman who can shape shift into a panther as part of the storyline. El Pantanal is also a telenovela designed to educate the public about the need to protect the El Pantanal region.

Common themes in Spanish telenovelas is the lovers overcoming adversity to be together whether that adversity comes in the form of their families, their economic situation or an outside force. The family is very central Spanish telenovelas. Unlike their counterparts in the United States, telenovelas also have a definitive beginning, middle and end. They may last a few weeks, a few months or a year, but they will end.

By offering a conclusive framework within which to tell their stories, telenovelas can explore the romantic entanglements of their young people without drawing them out too long. It’s not unusual for the romantic leads to marry other people have children and even fall in real love with their new partners.

The best telenovelas feature a mixture of longing passion, familial interference, class and economic barriers as well as reckless choices and the consequences that follow. In Amor Real, for example, Matilde is tricked into marrying Manuel, but Manuel is not an evil man. He is a kind and honorable one. Life has done Manuel few favors, but he genuinely cares for Matilde and she learns to love him as well.

While Spanish telenovelas are produced largely in the Spanish speaking countries of Latin America and Mexico, the telenovelas hold world-wide appeal. Telenovelas air in Italy, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, Eastern Europe, South Korea, China, Japan and the Philippines making them truly the international soap opera genre.

Telenovelas are popular in the United States airing on Telemundo and Univision, two Spanish language networks. Despite their popularity, the mini-series format remains event television on traditional networks in the United States with soap operas relegated to ongoing daytime or primetime programming rather than limited series.

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