Thursday, September 3, 2009

Telenovelas and A Rising Latina Drop Out Rate

During my usual dose of CNN this morning, I stopped to watch a short bit interviewing three Latino scholars and professionals exchanging discourse about recent shocking and vital news.

In the US the Latina High School drop out rate is 41%.

Meaning...forty-one percent of Hispanic female students do not complete high school with a standard diploma, part of which is attributed to the Latinas having the highest teen pregnancy rates of "of any racial or ethnic group." The findings are the result of a joint study by the National Women's Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).

So, you may be asking...How do am I going to bridge this to Telenovelas?

Telenovela writers in Miami are, as Dr. A told us in class, writing stories that are for the US immigrant audience. This audience is looking for their melodramatic escape from reality, which for many young Latinas is the struggle to obtain post-secondary education.

So, two things come to mind...

(1) Should Telenovelas be more careful of their content? Should they tackle tough issues like how to prevent teen pregnancies or the benefits of going to college?

(2) Should Ad Council craft Public Service Announcements to target this audience (at a place where they surely can be reached) for the purpose of educating them about maximizing their potential?

OR...

Should Telenovelas maintain an escape from reality and be a form of entertainment? Should and/or could Telenovelas aid in a larger impending issue?

As a concerned Latina and someone who does not consume Telenovelas (until now), I think writers should tackle the tough issue...but if I did watch my opinion might be different.

What do you think?

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Check out a similar news bit from NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112401912

2 comments:

  1. I believe that telenovelas should find a way of tackling these issues. However, as we will see in class, this has to be done carefully. More on this as the semester advances...

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  2. I, too, saw the troubling news story about the Latina high school drop out rate. And I think that you raise an extremely important and complex question. Should telenovelas focus on addressing these issues, or should they continue to solely entertain? Well, I think that they can do both. Why couldn't we incorporate the not-so-romantic aspects of real life, such as high school drop outs or teen pregnancy, into a classic "rosa" telenovela?

    We love telenovelas because although they do allow us an opportunity to escape from reality, we relate to the story presented to us in one way or another. Whether we relate to it on a real level, or rather on a "I wish that was my love life" level, we can still draw similarities between our lives and those of the characters.

    There is no doubt that an important relationship exists between a telenovela and its viewer. And I think that a pregnant teenage protagonist who is contemplating dropping out of high school could be extremely beneficial in addressing the pressing societal issues facing Latina immigrants in the United States.

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