angela portillo

Soap operas, or telenovelas, are one of the most prevalent forms of entertainment within the Hispanic community. Through their vehement encapsulation of melodrama and passion, they have become cult classics with which many Hispanic women can identify. Common themes include dramatic confrontations, infidelity, star-crossed lovers, the overbearing influence of religion and the problematic objectification of female characters. The visual entertainment consumed by Latinx women can often be one of the causes for the prejudice and misogyny ingrained in the culture, thoroughly impacting gender behavior and how the collective is programmed to think and behave. In this series, I am exploring widespread issues telenovelas often illustrate in a Hispanic woman's everyday life – ones in which their exaggerated manifestations of emotional expression are subconsciously embedded into her psyche and result in the misconstruction of Latinx representation.

Video One: Tele-Peleas