This is a class blog run by Dr. Carolina Acosta-Alzuru and her students in the course "Telenovelas, Culture and Society" at the University of Georgia during Spring 2011

Sunday, May 1, 2011

After the word FIN, the acknowledgements

This class exists thanks to every person that has made possible my research on the successful and fascinating genre of telenovelas. This semester a few of them came to our class and enriched the course immensely. I thank and celebrate them. They represent the people who work in, and consume, telenovelas, who've given me their time and insights for over a decade. They didn't hesitate when I invited them to join the class and taught my students with intelligence, generosity and warmth.

Brazilian director Claudio Callao joined us from Sao Paulo

Brazilian director Claudio Callao

Primera actriz Julie Restifo joined us from Caracas




















First actress Julie Restifo

Christian walked over the desks like Roberto Benigni to get up close to Marisa Román

Actress Marisa Román

Marisa Román

Writer Alberto Gómez joined us from Miami

Venezuelan writer Alberto Gómez

The day technology failed us: We couldn't hear actor Guillermo García. Our loss!

Writer Leonardo Padrón joined us from Caracas

Leonardo Padrón







































This class would be meaningless if there weren't students interested in the topic and willing to learn about media, culture and society via the telenovela genre. I was privileged to teach 23 bright, enthusiastic students majoring in mass communication careers and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. They were the heart of this class, the ones that made the classroom a magic place, and the real protagonists of the semester:














To all: 
THANK YOU!

Real People

Through all our skype dates this semester, I have learned a lot about the world of telenovelas. It was nice to interview and talk with writers, directors and actors. It helped with forming an understanding of all sides and views of the telenovela culture. The talk with Padron was interesting because of the extensive amount of work he has done in the telenovela trade. It was fascinating to have a normal conversation with someone who as at the top of his profession, especially since we have studied him for a majority of the semester. It's nice to have personal reinforcement for the materials we have discussed in lecture and seen in the works we have studied.

Sometimes you forget that these are real people when you are only studying them and hearing things about them in lecture. It always fascinates me to see what people in positions of fame are really like outside the spot light. Especially with the actors and actresses. For example, Marisa Roman and Julie Restifo play many roles with varying personalities in their trade. It was really interesting to see who these actresses really were. Julie was super professional and sounded extremely knowledgable of her trade. Despite speaking with a younger audience, she still remained as if she was conducting a professional interview. Before we talked with Marisa, I was curious to see what she was really like off the set. She was very entertaining. Her personality was comforting and made all those around not help but smile. I was talking with Christian the other day about how of course we thougt she was attractive, but we had no idea she would be that cool and fun to be around (even though it was via skype). We felt as though she'd be fun to go out on the town with and despite her obvious fame over Christian and I's, she would probably still makes us feel as though we were all just a few young people out on the town.

The skype talks were absolutely helpful for rounding out our studies of the telenovela culture and the people that make this culture.