A peek in time- Telenovelas

There is something about nostalgia I just cannot get over when I write. It is either the evocative nature of the memory. How memories unfold from, for example, a theme song to your favourite childhood telenovela. What’s even more amusing is how you wish to share that feeling with someone who can relate at least on some level.

Is it a desire to look behind even as you press ahead that makes nostalgia strong? Or is it just human nature to want to relive experiences, especially pleasant ones? I genuinely enjoyed Cinderella love stories and the likes growing up, but what really did it for me were Spanish telenovelas! the passion, the zest, the steamy scenes. As a teenager, even though I could not fully comprehend the extent of what I was watching, at least not in the way I understand and have lived life now, there was still something about them that was relatable, even though fantastical.

I think that may be where the idea that I could marry outside of my culture would have possibly taken root. In the sense that there was also some form of escapism attached to these series. Watching love unfold in ways that were alien to my environment, making expressions of love feel like a prism of events as opposed to a linear trajectory of cultural practices.

In these series, you’d witness how love triumphed over every form of barrier. Socio-economic, physical impediments, life-altering health challenges, identity crisis, mental illness, and memory loss. My favourite genre has always been the enemies-lover storyline! I think just watching hate transform into love was so thrilling and satisfying. More than the captivating storyline, what makes this memorable is what that time in my life represented. A certain form of informed naivety.

As a teenager, you often are personally deluded into thinking you know more than you know. You are just getting a sense of your person, but are very convinced that your opinions and feelings matter. You want to be seen as mature, grown or capable when really you lack the experience that gives depth to these feelings. No doubt some of us grow faster than others because of the exposure we navigate, but that doesn’t change the naivety. Why this is clear to me now is how I am still able to tell a teenage girl or boy, even when they dress so grown, there’s just some sort of adult posing missing that makes you easily see that these guys are newcomers. I often find myself chuckling now that I realise I am now in my aunt era!

It was boarding school that fanned my interest in telenovelas. How we’d gather after preparatory class (a time set apart for reading) each night to continue the episodes of Second Chance. The scream of embarrassment when a steamy scene came on, the joint frustration at a cliff hanger, the joint anticipation for the next episode (this is different now with binge watching), the race to the dining hall where these viewings happen to secure the best seats. Sharing these moments with your best friends or your classmates and having these episodes inform your discussion in class or back at the hostel. How some of us became storytellers when we had to narrate episodes to those who missed them for one reason or another.

Writing this, I remember a senior in my boarding school who was really good at this; she could do this with novels, too. It is easy to tell good storytellers, the dramatic pause, the stopping to take a sip of water while we all sit hanging on to every gulp just to hear what happens next, the use of coomon slangs and colloquials, the ability to hold the attention of the room, how this senior was always quiet except when she lit up to tell a story.

I wonder if this was possible because we didn’t have phones or social media at the time in the hostels. The highest form of entertainment was this screen time to view series, except after exams, when we could stay longer than an hour. If not, novels and palitoes (portable MP3 players) came close. Reading novels was tricky because of the lights being out, but of course, there was always a way around that.

Later on, the scene would change as I am now older, because then came Zee World. I was never a fan, but I had friends and neighbours who were Zee World fans. Where I am from, going to a neighbour’s house to watch movies was pretty normal, either because they had a power supply through generators, or their TV subscription was still active, and yours was not, or the fact that they had a television and you didn’t, or just to bond and share food. I remember having this during my youth service days. These moments carried me through COVID.

It is still different, though, as I said, I love telenovelas. They still have a special place in my heart, even though they don’t feel the same anymore. I wish I could say they mattered because life was simpler then, maybe in some ways that is true, but if there’s anything I am learning, life is just different depending on the season you find yourself in.

Now, friendship is different. It’s so hard to even see your friends in person or even get them on the phone; there are a lot of other commitments. Friends have partners, kids, financial responsibilities, and travel plans. It is so rare to be confined for hours in the same space without it being a vacation. I always had this idea to binge-watch all my favourite telenovelas with my partner on our honeymoon, lying at a beach house, sometimes with rain as the backdrop.

If you never got into telenovelas, here are some of my recommendations: Second Chance, Diego and Paloma, Triumph of Love, Gardener’s Daughter, Don’t Mess with an Angel ‘Marichuy’, Aurora, Hidden Passion, Passion, A Woman of Steel. The list is long! Feel free to add yours.

Telenovelas do not feel the same, but every now and then, it feels good to talk about them with people who can relate, just as a way to look back to a different time one could never return to. Notwithstanding, better days are ahead!

Xoxo,

Dcconoisseur.