New Knowledge as to what Telenovelas Actually are.

    During my time in high school, I had taken four years of Spanish. Throughout those years, I had learned so much including getting to watch telenovelas. I had believed I had a good understanding of them, until coming here and starting this class. 

    Originally I had believed telenovelas were just hispanic dramas. Or I believed they were similar to sitcoms or even just something similar to skits. After the first day, I had learned that what I believed to be telenovelas were indeed wrong. First, I had learned that telenovelas that not only did they make telenovelas in Spanish speaking countries, but that they made them globally as well. They are popular in many countries including Turkey, Korea, etc. After learning this, I realized that I have truly been missing out on what Telenovelas actually are and what they mean to their viewers. Not only that, but the fact that there are different telenovelas for all age groups. I had assumed most were made for primarily young adults-adults. 

    Another thing that blew my mind was the fact that there were so many sub-dramas to Telenovelas. From the classic rags to riches story, to identical twins separated at birth, to the ugly duckling story. Of course I had watched Ugly Betty, but I had no idea that it was actually based off of an original Telenovela. It amazed me that there can be so many different aspects to each Telenovela and the fact that they have been around for so many decades and I'm just now learning about how broad they can be.

    What amazed me the most was the fact that there is racism in Latin America. Obviously I knew there was racism in all parts of the world, but the fact Latin Americans come from all sorts of different backgrounds and can get discriminated against blew my mind. I never really knew about that until class today. 

    Looking for a Telenovela has been somewhat difficult as I have now come to learn there are so many different aspects that go into it. Before this class, never would I have believed there were so many different versions of Telenovelas, but now I understand just how much I have missed out on. I personally am more interested in a Telenovela similar to those of the Turkish dramas, or the ones about the drug lords as I'm not the sappy love story kind of girl.