Whenever playwright Karen Zacarías and her sister were on the beach as children, they couldn’t help but imitate the opening scene of a favorite telenovela. “My sister and I would do…” Zacarias said and then stopped during a video call  to pantomime their slow-motion run in an imaginary surf.

Zacarías is not alone in her memories of the imprints — if cheesy, if familial, if charming — the popular genre of melodramatic storytelling left on her. With creative aplomb, Destiny of Desire offers a pitch-perfect imitation, that makes sport of, but also pays tribute, to the genre. Zacarías also leverages the telenovelas’ heightened emotions and wild conflicts in the service of timely socio-economic insights.

Ahead of Destiny of Desire: A Telenovela Play with Music — Zacarías’s tease of the art form with a nod from the German playwright Bertolt Brecht —  we asked some local luminaries if they had memories of, or thoughts about, telenovelas.

“OMG!!!! Are you serious?!?!” Tariana Navas-Neives wrote back. The Deputy Executive Director of Denver Arts & Venues even included in her email a link to the opening montage of Christina Bazan, featuring the lead couple cruising the roadways of San Juan, Puerto Rico in a baby-blue Porsche roadster.

We shouldn’t have been surprised by her enthusiasm. After all, the limited-run melodramas comprised (and still do) a global storytelling juggernaut. We asked and our cultural mavens did not disappoint.

Andrea Albo, Executive Director of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District

I grew up very sheltered, and TV wasn’t much of a staple in the Lopez home. We were permitted to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings and PBS. My favorites were Blinky’s Fun Club on Channel 2, Jetsons, Flinstones, and Punky Brewster. However, my great aunt Liz would provide day care for us from time to time, and she’d have telenovelas playing in the background throughout the day, often recording them on VHS tapes to rewatch later – she was ever faithful to her “stories.” When I had the chance to listen in, usually coming inside for a water break or lunch, I’d admire the passion of the actors and how much they often depicted some of the scenarios going on in my own family. Ha! Those are some of my favorite memories of Aunt Liz. She’d be so tuned into the stories you’d think she was a part of it somehow – offering some mysterious magic to some of our days.

Keith Garcia, Sie FilmCenter Artistic Director

“If drag is the appreciation and overexaggeration of women for entertainment, then telenovelas are the drag of soap operas. Rhinestones, wigs, and high, high heels… and en Español!”

Rachel Garcia, Executive Director Mexican Cultural Center

“When I was growing up, my mom did not watch telenovelas religiously; she preferred American soap operas. However, I spent much of my early twenties at my then-boyfriend’s house, where his mother, a stay-at-home mom, watched every kind of telenovela at nearly every hour of the day.

Unlike American soap operas, the most popular telenovelas aired during prime time and became part of the evening routine. In her home, the telenovelas were always watched at full volume while she cooked, ironed and cleaned. The commercial breaks also seemed far more frequent than on American television. Every seven minutes or so, the story would cut away, only to return with the theme song blasting a few decibels louder than it had any reason to be.

One of the favorites, and the one I remember most, was Abrázame Muy Fuerte. It had everything: forbidden love, secret parentage, a wicked husband, blindness, betrayal, and, of course, the unforgettable Juan Gabriel theme song. The theme songs on telenovelas were the best. They tended to be very popular songs by the best artists. What I remember most about Abrázame Muy Fuerte is not one particular plot twist, but the experience of hearing that song fill the entire house and being pulled back into the drama after every commercial break. No matter what I was doing or how many times I told myself I wasn’t watching, of course I got sucked in every single time.

Julissa Contreras, Storyteller, Social Impact strategist and Founder of SPIRA

“The protagonist of Te sigo amando (1996-97) shared my name, fit for a Bronx Dominicana who at the tender age of six already had an affinity for drama. I was chilled by Julissa’s wheelchair-using husband, Ignacio. He was so effortlessly evil — the perfect target for the shady slander the women in my family believed about men in general. Secretly though? He was hot.”

Tariana Navas-Nieves, Deputy Executive Director of Denver Arts & Venues

“Of course, I grew up with telenovelas LOL Probably the most famous at the time, internationally, was Cristina Bazán (1978). I was 11 years old and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE watched it. It was a Puerto Rican telenovela (produced by Radio Caracas in Venezuela and Telemundo Puerto Rico). The love couple were Puerto Rican actress and singer Johanna Rosaly, and the Venezuelan singe-idol José Luis Rodríguez “El Puma.” The show had great international success. The theme song was also a hit (I remember the song), and the telenovela’s video shows many sights in Puerto Rico.

Different than soaps in the U.S., telenovelas had a beginning and an end (they lasted from six months to two years). When telenovelas started in the 1960s, I believe, many people did not own televisions, so the people from the neighborhood would gather to watch them. Besides the news, telenovelas were the most watched content among families! They were not shown in the afternoon, but rather at night so we would watch them after dinner. An interesting fact I remember learning is that in the 1980s, they were Venezuela’s leading export after oil!

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