ISSN 2660-9037
BETWEEN FICTION AND PASSION. TWO
CENTURIES OF MEXICAN HISTORY
THROUGH THE TELENOVELA*
Gloria de los Ángeles Zarza Rondón**
ABSTRACT
Rethinking the practice of historiography through certain productions, whether on the big or small
screen, has become a topic of common interest in the academic eld. In this sense, this article aims
to study a particular period of Mexican history, from the mid-18th century to the rst decades of
the 20th century, through a specic television genre: the telenovela, a product that, incidentally, has
gradually become one of the most consumed audiovisual products in Latin America.
Keywords:
Telenovela, México, History.
ENTRE LA FICCIÓN Y LA PASIÓN. DOS SIGLOS DE HISTORIA
MEXICANA A TRAVÉS DE LA TELENOVELA
RESUMEN
Repensar la práctica de la historiografía a través de determinadas producciones, ya sea en pantalla
grande o pequeña, ha ido convirtiéndose en un tema de interés común en el ámbito académico. A
partir de este planteamiento, el presente artículo tiene como objeto el estudio de un período con-
creto de la historia mexicana, comprendido entre mediados del siglo XVIII a las primeras décadas
del siglo XX, a través de un género televisivo determinado: la telenovela, un producto que se ha
convertido en uno de los resultados audiovisuales más consumidos en América Latina.
Palabras clave:
Telenovela, México, Historia.
1. INTRODUCTION
The presence of history in the audiovisual media is not a novelty. The re-
presentation of historiography through this format has been proposing the
viewer, for decades, a new way of immersing themselves in past eras. The
* Work presented in Paris, November 14, 2016. Originally published in Spanish in: Gloria de los Ángeles
Zarza Rondón. “Entre la cción y la pasión. Dos siglos de historia mexicana a través de la telenovela”.
Procesos Históricos. Revista de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, 31, enero-junio, 2017, 42-58. Universidad
de Los Andes, Mérida (Venezuela) ISSN 1690-4818
** Gloria de los Ángeles Zarza Rondón. Univrsity of Limoges (France). Doctor in Hispanic Studies (Univer-
sity of Cádiz). hps://orcid.org/0000-0002-1658-5651.
CLÍO: Revista de ciencias humanas y pensamiento crítico
Año 3, Núm 5. Enero / Junio (2023)
pp. 240-261. Provincia de Pontevedra - España
Recibido: 05/06/2022
Aceptado: 30/09/2022
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link between audiovisual productions and History was already investigated in
depth by Marc Ferro1, arguing that cinema was a feasible tool to be analyzed
as a source of this discipline, and as such, viable in its teaching2. Starting
from this idea, and following the approach of Charlois Allende3, rethinking
the practice of historiography, not only through cinema, but also through the
television format, has become a topic of common interest, “understanding
that the presence of historical discourse on television is something recu-
rrent”, giving rise to “dierent academics, both from history and from com-
munication, who have set the theme of their investigations in this narrative
crossover” (Charlois, 2011: 131).
Precisely, at this point we place the start of this study; we propose a journey
through Mexican history through a certain television genre: the telenovela. We
will address the issue by drawing up a general outline on the origin and develo-
pment of the telenovela industry in Mexico; and, in a second part, we will focus
attention on the appearance of the historical subgenre and period piece genre
raised in this type of productions, referring to a specic period of the history
of Mexico and the telenovelas that have inspired its plot between the mid-ei-
ghteenth century and the rst decades of the twentieth, approximately 1940.
2. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE TELENOVELA IN
MEXICO
In reference to the origin of this genre, its rst backgrounds are found in
the English sentimental novel of the eighteenth century4, whose development
1 We refer among other publicaons of the author: Ferro, M.: El cine, una visión de la Historia. Akal,
2008, 168 págs; “Perspecvas en torno a las relaciones Historia- Cine, Film- Historia, vol. 1, # 1, 1991,
pp.3-12; “La Historia en el Cine “, Fondo Aleph, Virtual Library of Social Sciences, 2005, pp.3-10.
2 Ferro, M., Cinema and History, Detroit, Wayne University Press, 1986, 29-31 p. Vid. in: Gabriela Jonas
Aharoni, “Telenovelas de época y cine: la intertextualidad como herramienta que construye segmen-
tos de la memoria histórica argenna (1984-2004)”, Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos [Online], Online
since 11 July 2012, connecon on 16 September 2016. To complete the idea, we will point out that:
“cinema is an auxiliary source to the extent that it is considered that through the historical reading of
a lm, whether it is documentaries, newsreels or con lms, we can be carry out a counter-analysis
of the society that produces it”.
3 Charlois Allende, A. J.: “De la historia de la telenovela a la telenovela histórica. Las características del
formato de la telenovela a través del desarrollo de la industria televisiva”. Folios, Journal of the Faculty
of Communications of the University of Antioquía. # 26, 2011, p.s.129- 150.
4 León Valdez, R.: “La telenovela histórica en México: apuntes para la construcción de un proyecto con
“benecio social La telenovela histórica en México: apuntes para la construcción de un proyecto con
“benecio social La telenovela histórica en México: apuntes para la construcción de un proyecto con
“benecio social “. Muldisciplina, # 18, 2014, p.s.123-147. The author points out as precursors of
the senmental novel the wrings of Samuel Richardson and his work
Pamela,
in 1740; Juan Jacobo
Rousseau and
La Nueva Eloísa
in 1761; Laurence Sterne with
Senmental Journey;
or
Pablo y Virginia,
de
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was part of the Romantic Movement where the high emotional content pre-
sented by its plots prevailed5. Also, in the nineteenth century, the marked sen-
timental trend and its “deliberate attraction to cause readers to cry” (León,
2014:126). As a “complement” to this sentimental novel, we must point out
the initiative on the part of newspapers, in countries such as France, England
or the United States, to publish some of these stories in magazines, gazettes
and newspapers6, broken down into chapters7. However, the most direct back-
ground of the telenovela, as we know it today, was the radio soap opera, which
emerged in 1926 in the United States in the heat of the growing radio industry.
It was then that dierent manufacturers’ rms, through advertising agencies,
began to sponsor this type of program (Barrón, 2009: 79). The patrons of the-
se radio broadcasts were mostly engaged in the manufacture of soaps and
cleaning products for housewives who listened to the radio while performing
household chores. This is how well-known brands (Colgate Palmolive, Peet,
etc.) became interested in the initiative, giving rise to the term Soap Opera, to
name this type of melodramatic radio program8 that, under the “protection
of soap”, would end up moving to the television format with the same name9.
In Mexico, the rst radio soap operas began to be heard in the late thir-
ties10, reaching a large number of listeners with stories such as
El derecho de
Bernardino de Saint- Pierre in 1788.
5 It was a melodrama that basically consisted of having a protagonist, an antagonist and an hindered love
that nally emerges victorious. Reyes de la Maza, L.: Crónica de la telenovela I: México Senmental. México,
Editorial Clío, 1999, p. 10. Vid. in: Barrón Domínguez, L.: Mexican Telenovela Industry: process of communi-
caon, documentaon and commercializaon. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2009, p. 78
6 Ibidem, p. 127. “The stories that addressed this genre showed heroines who lived situaons of roman-
ce, acon, drama, and suspense where the highlight was a scene of intrigue that kept the reader in a
state of expectaon to know what the outcome would be”.
7 Barrón Domínguez, L.:
La industria de la telenovela mexicana: procesos de comunicación, documentación y
comercialización.
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2009, p.s. 78-79.
8 They also acted as sponsors represenng brands of cereals, beverages or medicines, as the radio soap opera
became an eecve method to promote their products. León Valdez, R.: “La telenovela histórica en México:
apuntes para la construcción de un proyecto con “benecio social”.
Muldisciplina,
# 18, 2014, p. 127.
9 At rst, the iniave to transfer these stories to the audiovisual format did not arouse great interest
among the producers, since it was thought that for most of the listeners (mainly women), the novelty
would not be well received. The explanaon was simple: the radio could be part of the daily acvies
of housewives, that is, listening to the radio soap operas while performing daily tasks did not suppose
any kind of distracon; however, the new soap opera format required momentarily abandoning do-
mesc acvies. However, the rst incursion of the radio novel into the audiovisual eld was carried
out in the United States in 1950, with the television melodrama entled:
The First Hundred Years,
obtai-
ning an audience ranking that reached almost four million viewers. Ibid., p. 128.
10 Following the idea of Marn Barbero, we will point out that the aforemenoned “newspaper novel or
saga” typical of the nineteenth century, was introduced in Cuba through the readings that were made
in the tobacco factories while the workers carried out their work. Apparently, from there the model
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nacer
(Right to be born) (1938) or
Anita de Montemar
(1941)11. However, in the
mid-twentieth century, the splendor of radio soap operas began to decline
due to the arrival of television, and with it the takeo of the audiovisual re-
presentation of this genre.
The initial stage of the Mexican telenovela begins with the appearance of the
national television industry from the fties12, beginning to emerge and shape in
the 60s through the so-called “teleteatro”, where we not only nd the adapta-
tion of classic authors works translated into Spanish, but also the conversion of
the old radio soap operas to the television format. The aforementioned radio
soap opera
Anita de Montemar
of 1941, is transferred to the small screen in 1967
with the same title; the same goes for stories such as
La Mentira,
whose radio
version premiered in 1952 and its television namesake in 1965; Cristina, a 1954
radio soap opera adapted for television in 1962 as
Encadenada;
or
Corazón Salvaje,
broadcasted in 1955 and televised with the same title in 196613.
These rst telenovelas are already beginning to present a series of cha-
racteristics of the genre, diering from the so-called American Soap Opera,
both in duration and narrative structure. While the American has an average
was taken for the radio producon of serial stories, many of whose tles were moved to Mexico in
television format. Marn Barbero, Jesús and Muñoz, Sonia (Coord.):
Televisión y melodrama. Géneros y
lecturas de la telenovela en Colombia
. Tercer Mundo Ediciones, Bogotá, 1992. Vid. in Charlois Allende,
A. J.: “De la historia de la telenovela a la telenovela histórica. Las caracteríscas del formato de la
telenovela a través del desarrollo de la industria televisiva”. Folios, Journal of the Faculty of Communi-
caons of the University of Anoquía. # 26, 2011, p. 133.
11 Barrón Domínguez, L.:
La industria de la telenovela mexicana: procesos de comunicación, documentación y
comercialización
. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2009, p.79.
12 The rst television channel in Mexico was XHTV, operaonal as early as 1950 and owned by Rómulo
O’Farril. That same year, Mexican engineer Guillermo González Camarena was granted the concession
of a new channel, Channel 5, known as XHGC; and in 1951, it began broadcasng a third channel,
which was assigned the acronym of XEW TV, owned by Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta. In 1955, the three
staons merged into a single audiovisual medium, giving rise to the so-called company Telesistema
Mexicano S. A. de C.V., direct background of one of the main Mexican audiovisual companies: Televisa,
also a precursor of the telenovela in Mexico. The aforemenoned Telesistema Mexicano began to
bear fruit through a system of repeaters, and the television signal expanded throughout the Mexican
territory, becoming the rst naonal television staon and reaching coverage in the 32 states between
1955 and 1968. León Valdez, René: “La telenovela histórica en México: apuntes para la construcción
de un proyecto con “benecio social”.
Muldisciplina,
# 18, 2014, p. 129.
13 On June 6, 1958, when the rst Mexican telenovela considered as such appeared. It was
Senda Prohi-
bida,
whose former radio producon had been the story wrien by Fernanda Villeli. The importance
of this tle lies in the fact that
Senda Prohibida
already has the characteriscs of a telenovela as such:
it consists of chapters with sequences between each one, importance of suspense at the end of each
chapter, and is transmied through a television channel, in addion to having certain adversing
sponsorships. Barrón Domínguez, Lecia: La industria de la telenovela mexicana: procesos de comu-
nicación, documentación y comercialización. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2009, p. 86.