In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

121 13 Eva Luna Latino/a Audiences Hector Amaya Abstract: In this examination of the highly successful Spanish-language program Eva Luna, Hector Amaya argues for the politically progressive potential of the telenovela as a serial melodrama. Ultimately, however, he critiques Eva Luna’s failure to meaningfully engage with contemporary topics of relevance to Latino audiences. The telenovela Eva Luna (2010–2011) marks a new direction for Univision’s primetime programming and a relative departure from its narrative traditions. Since its inception in 1961, Univision, originally named Spanish International Network (SIN), has relied on telenovelas from Latin America to fill its primetime schedule. The majority of these telenovelas, often from Mexico’s Televisa, are conventionally conservative, rags-to-riches stories that scholars in Latin America have criticized for reconstituting traditional gender, racial, and class prejudices. Because Univision relies on these problematic shows, Latino media activist organizations argue that Univision cannot possibly meet the cultural and ethnic demands of Latinas/ os living in the United States, who require programming that reflects their reality and that can help them navigate U.S. society and culture. But due to factors that include the growing political, cultural, and economic clout of Latinas/os in the United States, and changes in the Spanish-language media landscape, Univision is now interested in expanding their U.S. production capabilities.1 Eva Luna is partly the result of Univision’s effort to produce more of its own primetime programming while continuing its ratings successes.2 Eva Luna clearly met the ratings challenge, drawing an average of 5 million viewers per episode and 9.7 million in its finale.3 These numbers indicate that Univision’s primetime programming, and Eva Luna in particular, has reached the level of mainstream programming, competing with the rest of the networks and often winning the ratings race. This essay analyzes Eva Luna as part of Univision’s new programming strategy and evaluates its politically progressive potential by 122 Hector Amaya examining several of Eva Luna’s key textual characteristics. It asks the question: Does Eva Luna address the media needs of Latinas/os? At first glance, the answer seems to be “yes.” It is set in contemporary California, where Eva González, an immigrant from Mexico, struggles to fulfill her dreams of happiness and success. Although Univision’s effort to engage with issues important to Latinos seems commendable, this essay shows how Eva Luna’s use of genre conventions undermines the show’s progressive potential—that is, its potential to propose or explore political ideas that can enhance social, class, sexual, gender, or racial equality. This essay proposes that to read a text like Eva Luna, one needs first to understand the telenovela as a genre with a history, within which the genre’s progressive potential can be found. Like many other telenovelas, Eva Luna is a serial melodrama that tells the story of a young dispossessed woman who has to fight to acquire both the man of her dreams and a higher status in life. Eva is the daughter of an undocumented immigrant and, like her father, picks apples for a living. Set first in the orchards of southern California and later in Los Angeles, the telenovela brings together the world of the undocumented with the glamorous life of California’s wealthy Latino classes. The telenovela quickly uproots Eva from the orchards to the mansions where the young beauty meets Daniel Villanueva, the wealthy, talented, handsome , morally outstanding, and white widower who will become Eva’s love and, 111 episodes later, husband. Eva faces a rollercoaster of events that constantly threaten her and her family’s well-being, as is common to the genre. In the first episode, her father is killed by a car. Soon, her younger sister, Alicia, becomes involved with a young man of dubious character. Because of her pride, Eva cannot hold a job; when she does get one, she falls into the web of trickery of her nemesis, Marcela Arismendi, who controls the ad agency where Eva will eventually work, and who is the manipulating mother of Victoria, Daniel’s fiancée. But overcoming these threats is simply a baseline that the narrative uses to show Eva’s resourcefulness and mettle. The heart of the narrative is Eva’s quest to move from poverty to riches, and from single to married. The means that she uses to achieve this include an intelligence that allows her to grow up as a fruit picker and also have the cultural...

Share