About the Book:Soap opera speaks a universal language, presenting characters and plots that resonate far beyond the culture that creates them. Latin American soap operastelenovelashave found enthusiastic audiences throughout the Americas and Europe, as well as in Egypt, Russia, and China, while Mexican narco-dramas have become highly popular among Latinos in the United States. In this first comprehensive analysis of telenovelas and narco-dramas, Hugo Benavides assesses the dynamic role of melodrama in creating meaningful cultural images to explain why these genres have become so successful while more elite cultural productions are declining in popularity. Benavides offers close readings of the Colombian telenovelas Betty la fea (along with its Mexican and U.S. reincarnations La fea ms bella and Ugly Betty), Adrin est de visita, and Pasin de gavilanes; the Brazilian historical telenovela Xica; and a variety of Mexican narco-drama films. Situating these melodramas within concrete historical developments in Latin America, he shows how telenovelas and narco-dramas serve to unite peoples of various countries and provide a voice of rebellion against often-oppressive governmental systems. Indeed, Benavides concludes that as one of the most effective and lucrative industries in Latin America, telenovelas and narco-dramas play a key role in the ongoing reconfiguration of social identities and popular culture.Table of Contents: Acknowledgments 1. Melodrama as Ambiguous Signifier: Latin American Telenovelas and Narco-Dramas Part I 2. Seeing Xica and the Melodramatic Unveiling of Colonial Desire 3. Producing the Global West through Latin Tales of Seduction and Envy 4. Karen’s Seduction: The Racial Politics of Appropriate Dinner Guests 5. A Mother’s Wrath and the Complex Disjuncturing of Class Part II 6. Being Narco: The Evolution of a Continental Sensibility 7. Saintly Figures and Icons: The Migration of a Continental Dream 8. La Reina del Sur: Gender, Racial, and National Contestations of Regional Identity 9. Sex, Drugs, and Cumbia: The Hybrid Nature of Culture 10. Conclusion: The Postcolonial Politics of Melodrama Postscript: Ugly Betty References Index