And so it begins...

I felt the need to start this little blog as a sort of documentation. My sister pointed out that my situation was similar to some documentary called "My Date with Drew Barrymore," and while I have not actually seen the movie yet, I found the idea intriguing.

The Situation: Currently, I am seeking employment as a guionista de telenovelas, a soap opera screenwriter for Televisa. And by seeking employment, I mean sending out mass emails to the poor souls who work there, asking how to get my foot in the door as a screenwriter.

I am 21, a senior about to graduate school with a double major in English Literature and Creative Writing, as well as a minor in Latino Studies. What was that? All degrees pretty worthless in a crappy economy that is thriving on technology and ways to ruin the environment? Yes, I am aware. Nevertheless, my hopeless romantic and attention seeking self has decided to be stubborn. My goal/mission/dream/desire/aspiration/destiny--whatever you want to call it, is to write...write well...and make a living off of my creativity. Yes, I have joined everyone and their brother in wanting to steal hearts by writing books and screenplays. For this you can blame my family.

Growing up with a big loving Mexican family gave me evenings watching telenovelas. There are three telenovelas that helped shape my passion to create my own. The first telenovela I have recollection of was called Kassandra, and I used to watch it with my grandmother when she took care of me...just googled it, it came out in 1991. Of course I don't remember the basic plot or who was in it or how it ended, but what I do remember is that my grandmother stared at that screen with such focus and intensity that my four year old self knew better than to talk when it was on. I was aware that this show was captivating, almost hypnotizing, and though I couldn't understand why at the time, I developed a weird admiration for all telenovelas. After my grandmother passed away, I continued the tradition of soap watching with my mother and sister with Lazos de Amor. This novela is important because at that time, my older sister was getting married. I distinctly remember in those last few days leading up to the wedding, many social events were held that impeded our ability to watch the 7pm novela. My sister would set the VCR and when we could, we would watch what we missed. What baffled me was that my sister's Caucasian fiance was also enthralled by this very novela, revealing to me at the young age of 8 that telenovelas broke racial boundaries and identities, something society is still trying to achieve today. This guy who didn't speak a lick of Spanish was dying to know if the evil triplet had died yet. Many more novelas were seen between then and now, all dramatic, all heart breaking, never realistic. By high school I found myself hooked to Rebelde, a high school drama that yes, had hot guys in ties, but also showed teenagers in a positive light rather than just screw ups, which is what a lot of past novelas focused on. It stressed the importance of youth and the beauty of dreams.

Bottom line: Yes, there are a lot of crap telenovelas out there, but it doesn't matter because they fulfil their purpose. People need them as a means of entertainment, to escape reality, to learn a new language, to reinforce their connection to their homeland in a strange land, etc. I will be part of this phenomenon some day, and I'll do what writers do best, I'll write about it.

Primer Amor A Mil Por Hora Intro