Leila Cobo, Reuters, May 3, 2008
It’s trashy. It’s racy. It’s deliciously over-the-top, with lots of bare-chested hunks, bikini-clad women and plenty of catfights, fistfights and dramatic deaths.
Welcome to “Viva Hollywood,” the first Latin-themed show on music channel VH1.
A reality show where contestants vie for a role in a Telemundo soap opera as well as a cash prize, “Viva” is a loud celebration of soap opera culture, featuring singer/actors Maria Conchita Alonso (dressed in brazenly provocative outfits) and Carlos Ponce as hosts and Latin fortunetelling icon Walter Mercado (who is known to Latinos everywhere for his flowing cape and lipstick) as sidekick.
The soundtrack to “Viva” is mostly reggaeton, and its theme song has Spanish lyrics, but it’s not a music-themed show. Its absolute embrace of Latin culture, however, is compelling and noteworthy for a channel that has generally been closed to Latin content, Spanish-language fare in particular. In the past decade, VH1 has played only a handful of Spanish-language videos in its rotation.
“We realize that every time we tap into an audience that hasn’t seem themselves in mainstream television, we win,” VH1 executive vice president of programming and development Jeff Olde said. “And there were 12 million viewers that didn’t see themselves in the network. We were looking for something.”
{snip}
CULTURAL OBSESSION
“We’re obsessed with pop culture and very much in love with Latin culture and the intersection of the two,” said filmmaker Randy Barbato (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” “Inside Deep Throat”), who’s a partner in World of Wonder and executive producer of “Viva.” “And we’re very aware that while so much of Latin television is hugely popular in America, it isn’t always translated into mainstream channels.”
{snip}
Now, “Viva” is the “only show where you have Latin stars who are known in the mainstream—like Perez Hilton, Daisy Fuentes, Charo and Cheech Marin—together with eminently Latin celebrities like Christian de la Fuente, Angelica Vale and Sofia Vergara,” Latin World president Luis Balaguer said.
“Viva” also stands out because many of its contestants speak heavily accented English. And its telenovela scenes are in Spanish, with English subtitles.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on May 7, 2008)
Comments
I guess the Black oriented shows and videos have run their course after displacing the White oriented music videos years ago. MTV networks already have Latino channels. I’m waiting for them to dismantle MTV classics in favor of gangsta’ musick and reality programming. I wish they would give us a la carte programming options so I wouldn’t have to see this ever increasing multicultural programing.
Posted by pgh at 6:01 PM on May 7
“We realize that every time we tap into an audience that hasn’t seem themselves in mainstream television, we win,” VH1 executive vice president of programming and development Jeff Olde said.
—
I quit watching VH1 years ago when they decided to become E! 2.
Posted by Civilized Neighbor at 6:06 PM on May 7
Sounds almost as trashy as some of the other shows that the MTV network is famous for. They were better in the early 1980’s when they just played music.
Posted by Spartan24 at 6:51 PM on May 7
I predict that mestizo culture will be very underrepresented in the Anglophone media for generations to come.
There’s just no up side for our media masters - every white eyeball soaking up mestizo culture is an eyeball that won’t be soaking up black culture. And black culture’s where the money’s at; far, far more miscegenation/gene disruption and white guilt/meme-destruction for each dollar spent.
This is what’s known as “throwing a bone.”
Posted by Svigor at 7:24 PM on May 7
And hispanics still won’t watch VH1. That’s a white person’s channel.
Posted by at 7:51 PM on May 7
Yet ANOTHER reason not to watch TV.
Posted by Salty Dog at 11:36 PM on May 7
Why does ANYONE still watch TV? You know what you’re going to get, and it ain’t pretty. There are far better uses of your time these days:
10 Things To Do Before The 2008 Election:
1. Clean your rifle.
2. Clean your handgun.
3. Sharpen your knives.
4. Make sure everyone in your household knows how and when to use the items in 1, 2, and 3 above.
5. Lay in stocks of water purification supplies, ammo, any required medicines, and food in that order.
6. Make sure your vehicles’ gas tanks are always at least half full.
7. Map out escape routes from the cities to your SAFE area (Selected Area For Evasion). Try to pick routes away from major traffic arteries.
8. If possible, preposition supplies from #5 at your SAFE area.
9. Since the trend is to burning property during riots, buy several inexpensive fire extinguishers.
10. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT about your preparations.
Posted by Wild Eyed Charlie at 12:30 AM on May 8
“And we’re very aware that while so much of Latin television is hugely popular in America, it isn’t always translated into mainstream channels.”
Yep, I never miss any of it myself if I can help it; in fact, only something really compelling on AZN (Like Bollywood films and South Korean soaps) can pull me away from Telemundo or Univision. Where else could you get such rich and superior cultural experiences, as a peerless Latino soothsayer in a flowing cape and lipstick?
Bad old Anglo television just doesn’t cut it anymore!
Posted by John PM at 3:15 AM on May 8
Until not very long ago, “Latin culture” meant ancient Rome. You know: Virgil, Cicero, Seneca, etc. Chicano is not Latino.
Posted by at 8:41 AM on May 8
Posted by Wild Eyed Charlie at 12:30 AM on May 8
EXCELLENT POST!!!!!
It made me want to stand up and cheer.
On a personal level, I grew up in a mixed area, and with no father, and no money. Do I have to tell anyone at AR what my childhood and adolescence and young adulthood was like?
Like many people in the USA I was the target of chronic abuse and neglect - in my family - for which there has still been no accountability. That has not kept my family from singing the praises of liberalism; of course. It is a feelgood “philosophy” designed, in their case, and not just in their case, to conceal from them their own crimes against humanity in the form of a defenseless child who they scapegoated without conscience, unmericifully; and then buried him in ridicule and sarcasm whenever he tried to defend himself. With him they had a sensitivity chip missing. But not for minorities.
With him their logic was psychotically inflexible, ie; “no excuses”. Which was another way of demonstrating the obvious fact that they suffered from an incredible inability to admit when they were wrong.
They couldn’t be wrong about me and they couldn’t be wrong about minorities and, well, they couldn’t be wrong about anything. Funny, doesn’t sound very “Liberal” to me.
After getting away from them, and from the blacks at my school, when I went to college I heard it from comfortable, to me rich, middle class White people, that I was the “the Man.” News to me. I got it from virtually every angle and longed only to get the hell out. But where?
Years later, at the invitation of a friend, I went to a foriegn country with a virutally all White population. I was still psychologically and emotionally bonded to the States, ie; to my abusers (a common result of chronic abuse and neglect that is powerful in proportion to how early it starts; and you MUST confront it sooner or later. Muttering senseless cliches like “get over it” and “move on” will only add to the problem by stupidly prolonging it. Such thinking is itself a symptom of our anti-intellectual and anti-historical attitudes).
When I came back for a visit after September 11th it was like the lid was blown off of the sickness that is America. There was just no hiding from it anymore; and the Internet only makes that all the more obvious. Right/Left, Gay/Straight, Black/White, Jweish/Gentile, East/West, North/South, Rich/Poor, Man/Woman, etc. Just one big sickness literally dying for a cure. I felt sorry for all of them. And I returned to my adopted country and wouldn’t even consider returning until America comes clean and owns up to its addiction to violation. In the meantime, heed Wild Eyed Charlies advice.
Posted by Telemakhos at 11:36 AM on May 8
I agree with wild eyed charlie but he forgot one thing to add to # 6….get a lock for your gas tank….you know they will steal that gas to burn your house down….just wanted to make sure all the bases are covered…thanks there charlie!!
Posted by lydia at 2:20 PM on May 8
“a defenseless child who they scapegoated without conscience, unmericifully; and then buried him in ridicule and sarcasm whenever he tried to defend himself. With him they had a sensitivity chip missing. But not for minorities.”
Your post made me want to cry. This is exactly what we’ve created isn’t it?
As far as the article is concerned, I think the show ‘Cane’ is really great.
Posted by at 2:38 PM on May 8
Wild Eyed Charlie—excellent post;
I would suggest adding: making rifle and handgun plural and adding several thousand rounds of ammunition for each; also, now might not be a bad time to catch some weapons and ammo since gun confiscation may well be in our near future(think Obama, think Hillary). It is not difficult to imagine a situation in the not too distant future when the difference between your and your family’s survival will be a functional AR15 with a full 30 round magazine.
Posted by at 5:14 PM on May 8
The truth is that White America is very disillusioned with what the rest of the world has to offer us in the way of culture, music, theater, sports, on and on.
Posted by Lars at 8:28 PM on May 8
Latin culture? What culture? Parking your cars on your lawn? Graffiti on every single wall within 10 square miles. Every female either too young to get pregnant, soon to be pregnant, pregnant, or too old to get pregnant? ~50% of young males in diabolical street gangs? Petty thievery and business burglary everywhere you look? Dirt, garbage, run-down buildings and cars and no one in sight speaking English?
You call that a culture?
Posted by Robert Lindsay at 2:27 AM on May 9
