América (TV series)
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América is a Brazilian soap opera (or telenovela) that went on the air in 2005, broadcast by TV Globo. The telenovela focused on illegal immigrants in the United States. It stars Deborah Secco and Murilo Benício. It was written by Glória Perez and directed by Jayme Monjardim firstly, and then by Marcos Schechtman.
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[edit] Main plot
Sol and Tião are born to different social backgrounds --- she to a poor suburban family in Rio, and him to an even poorer family who raised cattle in West São Paulo State. They eventually meet, due to unlikely circumstances, but part again, as she has set as her ultimate priority to reach the United States or bust. While she comes to the U.S. to live as an illegal immigrant, he remains in Brazil and, despite many trials and tribulations, he becomes a successful rodeo cowboy.
[edit] Subplots
As any Brazilian soap opera, América has several secondary plots. In its case, these were centred in four locations: Vila Isabel, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro; Boiadeiros, a fictional town in West São Paulo (state); a rich family from Rio; and Miami. People living in each of the subplots moved around and often met each other, mostly due to characters that linked them somehow.
The main subplots were:
- A love triangle involving Feitosa, a man who worked with pets, his girlfriend Islene (who happened to have a blind daughter from a previous relationship) and Creuza (a lustful woman who pretended to be shy and virginal).
- The problems and achievements of a blind man, Jatobá, trying to live with his disability in a country where no infrastructure has been prepared for the visually impaired.
- The mischievous Alex and Djanira, smugglers and "coyotes".
- The love life of Glauco, a 50-year-old businessman married to a cleptomaniac woman that strives for a divorce in order to marry her lover (but he later leaves both for a 19-year-old girl).
- The complicated relationship between a middle-class American professor, Edward Talbot, and his rich girlfriend, May, who does social work at a ghetto school in Miami. Due to fan demand, the authoress of the soap opera changed its ending so Edward ends up marrying the main character, Sol.
- The lives of several illegal immigrants living in a boarding house in Miami kept by a Mexican mother named Consuelo.
- The thriving social life around rodeos in Brazil.
[edit] Illegal immigration
América featured a quite realistic and slightly anti-American view of illegal immigration, emphasising the enormous risks involved, the presence of downright criminal people organising the crossing, prejudice against illegals in the U.S., the different world views that oppose Americans and Brazilians in quite many subjects. One specific scene that caused a lot of shock --- and even prompted the American embassy to protest against it --- showed Texan farmers shooting at people who tried to swim across the Grande River.
This soap opera is believed to have been the cause of a strong increase in the numbers of Brazilians that tried to enter illegally the U.S. --- despite the extreme hardships it portrayed quite realistically:
Brazilians are illegally entering the United States in record numbers in hopes of finding jobs and better lives -- just like characters in a wildly popular Brazilian soap opera "America." The number of undocumented Brazilians caught on U.S. soil is set to rise over four fold this year from 2004 -- a much bigger increase than for illegal immigrants from other Latin American countries, according to U.S. officials. As authorities search for factors spurring the exodus, they have begun to look at the passion of Brazil's poor for "America," a soap opera that debuted in early March and shows illegal immigrants risking their lives to enter the United States to find jobs and romance amid the hardship. [1]
[edit] Rodeo
Another frequent cause of protest was América's portraying of the Brazilian rodeo scene. Rodeo is a traditional North American sport with influences from the history of Mexican and Brazilian vaqueros or vaqueiros (cowboys) and American cowboys. In Brazil, despite its enormous popularity in Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul and is still seen by most humans as cruelty against animals.
[edit] The visually impaired
América did strongly campaign for better inclusion of visually impaired people in Brazilian society. Three characters were blind and there was an attempt to show blind people as capable of leading normal and independent lives. Jatobá, for instance, lived alone in a flat, worked, used computers, paid his own bills (despite the lack of Braille markings in the Brazilian banknotes) and was engaged to a non-blind woman (whom he later married).
[edit] Music
Unlike most Brazilian soap operas, América featured different styles of music for each milieu. Suburban Vila Isabel had only traditional samba, other parts of Rio de Janeiro included Brazilian pop and funk, São Paulo was scored with Brazilian country music and Miami, with a mix of American pop and Latino music. 6549+ The songs used in América are:
01 - SOY LOCO POR TI AMÉRICA - Ivete Sangalo
02 - ATÉ PENSEI - Nana Caymmi
03 - A VOLTA - Roberto Carlos
04 - PRA RUA ME LEVAR - Ana Carolina
05 - FEITIÇO DA VILA - Martinho da Vila
06 - NERVOS DE AÇO - Leonardo
07 - MÁGOA DE BOIADEIRO - Lorenço e Lourival
08 - OS AMANTES - Daniel
09 - GIRASSÓIS AZUIS 2 - George Israel
10 - VIDA DE VIAJANTE - Lenine
11 - SHE´S A CARIOCA (ELA É CARIOCA) - Celso Fonseca
12 - VOCÊ - Marina Elali
13 - UM MATUTO EM NOVA YORK - Roberto Trevisan
14 - SINFONIA DOS SONHOS - Marcus Viana
15 - ÓRFÃOS DO PARAÍSO - Milton Nascimento
16 - TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS - Happening
17 - DON´T - Shania Twain
18 - HOME - Michael Buble
19 - ABRAZAME ASÍ - Tamara
20 - AMORE E MUSICA - Russell Watson
21 - THE LOOK OF LOVE - Diana Krall
22 - SUMMERTIME - Michael Bolton
23 - A HORSE WITH NO NAME - America
24 - REDNECK WOMAN - Gretchen Wilson
25 - PIECES OF ME - Ashlee Simpson
26 - POR UN BESO - Gloria Estefan
27 - CANCIÓN MIXTECA - Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan
28 - BESAME MUCHO - Maysa
29 - WIND SHAKING THE TREES - Darwing James Band
30 - LONG LONG AWAY - Jesse Johson
[edit] The gay kiss
While being mentioned in pop culture previously, the soap opera received greater exposure in the media after a long-running (2005) storyline between two gay characters including a scene in which they share a kiss. The scene was scheduled to be aired in the final episode, which created much anticipation from the gay community in Brazil. Although filmed, Globo, the parent company, elected not to run the scene, much to the surprise of the writers, fans and actors involved. The event led to a number of protests for equal rights, condemning Globo for the attitude.
