The vote is in...

After residents in D.F. took to the streets in mass protest of Felipe Calderon's election as new president of Mexico, including several months of street marching and tent camps in the Zocalo, the courts decided that Calderon had overcome his challenger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with just 233,831 votes, refuting allegations of fraud. AMLO has announced he will create a parallel government, to rule alongside/against Calderon, and with the recent celebration of the Day of Independence on 9/16, organizers changed the location of the event to Dolores Hildalgo, to prevent an outbreak of continued protest against Calderon.

I was always fascinated though, that one of AMLO's allegations was that "La Fea Más Bella" had turned the votes of the people against him, suggesting that the writers had used the show's characters to promote his conservative opponent Calderon. According to the WaPo article dated 9/5/06, "The court said there was "no logical connection" to Lopez Obrador's claim that television ads by pro-Calderon businesses had subliminal messages in favor of Calderon. It also rejected claims that the popular soap opera "La Fea Mas Bella," or "The Prettiest Ugly Girl," indirectly supported Calderon, and said there was no evidence electoral authorities were biased against the leftist."

Granted, there is a history between AMLO and la Vale, as Angelica and many of the cast from La Parodia created a political skit that soon evolved into its own program, El privilegio de mandar, which was a skewering of many of Mexico's political figures: Fox, AMLO, Rene Bejarano, and others. That show, which ended with its final episode in July 2006, had actors playing AMLO and Calderon finalizing their votes in the election, which did not include Vale, who had started work on "La Fea Más Bella" in January 2006.

Angelica Vale responded in a telephone interview to Elvira Gómezturja on July 18, 2006, regarding a July 14th article in La Cronica about AMLO's allegations. Vale reported she believes a vote should be a secret, and especially for an "artist", who has the ability to influence the opinion of so many people, "crecí con la idea de que el voto es secreto, debe serlo y más para un artista que sí puede influir en la opinión de los demás." Angelica goes on to state she was not aware of what was happening during filming, as the production schedule is highly regimented, and the scene took place among secondary characters. (Elvira Gómezturja, Martes, 18 de Julio de 2006).

As the episode schedule of "La Fea mas Bella" here in the US is four months behind that of Mexico, this was taken from the blog, Defecito,

El guión era algo así:

Personaje 1: “Ya sé por quién voy a votar”
Personaje 2: “Ah sí, por quién”
Personaje 1: “Por Felipe Calderón, presidente del empleo”
NO nada más fue esto, después el otro tipo describió por qué es el “presidente del empleo”.

I have not seen the episode in its context, and can't comment specifically, however, in order to fund the production budget, Rosy Ocampo does allow her writers to include character dialogue about products such as Garnier hair products and Pepto Bismol. The blurring of the lines between advertising and entertainment that happened in 1950's television, seems to now run rampant in the Latin American programming I have seen, and does seem to compromise integrity. So, I can certainly appreciate a little uprising by the people, who don't want their democracy co-opted. And, as one of the highest-rated television shows in Mexico (and during the summer months, was one of the highest-rated shows in the US), it does seem to smack of a bizarre propaganda.

posted by letylafea @ 1:13 PM