By Richard Clenton, journalist and consultant at Cumago Caribe S.A.

	Siete Mujeres from Globo.

Cuba had the privilege of having caught the first television images in Latin America”, says the journalist and historian Pastor Guzmán Castro in his article published in the newspaper El Mundo in 1958.
This may explain why Cuba has been a pioneer in Latin America, followed by Mexico, in starting commercial television and production of telenovelas.
Currently Cuba has four national channels. A sports channel, two for documentaries of all kinds and educational subjects, and another one which broadcasts only entertainment programs. There are also fifteen television centers that deal mainly with regional programming, about local matters.

Products for children
and kids
Cuban Radio and Television Institute (ICRT), every year produces dozens of entertainment programs, among them a production for children, teenagers, comedies, musicals, documentaries, tales, films especially American but also Spanish, Mexican, Colombian, Canadian, European and the never absent telenovelas.
Something very unusual happens with telenovelas. The ICRT produces between two and three telenovelas of one hundred or more 50-minute episodes a year, which compete in audience, quality and interest with their Brazilian counterparts, and which reach a rating of up to 75% of the Cuban population of 12 million inhabitants and which has three and a half million TVs of private and social use.

Audience expert in telenovelas
The average Cuban people are very strict and devoted to telenovelas. They know about them, because TV has a long tradition started by the soap companies Crusellas and Sabates in the 50’s. They even have some stories that could be exaggerated about Brazilian telenovelas of Globo. For example, La esclava Isaura, Vale todo, Roque Santeiro, El rey del ganado, Acuarela del Brasil or Siete mujeres, just to mention a few for which social activities could be cancelled, or family meetings postponed, in order to see the telenovela.

Too many products but too little for export
Although Cuba was one of the pioneers in telenovelas for radio or TV, like in the case of Derecho de Nacer from the writer Felix B. Cagne, and in currently having technical resources and an acclaimed artistic talent, in the matter of exporting this melodramatic genre, it is in great disadvantage in comparison to Latin America.
According to the opinion of this writer, Cuban telenovelas, at least until the end of the 80’s, were made from a very local point of view, without taking into account the codes by which international productions work, and the subjects seldom implied conflicts or reflected everyday life.
Today telenovelas include, although discretely treated, some eroticism and the subjects they deal with, full of conflicts and contradictions, between the good and the bad, even with the villain character, are always developed in a space limited by passions.
That is when you ask yourself what to present in the international market.
Productions made between the end of the 90’s until today offer a much more competitive finishing, and especially with a language and image treatment a lot more agreeable to the audience of any country, without going into sex or other calamities.
For example, Tierra brava, Salir de noche, Las huérfanas de Obrapia, El balcón de los helechos and the one that is currently broadcasted in competition with its Brazilian counterpart at primetime at 9.30 pm, Al compás del son.
However, Cuban television, through RTV Commercial, has been able, along the last 10 years, to place some of its telenovelas in the international market, with an acceptance worthy of Latin audiences and even some European ones. Some of them are Sol de Batey, broadcasted in Angola, Colombia and Nicaragua in 1991; Magdalena, broadcasted in Ecuador between 1994 and 1995; La botija, a mini series broadcasted in Angola in 1994 and in Venezuela in 1997; Pasión y prejuicio, broadcasted in Quintana Roo, Mexico, on TeleAntoquia, Colombia, in the Basque Country, in Spain in 1995, in Costa Rica and Angola in 1997 and on Channel 8 in Dominican Republic in 2000.
Other telenovelas that were very well accepted were El naranjo del patio in 1997, in Costa Rica, Si me pudieras querer, broadcasted on Channel 8 in Dominican Republic and some others of a big packet among other television genres including children’s programs, such as the prime time La sombrilla amarilla, which generated more than 300 million dollars during a period of ten years between 1990 and 2000, and that were re invested in other TV productions, and buying technology and technical resources.

In hope of travelling around the world
If on the one hand the pace of Cuban telenovelas is not as fast as their directors would wish, in commercial matters, teleplays, children’s tales and short stories, they are hoping to finding an opportunity, because as well as telenovelas they can compete in international contests and finally break through in the international market.
In the case of teleplays or series, subjects related to prostitution, AIDS, drugs, egotistical passions, personal aspirations and a lot more, are already dealt with. These are the common factor everywhere in the world. Thus, there is a new generation of directors, scriptwriters and artists among others that already move their concerns towards a new conception of the image .

CUBAN TELEVISION Cuban television covers 98% of the national territory and has three television companies of national reach, a fourth national channel in process and fifteen regional ones. Of the national ones, two deal with general matters, as: • Diverse emphasis on sports and information (TELEREBELDE) • Entertainment and other matters (CUBAVISION) • A national educational channel and another one in process (the fourth one). There is also an international satellite channel, CUBAVISION INTERNACIONAL with a web connection. Non-stop factory Telenovelas have never stopped being produced and although they have given priority to other subjects, since then different adaptations for radio as well as original plays have been made. The latter has become much more common along the last decades, either epic or more contemporary ones. Foreign ones Around the 80’s foreign telenovelas were introduced. The first ones were Brazilian, also some Colombian and Mexican ones, most of which have become traditional. How are they programmed? Its programming scheme is very particular, as it alternates Cuban or local telenovelas on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with foreign ones on Tuesdays and Thursdays in a slot of 9 to 9.15 pm, for approximately 57 minutes. Both cases have as much acceptance. And among the foreign telenovelas, they prefer the Brazilian ones. Reality Shows have no space in this country. Talk shows do not follow the American style, but there are some programs which could be put in that category..