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Acosta-Alzuru Completes Venezuelan Book Tour
10/22/07
Author:
Caroline Ruse, External Affairs Intern
Contact: Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, cacosta@uga.edu
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Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, Grady College associate professor of public relations, recently returned from her native Venezuela, where she finished a book tour celebrating the launch of her new book, Venezuela es una Telenovela: Melodrama, Realidad y Crisis.The book, three-and-a-half years in the making, is a case study of one of the country's most controversial and popular telenovelas, Cosita Rica, which aired in 2003?2004.
Acosta-Alzuru recalled with disbelief the reception she received in Caracas. "It was truly surreal to see so many people there. It was packed!" she said. "After the main presentation I signed books for about three hours. I was interviewed live on TV. I still can't believe it!"
The book unveiling was truly significant for the Venezuelan native. "I had the opportunity to share it with people that I love and admire deeply?family and friends who are the constants and pillars of my life, and some of those who have participated in my research studies. Without them, the book wouldn't exist." 
Unlike most Venezuelan telenovelas (or Spanish?language soap operas), Cosita Rica's story reflected and commented on the country's political situation while remaining loyal to a traditional telenovela's romantic storylines.
Cosita Rica aired during the controversial referendum for the recall of President Hugo Ch?vez (which he won), and the antagonist in its love story acted as a metaphor for Ch?vez.
"The telenovela was a mirror of what was going on in the country at that time," Acosta-Alzuru said. "That was such a harsh year for Venezuela."
Acosta-Alzuru, who teaches public relations and cultural studies, interviewed dozens of Venezuelan viewers for her case study and found that, although they were watching the same show, not all saw the same thing. She said that by studying the audience's different readings of this telenovela, one could also understand the polarizing nature of Ch?vez's leadership. 
"I take pop culture and its most consumed media product, and study political discourse and leadership through them," she said. "The book places the telenovela and Venezuela face?to?face and shows the dialog between television and country."
Acosta-Alzuru, who has studied telenovelas for the past 10 years, decided to study Cosita Rica in the summer of 2003.
"I went that June to do a short study on the political situation and how it was influencing television," she said. "I did several interviews, and one of them was with the author (of Cosita Rica)."
He was Leonardo Padr?n, and he told Acosta-Alzuru about an upcoming telenovela for which he had written five episodes.
Acosta-Alzuru's intuition told her this telenovela would be big, she said, but she had two problems: she no longer lived in Venezuela, where it would be taped; and she would need a generous amount of access to the show's production side in order to thoroughly study it. 
Padr?n agreed to grant the access she requested, and she began studying Cosita Rica, which premiered September 30, 2003, and ran for 11 months.
Between the series' premiere and its conclusion in August 2004, Acosta-Alzuru made weeks?long visits to Venezuela five times while still teaching a full course load. She scheduled her research trips around fall, Christmas, spring and summer breaks.
When the show ended, Acosta-Alzuru had accumulated over 40 hours of interviews with Padr?n, over 100 hours of interviews with actors, producers, directors and others involved with Cosita Rica's production, material from interviews with Venezuelan viewers and thousands of pages of her own notes and observances.
Funding and a fellowship from the University of Georgia's Willson Center for Humanities and Arts made her study possible, she said, and she was able to take a break from teaching during fall semester of 2005 to focus on the book. 
Acosta-Alzuru spent nine months analyzing her research and another nine months writing the book, which was released in Spanish in Venezuela on September 18. Negotiations are underway to publish an English version in the United States.
"It was a big decision for me to write that book in Spanish and publish it first in Latin America," Acosta-Alzuru said. "I had been writing in English for 10 years and it wasn't easy to return to my native language. But I really believe that this study belongs first to Venezuelans, and then to others in the world who want to understand the rejection of traditional institutions and the turn to charismatic populist leaders in countries like Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Brazil."
"The book has many, many voices in it," she said. "Mine may be the most dominant, but it is not the most important."
Acosta-Alzuru's book is one of two inaugural books published by Editorial Alfa as part of its new collection which focuses on the study of television. The second book, L?grimas a Pedido, was authored by Valentina ?lvarez.
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