Criticism and Conceptual Analyses of Chiquititas

The idea behind gathering and developing an analysis of Chiquititas is to determine what are strong and weak points of the show, how almost 3 decades after, the conversation about social issues have changed, in order to find new approaches and a modern look in retelling those stories, specially when targeting a broad international recognition.

Some of the dialogues and portrayal of situations have "expired" in the way they are both expressed and addressed.

It is important to determine what is **canon** and **essential** about the story before pursuing a new adaptation.

## Precursors

#### **The Fairy Tale Aspect of Chiquititas**

Chiquititas was conceived as a national product, but heavenly influenced by **Europeans folklore and fairy-tales** ("Once upon a time..."). from medieval times, about kingdoms, idealized Princesses an princes, and the manichaeist division between good and evil, with moral lessons and a thriving hero representing the victory of good virtues in the end.

#### **Influences**

It's line of influence and esthetic identity themes are: **Folklore**, **Fairy Tales**, **Commedia Dell'Arte** (and it's archetypal characters), the **Circus**, **Vaudeville** (beginning in the 1880s and through the 1920s), **Amusement Parks** (such as Coney Island that lead to **Disney**), toys and miniature, fantasy, enchanted worlds, **Golden Age Hollywood movies**, **Broadway musicals**, and **Blockbuster films** for families. It's language is translated to soap opera format, that was popular in the America's on open television due to it's low costs of production, and tradition of daily radio shows and novels, where we follow the progression in real time of these stories, that may change accordingly to the audience demands and ratings. In the 90's, before the rise of internet, public television had the advantage of speaking to broad middle-class audience, with a naive mediocre, common place morals. Its' language was popular, and reflected the mindset and public discourse and societal values at the time. This is extremely valuable to understand a whole culture and how it has changed over the years.

## Etnology

##### **Why is this analysis important on a bigger escape that surpasses the show? What can we learn about the time and place it aired, and what kind of critical information does it provide sociologically for Argentina and neoliberal post-colonial Latin America, and the New World in general?**

It matters to know what was being communicated on mass demand on open television in **Buenos Aires, Argentina**, a place in **South America** that was developed as a country least as compared to other regions (mostly in the 19th century, from the turn of the century pre-industrialism to the 20th century between-wars, where eugenics as pseudo-science was at its highest). Argentina, the southernmost country along with temperate countries **under the Tropic of Capricorn** (mainly Chile, Argentina, South of Brazil), that most resembles European values and climate, being one of the last countries created, because of it's recent history of migration, is a less racially diverse region, with memories of European migration that are still fresh, that still hadn't the time for homogenization as an unique culture, thus maintaining its ties and status according to Eurocentric values in a post-colonial América.

### **Potencial problems**

It reflects at times, the deficiency in awareness and mentality of the 90s as compared to today's values. Many values that are now seeing as **aristocratic** > **bourgeoisie** > **neoliberal** (it is after all the 90s), **post-colonial**, **paternalistic**, **Eurocentric** mentality are present, even though at the time, many of those same values were being actively challenged by the show. Many times the show seems unaware of how it reproduces values that are subconsciously **racist**, ***machista***, and **homophobic**, but nevertheless it is very upfront and transparent about mainstream cultural values that were not yet questioned at the time and how kids naturally internalize and reproduce prejudices they hear from adults, many times castrating and repressing their own impulses and behaviors to adjust to societal expectations.

In a way there’s some innocence in portraying freely those beliefs that are factual, before social justice and politically correct discourses were demanded and incorporated, which can be, in many ways, contriving and moralistic. Addressing ignorance openly in societal values and beliefs and specially in the upbringing of child has an important value, as long as those things are addressed as problematic and not naturalized as a normal healthy behavior. In readapting the show, this would be the most important adjustment for todays times and values, so that the show, even if it's set in the 90's, is not outdated.

#### **Questions of race**

Most of the children look white and European, but the show is upfront about prejudices against marginalized groups such as "mariquitas, divergents, outfits, and negritos", even when it fails to address to kids that those forms of prejudices are not okay.

"*Esta negrita no irá hacer parte de nuestra familia*"
— Carmén about her great-niece Mili

The main character Mili and the (still very Iberian) mestizos are called negritos, such as Jimena, and her brother Mosca,

Part of why Mili can’t be accepted by the Moráns is because she has a darker skin and her father and grandmother Valentina are helpers from a lower class. Carmen refers to her as negrita frequently, but in a way, prejudice is being directly addressed as a villainous problematic thing. So for an adaptation, it's recommended that Mili is portrayed by a mixed-race girl, unlike the Mili of the Brazilian adaptation.

Even though this is a fact of the narrative, the show does little to chance that, as **there was only one black Chiquititas** in the original version, Mora (who was Brazilian and not Argentinian), who only stayed for a season (the third) with limited screen time. This is better resolved in Brazilian version, with more African-American and brown-skinned actors (Chico, Pata, Poliana, Neco, Binho, Dani, Mosca), since Brazil is a more diverse country, even if still insufficiently.

Those values naturally clash with the shows tone and expressed values and goals, even if at times (many times) the show misses to address certain issues as problematic and simply reinforce them as a natural part of the narrative. But isn’t that like living in society?

We have to be more aware when addressing children, but for the 90s the show definitively had a progressive tone in many fronts, specially being a show that focused on girls and the “female universe” and managed to include boys in the narrative, engaging in activities associated with females. That started by addressing boy characters with their natural questioning, fear and avoidance of those same associations.

## Narrative Flaws

### Redundancy

Characteristic of soap operas that won't work well in today's twitter 140-characters time. Thibgs have to communicate fast, mimetically, but good uses of archtypes.

* Some characters are too transient for us to adhere and for them to communicate significantly to the story.

## Relevance

### The importance of child television

Revival of classical Latin America shows for kids, this time made for streaming for the whole LATAM region, Spanish-speaking countries and the Iberian peninsula.

## Reception

### On the youtube channel

#### Season 1

* "Tengo 12 años y me gusta esta serie Cual es mi enfermedad :v?" - **422 likes,** S1\_E0001
* "O ciclo de Belén não ia acabar na quarta temporada, e sim na quinta temporada, mas a Romina Yan não quiz ficar até em 1999, por isso gosto mais dessas temporadas." - 16 likes, S01\_e01
* "Esa novela la dieron en Ecuador (...) aqui yan no la dan :(" - 21\_E001
* "Los decorados, los colores sobrios y las casas parecen de las telenovelas de Andrea del boca de esa epoca. Esta primer temporada es la mas seria y no apunta a un publico netamente infantil sino mas bien juvenil. Para mi gusto Chiquititas se volvio mas infantil recien en la tecer temporada."
* "Por que estas sagas no estan en HBO MAX , EN NETFLIX yo prefiero mil veces que mis hijos y mis hijas en un futuro vean esto, tenian mejores mensajes, hablaban mejor, tenian mejores guiones" - S1\_E001
* *"Esta y la 2da temporada tienen una trama mas elaborada, para que se engancharan tanto niños/as como adultos... porque si se dan cuenta la historia es más real, sin magia ni ventanitas mágicas etc. y le daban importancia a la trama de los adultos."* - S1\_E002
* "Tengo 13 años y soy de España . Pero me encanta chiquititas , solo había visto una o dos temporadas pero me e propuesto ver todas las temporadas." - **16 likes**, S1\_02