ABSTRACT

Foreign officers, politicians, and scholars studying Latin American history and politics have frequently turned their attention to how ideological and political trends within the region are disseminated through an effect of “contagion” across the region. The production values of Turkish dizis were much higher than those of Chilean telenovelas. The astounding audience and commercial success of the innovative “recipe” had a direct impact across the whole region, provoking a “contagion effect” both in Chilean television and across its neighboring countries. While Mexico’s Televisa network overwhelmingly dominates the ranking of the most watched television fiction – similarly to Globo Network’s hegemonic position of Brazil – Mexican television exports to the region are less significant than in the past. Studies of film stardom outside Hollywood or of stars from peripheral countries emphasize the role of ethnic extraction and physical appearance in the circulation and reception of film stars across different geo-political regions.