Yuru: Princess of the Jungle

The most popular type of television show in the world by far is without a doubt the telenovela, that is the Latin American soap opera. Over a billion people watch telenovelas everyday, and they’re largely full of acting that ranges from reasonable to outright ridiculously bad; cheesy music and even cheesier and predictable story lines. Some are realistic, and others are more like fantasy. In spite of all that, they appear to be extremely addictive and very popular. If I look at the TV grill to see what’s on TV today, there are 17 programs listed as telenovelas, and that’s just counting five main channels, there are countless more on cable and satellite.

Here in Peru, the clear majority of telenovelas on TV are from other countries, mostly Mexico, Puerto Rico and Brazil. But one current Peruvian telenovela showing on one of Peru’s national channels, Frecuencia Latina, is Yuru: Princessa de la Selva. It’s of particular interest because it’s the first telenovela, at least that I’ve seen in the short time I’ve been living here, which exposes viewers to ecological issues, in particular animal rights and protection of endangered species. That said, like many telenovelas, it’s very exaggerated, and plays on stereotypes to a large degree. Though we should bear in mind that it is intended primarily to be humorous. In the show, which is due to finish this week, Yuru is a young girl from Iquitos on the banks of the Peruvian Amazon, who’s pet ‘red tailed monkey’ the last of its species, is stolen by a pair of hunters, and sent to Lima to a mad scientist who’s willing to pay the hunters up to $1 million to get her hands on the monkey to conduct experiments.

Telenovelas have been noted in the past to make a substantial difference in public attitudes towards some social issues. It is possible that Yuru may help people in Peru take ecological issues more seriously in their daily lives.