Melodrama has its rules. And the rules do not make any gender better or worse. But many prejudices have existed with the radio serial, which has even been considered a cultural by-product. And of course, this can be associated with the quality of many radio soap operas throughout history, which almost hit rock bottom due to their simplicity, bad taste, and excessive syrup. Although, and this is important, they were perfectly functional products. In other words, important segments of the public enjoyed them.
The radio soap opera in Cuba, after the Revolution, experienced a kind of cultural overcoming, very much in tune with the spirit of an era. But, at the same time, to some extent certain codes were denied, certain formulas of melodrama that, precisely here, among us, had been consolidated decades ago.
But there is a writer of radio soap operas who has shown that the radio soap opera is not a minor genre, that a high-level work can be achieved, with intellectual depths and clear cultural references, without betraying the essence of all life, the abc of the radio soap opera . That writer is Joaquín Cuartas, who has long been one of our classics.
In the 1990s, he achieved what the ineffable Félix B. Caignet had achieved in his time: paralyze homes and workplaces at a certain time, to listen to the radio soap opera of the moment. His creations for the space Your love novel, on Radio Progreso, meant to a large extent the vindication of a genre. And best of all, he did it from a cultural probity that avoided clichés or simplifications. Rather, he played with those clichés, redefined many of those beaten paths.
Joaquín Cuartas took on melodrama on the radio with a truly playful spirit. In other words, he told us and continues to tell us: this story that I am telling you does not pretend to be realistic, this is a game of opposites, a fight between heroes and villains, a fairy tale for adults. And yet, how much poetry, how many levels for analysis, how many formal innovations. The most interesting is that of the narrator himself, whom he turned into a kind of collective conscience, who at the same time interacts with the characters, as if he were one more, breaking that distance that he has always prevailed in classic radio soap operas.
But the most interesting thing is the commitment to a story. The most important thing for Joaquín Cuartas is to have a solid plot, which allows him to lavish incidents and guarantee many turning points. A radio soap opera of his always has surprises in store.
At some point someone asked Joaquín Cuartas to write soap operas and he refused, because he always assumed that his space was the radio. He keeps saying it: radio is much more faithful to what one dreams of.
