"Mercado Central "Proteger y Servir", "Acacias 38" and "Amar es Para Siemprer" are the fictions that La 1 and Antena 3 broadcast in the afternoon from Monday to Friday and feature gay, bisexual and trans characters.
ABC PLAY talks to its writers and interpreters on the occasion of International LGBT Pride Day
Luimelia and Maitino are two acronyms created by the viewers of the daily period series "Amar es para siempre" (Antena 3) and "Acacias 38" (La 1). Luimelia is the name by which the couple formed by Luisita (Paula Usero) and Amelia (Carol Rovira) are known in «Amar»; and Maitino is how the romance between Maite (Ylenia Baglietto) and Camino (Aria Bedmar) was baptized in "Acacias".
It is not the first time that these two titles or other Spanish serials ("El cor de la Ciutat", at the beginning of the century) have characters that belong to the LGBT group (Lesbians, gays, transsexuals and bisexuals), but yes, perhaps, that have a visible and international fan community; just read the comments on the videos (some with subtitles in other languages) that compile the scenes starring these couples.
It also happens with Germán (Francesc Cuéllar) and Javier (Agus Ruiz), from the contemporary «Mercado central» (La 1), or Nacha (Silvia Sanabria), the openly lesbian police «Servir y protect» (La 1), whose Bad luck in love motivated the hashtag on social networks #UnaNoviaParaNacha. This last title signed trans actress Lara Martorell a year ago as Angela, also a trans inspector.
How love arose
During one of the meetings of the writers and actors of "Acacias", Aria Bedmar (25) commented on how "funny" it would be if his character ended up falling in love with a woman due to her rejection of men after being raped. What she did not expect is that, two and a half months later, Camino ended up falling in love with her painting teacher, Maite. "She's the first person who doesn't treat her like a girl when she ends up telling [her past]," Bedman develops. What is striking about the plot is that they are "two women in 1914", but also "their age difference". "Maite had already had relationships with other women, but she couldn't say or show it," says Ylenia Baglietto.
The screenwriters of "Amar" did not conceive Luisita as "a girl who fell in love with another", but rather as the daughter of the Asturians, recalls her screenwriter Diana Rojo. But, in the following season, the character of Amelia came to the Plaza de los Frutos to revolutionize her. «Amelia defines herself as a lesbian; Luisita… the only thing that is clear is that she is in love with Amelia », Rojo clarifies. "There are people who do not have to define, who have doubts about their identity, even if they fall in love with someone specific," she justifies.
The script coordinator of the four seasons of "Serve and protect", Tirso Calero, came up with the character of a trans inspector watching the movie "A fantastic woman" several years ago. «TVE was fine and we immediately did the casting; We were looking for transsexual interpreters who had some experience, "recalls Calero, who at no time considered other options. «It could go well or badly. The risk was that there were not many trans actresses with much experience ... in Spain. Little by little, and thanks to products like "Poison", they are emerging », he expands.
In this policeman, the character's conflicts do not stem from her identity, but from her profession; During this season, a fifty-year-old trans lawyer based on Carla Antonelli also appeared for a few chapters. “Nor have they put much emphasis on the trans issue; It is something anecdotal that was said at the beginning and was not recounted until the moment that I was with the character of Miguel [Sergio Mur], ”says Lara Martorell. It was then that he initially rejected her after discovering that she was trans. "It is something that happens in real life; many times they reject us because of what they will say or intimate prejudices », he maintains.
The character of the rebel Germán, in "Mercado central", was conceived as a homosexual boy. "He had come out of the closet before his parents when he was 13 years old, and he has always been very clear about it," says Francesc Cuéllar (27). “The beautiful thing is that things happen that can happen to any teenager; his plot has to do with his relationship with his parents, etc., ”he defends. Throughout this first season, his character also has a relationship with the new market manager, Javier, older than him. "The age difference has not been a problem, neither for them, nor for anyone in the market," celebrates the actor. The true conflict of this love has been "the backpack that each one carried on their back, regardless of their sexual orientation."
The limits of time and time
But when telling the stories of these characters there are several limits. One of them is the schedule. "This strip prevents showing certain violent or sexual scenes regardless of sexual inclination," says Tirso Calero. “If our audience were younger or at another time, we would treat it more starkly. By conviction, we avoid disease. We are more interested in feeling than in sin ”, comments the script coordinator of“ Acacias 38 ”, Miquel Peidro.
In his case, we must add another limit: the time when fiction is set. "We try to take a look at the events from the XXI century without betraying the values of the early XX", explains Peidro. He knows that Camino and Maite's relationship would be "unanimously condemned" in reality, but the "absolute misunderstanding" on the part of the other characters would make them "unfriendly to the public", since "the beautiful story is theirs" . So they chose to soften them ("I don't see it well, but it's his life ...").
Something similar occurs with «amar», although set in the Transition. “In the 1970s it is impossible to tell a story as you would tell it today mainly because it was forbidden; there was a law of social dangerousness and they ended up in jail », admits Diana Rojo. The serial, always soaked by the time, has echoed the first Pride event in Spain (Barcelona, 1977) and has "fictionalized" this week that Luisita and Amelia organize a similar initiative in Madrid. Their relationship has always had something of a light comedy, surrounded by "positive and white characters", emphasizes the ex-writer of "Amar", Eva Baeza, who admits not cutting herself by showing the affection between them, which is increasingly intense.
The responsibility
On these four titles, set in the past and present, there seems to be a certain social responsibility. For Tirso Calero, script coordinator of "Proteger y Servir”, it is even greater when broadcast on public television: "We make a series for all audiences and transmit forms of behavior and things that happen in reality; We try to help citizens by counting problems and how to solve them. "
"It seems to me more important the representation in this type of series that reaches every home at a time when older people, teenagers are watching it ...", celebrates Diana Rojo. However, the screenwriter for "Amar" points out that "you cannot ask a single fiction to represent a universe", because "within a community there is also a diversity of opinions"; That's why she understands that there are fans angry about how Luisita's doubts were treated. Paying so much attention to such a story, according to her, is a sign that there are not yet enough fictions that speak of the LGBT community.
For Lara Martorell, her role as trans curator in "Serve and protect" is "revolutionary and infinitely necessary"; Although her character said goodbye in March, with the possibility of returning ("We have seen very little staff ..."), the adolescents who watch fiction with their parents or grandparents continue to contact her, since "Angela has motivated them to give the I pass or to be an interpreter ».
"Where are transsexual people in fictions? They do not exist? Because in real life yes », she criticizes. The actress, badly bad in «Veneno», defends the need for casting directors, producers and platforms to take them more into account when telling their stories ... The successful and the punished ones. “Since we have few roles, that the few that are being assigned in the series, give them to transsexual women. Not because a woman can't do trans, of course she does! But trans women can only be trans ... It is very rare for a trans woman to play a cis woman », she claims. That the G is done. The L too. The B, getting better. But the T we are still trampled on.
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