Usos sociales de la telenovela por familias cubanas de diferentes posiciones socioeconómicas

This study is an analysis of the social uses of a Brazilian soap opera in three Cuban families –specifically from Havana– from different socioeconomic positions (high, medium, and low). It relies on a qualitative perspective and ethnographic approaches. It also uses techniques such as participant observation, in-depth interviews, completion of sentences, and group discussion. In doing so, the study addresses the processes of appropriation and allocation of meanings around the soap opera. In all three families, melodrama rises as a space for entertainment, a way of escaping reality, and communicative interactions. The main differences arise from factors associated with the location of families in the broader context that contains them, as well as subjective processes that generate unique strategies and meanings by different family members.