Parents or Monsters? in La Selección

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     One of the central storylines I've noticed throughout my time watching the show is the varying relationships each player has with their parents and how important it is toward their lives.

    Latino parents have long been stereotyped for being notoriously strict, pushing for success, and little tolerance for failure. Meanwhile, athlete parents also have stereotypes of being either super supportive for their children, almost projecting themselves and living through their children's lives, riding their coattails of success; or being vehemently against the sport they believe will bring their child little to no success in the long run. In the telenovela, we see all of these depicted with the players' parents.

    Faustino has a very strict mother who sends him off to join the military when he fails to attend school regularly, which he only avoids by getting accepted to a soccer team. She shows love and sympathy to him, but also has run out patience with his antics. 

    Rene Higuita's mother is very kind and loving, almost solemnly so, with his goofball dad that left him as a baby, but has now returned in hopes of using his son's clouts (and also turned out to be Higuita's girlfriends' father).

    Pibe Valderrama has a minimal relationship with his parents as he mostly lives successfully on his own with his wife, however, his dad constantly proudly brags about his son, kicking people out of his bar who disagree. While his mom is loving and supportive.

    Freddy has the intense mother, who insists that he absolutely must go to school and study and be an engineer or scientist of some sort and leave soccer behind. While his dad is easygoing and supportive of whatever makes Freddy happy. Meanwhile Freddy's young girlfriend has a very strict and harsh mother. She is more like the stereotype, not allowing her daughter freedom, disapproving of Freddy's soccer career, and threatening to disown her daughter should she run away to live with Freddy.


    The telenovela gets to depict each character having varying relationships with their parents thanks to its many storylines, however, it also motivates a lot of reflection from the audience about the importance of parents' influence on one's life.

    There is no denying that parents affect our daily lives and often demand respect and push us towards greatness, however, there is something about a Latin American parent that has always been deemed intense. I, myself, have had a very loving, but intense mother that has always demanded the best and most work out of me. Though, I've appreciated it, it has still caused very high expectations I hold for myself and others.

    La Selección demonstrates the benefits of nurturing environments, but also the pain it may cause to push someone to much. Overall, one might see some of the parents in the show and consider them a mosnter or too harsh, which was my initial reaction, however upon further reflection I realized they reminded me of my extended family. There may be greater expectations placed on children in Latin American society than what is realized, but there is nothing like a parent's love at the same time. It is very interesting to see that duality of parent in the show, how one mom that may seem to be harsh or cruel, become kind and loving when necessary, but not refraining from pushing her child to be the best he can be.

Comments

  1. Ashley GalantiNovember 23, 2022 at 11:57 AM

    Me gusta much el punto que haces con respecto al impacto del amor y el apoyo de un padre en una persona. Es especialmente interesante cómo resaltar los diferentes tipos de padres que hay, especialmente en el mundo de los deportes. Crecí corriendo pista y campo y "cross country." ¿Me encantó correr? No. ¿Aman mis padres correr y se despiertan cada mañana a las 4:00 para hacer así? Sí. Me siento como si estuviera atrapado haciendo deportes que querían que hiciera porque es algo que nunca llegaron a hacer ellos mismos. Similar a ti, y algunos de los personajes que has destacado en tu telenovela, mi mamá es extremadamente estricta, obligándome a seguir corriendo incluso con dolor, causándome 6 grietas en mis espinillas en ambas piernas. Mi padre siempre me empujó también, sin embargo, de una manera diferente con más simpatía. Creo que los padres que empujan a sus hijos a ser lo mejor que pueden ser es importante, especialmente en comparación con ningún apoyo en absoluto, pero creo que tiene que haber cierto amor y compasión que viene junto con él.

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