The Factory of Dreams

For the past six years, Stefan Ruiz has gained special access to Mexicos Televisa studios, known as The Factory of Dreams, where nearly fifty thousand hours worth of telenovelas (soap operas) are produced and exported annually to more than one hundred countries. These intriguing tales of revenge, love, money, and despair are one of Mexicos largest exports, popular throughout Latin America as well as in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Former Televisa stars turned Hollywood favorites include Salma Hayek and Gael García Bernal. Rogelio Guerra, who starred in Los Ricos También Lloran (The Rich Also Cry)a show whose finale was watched by 70 percent of the population of Russiaonce delivered the Russian New Years presidential address when Boris Yeltsin fell ill. Stefan Ruizs photographs of the factory and its people reveal a behind-the-scenes look at this special place with humor and affection. Ruizs photographs reveal a secret world of elaborate and surreal studio sets, and include portraits of the television stars in character and students being groomed for future celebrity at the Televisa soap school. This is the world of beautiful women, handsome men, and rags-to-riches Cinderella stories, which reveal the underlying fantasies of social aspiration, as well as entrenched racial hierarchies. Accompanying Ruizs pictures are informative texts, plot summaries, and bits of dialogue that illuminate both the factory and the dreams behind this fascinating cultural phenomenon.