Tell the (hi)story to the nation. Two transcultural adaptations of the Spanish TV series "Cuéntame cómo pasó: Raccontami and Conta-me como foi"

Abstract

In September 2001, the Spanish public TV channel TVE1 introduced Cuéntame cómo pasó, a TV series that recounts the experiences of a family, the Alcántaras, during the last years of Francisco Franco in Spain. Born as an historical and popular production, aimed to a general audience, the success of the series led to its consolidation in prime time and to the international sale of the format. In December 2006, RAI —Radio Televisione Italiana—, transmitted Raccontami, the Italian version of Cuéntame cómo pasó. With the Ferruccis replacing the Alcántaras as the protagonist family of the story, Raccontami is the first case of adaptation of Cuéntame, but without the context of an historical dictatorship. In April 2007, also Radio Televisión Portuguesa launched its own adaptation: Conta-me como foi. As with the Alcántaras, the Lopes represent a middle class family whose members are the witnesses of the last phase of the dictatorship of Salazar. Both adaptations have been telecast by public televisions, and they use a narrative structure that is similar to Cuentame’s one, with the nostalgia of the past as a common starting point, but with their own tale embedded in the reality of each nation. Beyond the parallelisms and plot-interchanges with the original format, the present article offers an analysis of the two adaptations, with the goal of understanding the kind of historical representation that, from the concept of transtextuality and identity, lies in these new patrimonial fictions, which are awakening cultural memory.