América is a Brazilian telenovela that aired on TV Globo from 14 March 2005 to 4 November 2005. It is written by Glória Perez and directed by Jayme Monjardim and Marcos Schechtman. The telenovela focused on the life of an illegal immigrant to the United States and the lives of those she left behind in Brazil. It stars Deborah Secco and Murilo Benício. In the United States, Telemundo aired a Spanish-dubbed version of América in 2009.

Plot

Main plot

Sol and Tião are born to different social backgrounds—she to a poor suburban family in Rio, and him to an even poorer family who raised cattle in West São Paulo State. They eventually meet, due to unlikely circumstances, but part again, as she has set as her ultimate priority to reach the United States or bust. While she comes to the U.S. to live as an illegal immigrant, he remains in Brazil and, despite many trials and tribulations, he becomes a successful rodeo cowboy.

Subplots

América has several secondary plots about a variety of compelling characters. These, for the most part, take place in four locales: Vila Isabel, a middle-class neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro; Boiadeiros, a fictional town in West São Paulo State; the home of a rich family in Rio; and Miami. Various characters from each subplots often meet each other due to character linkages within the story. The main subplots were:

Cast

Reception

Ratings

Music

Unlike most Brazilian soap operas, América featured different styles of music for each milieu. Vila Isabel had only traditional samba, other parts of Rio de Janeiro included Brazilian pop and funk, São Paulo was scored with Brazilian country music and Miami, with a mix of American pop and Latin music. The songs used in América are: 01. "Soy Loco por Ti América" - Ivete Sangalo 02. "Até Pensei" - Nana Caymmi 03. "A Volta" - Roberto Carlos 04. "Pra Rua Me Levar" - Ana Carolina 05. "Feitiço da Vila" - Martinho da Vila 06. "Nervos de Aço" - Leonardo 07. "Mágoa de Boiadeiro" - Lourenço & Lourival 08. "Os Amantes" - Daniel 09. "Girassóis Azuis II" - George Israel 10. "Vida de Viajante" - Lenine 11. "She's a Carioca (Ela é Carioca)" - Celso Fonseca 12. "Você" - Marina Elali 13. "Um Matuto em New York" - Roberto Trevisan 14. "Sinfonia dos Sonhos" - Marcus Viana 15. "Órfãos do Paraíso" - Milton Nascimento 16. "Eu Sei que Vou te Amar" - Caetano Veloso

1. "Regresa a mi" - Il Divo
2. "Don't" - Shania Twain
3. "Home" - Michael Bublé
4. "Abrazame Así" - Tamara
5. "Amore e Música" - Russell Watson
6. "The Look of Love" - Diana Krall
7. "Summertime" - Michael Bolton
8. "A Horse with no Name" - America
9. "Redneck Woman" - Gretchen Wilson
10. "Pieces of Me" - Ashlee Simpson
11. "Por un Beso" - Gloria Estefan
12. "Cancion Mixteca" - Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan
13. "Besame Mucho" - Maysa
14. "Wind Shaking the Trees" - Darwing James Band
15. "Long Long Away" - Jesse Johnson
16. "Can't Get Over" - Kasino
17. "Breath" - O2
18. "Little Girl" - Lucas Babin
19. "Take Me Home, Country Roads" - Happening

Controversy

Gay kiss deleted scene

While being cited as a pop culture phenomenon previously, the soap opera received greater exposure in the media after a long-running (2005) storyline between two gay characters included a scene in which they share a kiss. The scene was scheduled to be air in the final episode, which created much anticipation from the gay community in Brazil. However, Rede Globo, the soap opera's production company, elected not to run the scene, much to the surprise of the writers, fans and actors involved. The event led to a number of protests for equal rights, condemning Globo for their actions.

Criticism of the positive portrayal of rodeo

Brazilian animal rights organizations criticized the telenovela because rodeo was favorably exposed in the story. Several non-large-scale protests happened in several cities and activists tried to exhort a nationwide boycott campaign against the series. Coincidentally, the series faced a decline of its audience, though that was not attributed to a boycott eventually.