Reflections on the 20th Anniversary

Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of “El Clon”

Teaching religious and cultural understanding through soap operas

BY WENDY DÍAZ

On October 1, 2001, the epic telenovela or novela “O Clone” was released in Brazil on Rede Globo Television. After its successful debut, this soap opera was syndicated, dubbed in Spanish, and picked up all over Latin America. Aired from October 2001 to June 2002, with 221 episodes, it went on to be broadcast in 90+ countries.

The first show of its kind to feature a Muslim main character, it radically changed how Latinos thought about Islam. In fact, “El Clon” was the latest sensation when I traveled to Puerto Rico as a hijab-wearing Muslima for the first time. And just like its opening song, it was maktub (written) that it happened then.

About three years after my conversion, I was ready to visit my family in Puerto Rico fully covered. Most of my relatives were aware that I had left Catholicism. However, I was afraid of how they would react to my hijab, for it would be something foreign to them. On a statue or painting of the Virgin Mary, the veil was a symbol of devotion; but on a Muslima, it represented a distant tradition. I wasn’t sure if my family would understand that it was just as much a part of me as my Puerto Rican identity.

During this time, I was living with my Egyptian Muslima best friend, Heba, and her family while finishing my bachelor’s degree at the University of Maryland. I invited her to accompany me for moral support and so that I wouldn’t be the only hijab-wearer in my grandparents’ house. At that time, I didn’t know that Puerto Rico had nine mosques and thousands of Muslims. Before leaving the island, I had never seen a Muslim woman in hijab. This led me to believe that I might be the only Puerto Rican Muslima in existence.

Besides, the shadow of 9/11 still loomed over the whole Islamic community. These things compounded my worries. Prior to my trip, I wrote letters to my grandparents and sent them copies of the Quran, explaining my new way of life and urging them to read and open their minds. I let them know that they could ask me anything; but the questions never came.

Heba and I packed baggy jeans, long-sleeve t-shirts, skirts, and light-weight hijabs that would withstand the tropical heat. We even took matching outfits for fun. If we were going to be the only two hijab-wearers, then we may as well be color-coordinated! When we arrived in San Juan, my uncle picked us up from the airport. He was the first family member to see me wearing it. But my mother had warned him ahead of time. We chatted casually, ignoring the elephant in the room; it helped that Heba had come along. And yet there was something more.

I expected more of an uproar —people in the airport to stare at us like we were strange or treat us with hostility. Instead, their eyes lit up in admiration. It was so odd. As we walked outside and into the humid breeze of San Juan, people nodded and smiled at us. I would look over my shoulder and see them still beaming. It wasn’t a mocking sneer, but a genuine look of contentment, as if the hijab was something familiar.

At first, I attributed it to the fact that Puerto Ricans have a great reverence for the Virgin Mary. Maybe the hijab reminded them of her. Upon reaching my mother’s house at night, I finally caught a glimpse of the real reason for our warm reception: A TV channel was playing “El Clon.”

This telenovela, set in Brazil and Morocco, had as its main character a young Muslima named Jade who was coming of age in Brazil. After her mother’s death, she returns to her family in Morocco. Although she was born Muslim and wears the hijab, her upbringing leaves her confused. She falls in love with a Brazilian man who visits Morocco, and a crazy love story develops that involves twins, a clone, arranged marriages and a lot of culture shock. Because the story takes place in both countries, viewers were exposed to different aspects of Muslim life, including the hijab.

“El Clon” showed Latin Americans another side of Islam, contrary to the U.S. media’s violent terrorist narrative. Viewers learned about Muslims through some of its characters, especially Jade’s uncle and

caretaker Ali. While teaching Jade about Islam, he would recite Quranic verses and oral traditions of the Prophet (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). This exposure made the Muslim world less foreign and the viewers more tolerant.

While "El Clon" was neither free of stereotypes nor completely accurate in its portrayal of Muslims in Morocco, I could see that this series was changing people’s perceptions. Puerto Ricans were fascinated with Islam, curious about its rituals and everything else, captivated by Morocco’s beautiful scenery and drawn to idea of the hijab. Finding many similarities between themselves and the Muslim characters, they could relate to Jade’s struggles to fit in, her overprotective

uncle’s efforts to protect his family’s honor, the women looking for a suitable husband and the bachelors influenced by their elders’ whims. Just like Muslims, Puerto Ricans are brought up in strict, God-fearing households. To Latinos, our faith, family values and modesty are equally important. The added lessons on Islam taught them that there was another option to consider when thinking about our relationship with our Creator. One day while walking around the plaza, the city center of my hometown, a young man called out to me with the word, “Bendición.” When it finally dawned on me that he had mistaken me for a nun, I responded, “Dios te bendiga” (God bless you). Another time, a group of children in a school playground saw Heba and me buying some ice cream from a local vendor. They approached us and said, “You look like the ladies in ‘El Clon.’” My family members agreed. During our time in Puerto Rico, my cousins asked Heba and me countless questions about the hijab, including where they could purchase some. Even strangers stopped us in the street to ask the same. I wish I had packed scarves to give away. In a nutshell, “El Clon” made it cool to be a Muslima when THIS NOVELA CHANGED OUR LIVES AND THOSE we had almost lost hope. I was so grateful back then and now. I OF PEOPLE IN LATIN AMERICA, WHETHER THEY couldn’t have gone back home at a better PERCEIVED IT OR NOT. MY FRIEND AND I WERE time! This novela changed our lives and those of people in Latin America, whether they

WELCOMED WARMLY IN PUERTO RICO WHILE perceived it or not. My friend and I were MUSLIMS WERE BEING DEMONIZED WORLDWIDE AND ISLAM WAS BEING PUT ON TRIAL. welcomed warmly in Puerto Rico while Muslims were being demonized worldwide and Islam was being put on trial. Yet there we were, being praised for our faith in a land where Islam was something strange. It was as God says: “Whoever fears God, He will find a way out for him (from every difficulty) and He will provide for him from sources that he could never have imagined” (65:2-3). Who would have thought that a telenovela would teach Spanish-speakers about Islam? Fast forward to my last trip in 2018. Accompanied by my family, 15 years after that first encounter, we had a similar experience. Instead of “El Clon,” we arrived to find a new king, or should I say sultan, of telenovelas in town. Turkey, which has been exporting its series to Latin America for seven years, has won the hearts of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos. Turkish dramas now dominate the entertainment industry and are continuing what “El Clon” began 20 years ago — opening a gateway to Muslim life, Islamic history and Middle Eastern culture. The result is that Puerto Ricans recognize and respect Islam now more than ever. In many ways, I feel more comfortable there than in the U.S. Here, I’m a Muslim Latina, part of two marginalized groups, while back home I’m just another Boricua, a Puerto Rican native, who happens to wear the hijab. During this visit, while walking around the plaza in Ponce with my family, someone again stopped me in my tracks. A fellow Puerto Rican slowed his car down, lowered the window and shouted, “Ma sha’ Allah!” I smiled and waved as he and his family drove away. My children asked me, “Did you know that person?” And I said “No” and explained that it was a greeting of respect to acknowledge our presence there as Muslims. That family must have been watching Turkish novelas! Yet, I wondered if they knew the heavy significance of that phrase, “What Allah has willed has happened.” Or perhaps it was I who needed to understand it most, as a reminder to be grateful. It was maktub. “O Turner of the hearts, affirm our hearts upon Your religion!” (Dua of the Prophet, in “At-Tirmidhi”). ih

Wendy Díaz is a Puerto Rican Muslim writer, award-winning poet, translator and mother of six. She is the co-founder of Hablamos Islam, Inc. (https://hablamosislam.org), a non-profit organization that produces Spanish-language educational resources about Islam. She is also the Spanish content coordinator for the Islamic Circle of North America’s WhyIslam Project and has also written, illustrated and published a dozen children’s books.