¿Qué Pasa, USA? (Spanish: What's Happening, USA?) is America's first
bilingual situation comedy, and the first sitcom to be produced for
PBS. It was produced and taped from 1977 to 1980 in front of a live
studio audience at PBS member station WPBT in Miami, Florida and aired
on PBS member stations nationwide.The program explored the trials and
tribulations faced by the Peñas, a Cuban-American family living in
Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, as they struggled to cope with a
new country and a new language. The series is praised as being very
true-to-life and accurately, if humorously, portraying the life and
culture of Miami's Cuban-American population. Today, the show is
cherished by many Miamians as a true, albeit humorous, representation
of life and culture in Miami.The series focused on the identity crisis
of the members of the family as they were pulled in one direction by
their eldersâ€"who wanted to maintain Cuban values and
traditionsâ€"and pulled in other directions by the pressures of living
in a predominantly Anglo-American society. This caused many
misadventures for the entire Peña family as they get pulled in all
directions in their attempt to preserve their heritage.The series was
bilingual, reflecting the code-switching from Spanish use in the home
and English at the supermarket ("Spanglish") predominant in
Cuban-American households in the generation following the Cuban exodus
of the 1960s. The use of language in the show paralleled the
generational differences in many Cuban-American families of the era.
The grandparents spoke almost exclusively Spanish and were
reluctantâ€"at times, even hostileâ€"toward the idea of learning
English; an episode featured a dream sequence where Joe, the son of
the family, dreams about his grandparents exclusively speaking English
(while Joe and Carmen could only speak in Spanish). The grandparents'
struggle with English often resulted in humorous misunderstandings and
malapropisms. The parents' relative fluency in English was laced with
strong Cuban accents and alternated between the two languages
depending on the situation. The children, having been exposed to
American culture for years, spoke primarily in slightly accented
colloquial English, but were able to converse relatively competently
in Spanish as needed (such as when speaking to their grandparents);
however, one of the running gags of the show revolved around their
occasional butchering of Spanish grammar or vocabulary.
bilingual situation comedy, and the first sitcom to be produced for
PBS. It was produced and taped from 1977 to 1980 in front of a live
studio audience at PBS member station WPBT in Miami, Florida and aired
on PBS member stations nationwide.The program explored the trials and
tribulations faced by the Peñas, a Cuban-American family living in
Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, as they struggled to cope with a
new country and a new language. The series is praised as being very
true-to-life and accurately, if humorously, portraying the life and
culture of Miami's Cuban-American population. Today, the show is
cherished by many Miamians as a true, albeit humorous, representation
of life and culture in Miami.The series focused on the identity crisis
of the members of the family as they were pulled in one direction by
their eldersâ€"who wanted to maintain Cuban values and
traditionsâ€"and pulled in other directions by the pressures of living
in a predominantly Anglo-American society. This caused many
misadventures for the entire Peña family as they get pulled in all
directions in their attempt to preserve their heritage.The series was
bilingual, reflecting the code-switching from Spanish use in the home
and English at the supermarket ("Spanglish") predominant in
Cuban-American households in the generation following the Cuban exodus
of the 1960s. The use of language in the show paralleled the
generational differences in many Cuban-American families of the era.
The grandparents spoke almost exclusively Spanish and were
reluctantâ€"at times, even hostileâ€"toward the idea of learning
English; an episode featured a dream sequence where Joe, the son of
the family, dreams about his grandparents exclusively speaking English
(while Joe and Carmen could only speak in Spanish). The grandparents'
struggle with English often resulted in humorous misunderstandings and
malapropisms. The parents' relative fluency in English was laced with
strong Cuban accents and alternated between the two languages
depending on the situation. The children, having been exposed to
American culture for years, spoke primarily in slightly accented
colloquial English, but were able to converse relatively competently
in Spanish as needed (such as when speaking to their grandparents);
however, one of the running gags of the show revolved around their
occasional butchering of Spanish grammar or vocabulary.
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