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Journalist-turned-TV creator continues telling modern stories with universal themes as Colombia RCN-TV executive By Paige Albiniak
Fernando Gaitán, vice president of production and content at Colombia's RCN-TV, took the classic story of the ugly duckling and turned it into the most popular soap opera the world has even seen.
Yo Soy Betty, la Fea - known among American English-speaking viewers as ABC's primetime soap, Ugly Betty - holds the Guinness world record for the most successful soap opera in history.
Gaitán, 51, attributes Bettys success to its universal themes set in modern times. "There's a universal and cross-cultural existence of feminine vanity," says Gaitán, who answered questions for this piece via written questions in English that were then translated back from Gaitán's Spanish. "The theme of rejection of the 'ugly woman' is something that unfortunately occurs in all cultures in a similar way."
Gaitán got his professional start as a print journalist in his native Colombia, working for El Tiempo (the country's New York Times) and Semana and Magazin al día. As a teenager, he attended a highly competitive high school in Bogota, Liceo Leon de Greiff. While he was there, he won a Latin American writing competition. He then skipped college to go right to work, although later he was awarded two Master's degrees in recognition of his accomplishments.
Along the way, Gaitán met Bernardo Romero Pereiro, a respected Colombian writer and producer, who had been actively combing the country for new writers.
As a print journalist, "my favorite genre was chronicles and...