Iranian television has reached Latin America, and after years of waiting to be able to travel between Caracas and Buenos Aires and still have access to our favorite Iranian soaps, the dream has become reality. Following the launch of the Iranian government’s first Spanish-language news website, HispanTV, a few months ago, a 24-hour satellite channel in Spanish yesterday under the same name. HispanTV is the first satellite channel in Spanish emanating from the Middle East, and will feature a mixture of news as well as Iranian movies and soap operas.
While I’m not expecting any of this to challenge the supremacy of Latin American telenovelas across the region (not to mention the globe), HispanTV is an interesting next step for the Islamic Republic that solidifies its Third Worldist credentials at a time when the situation in the Middle East is getting a bit choppy. While Iran’s popularity in the Middle East has gone up and down over the years depending on local factors (like >>>
