''Karkú'' is a Chilean teen telenovela television series, co-produced by My Friend Entertainment and

Televisión Nacional de Chile Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) is a Chilean public service broadcaster. It was founded by order of President Eduardo Frei Montalva and it was launched nationwide on 18 September 1969. Since then, the company has been reorganized on sever ...

(TVN).

Plot

Emilia, a 13-year-old girl, is sent by her parents from the small city of

Vallenar Vallenar is a city and commune in Atacama Region, Chile. It is the capital of the Huasco Province and is located in the valley of the Huasco River. Vallenar has 52,000 inhabitants. Its main activities are farming and mining. It was founded as S ...

, Chile, to live with her uncles in metropolitan Santiago, Chile. There, she enters the British College, where she befriends Fernanda, Valentina, Zico, Alex, and Martín, with whom she tries to fund a year-end trip overseas. The series follows exploring everyday-life problems of teenagers, including friendship and romance.

Cast

;Main cast *Constanza Piccoli as Emilia "Emi" Valdés *Ignacio Sepúlveda as Francisco "Zico" Sotomayor *

Raquel Calderón Raquel Calderón Argandoña (born 14 February 1991), better known as Kel Calderón, is a Chilean actress, singer and lawyer. She became known at a very early age for being a daughter of the television star Raquel Argandoña de la Fuente and the ...

as Fernanda "Feña" Urquieta *Cesar Morales as Martín Maldonado *

Luciana Echeverría Luciana Andrea Echeverría Christie (; born 12 July 1991) is a Chilean actor, singer, and television presenter. Filmography Movies Television Shows * ''Cubox'' (Canal 13, 2010) – Herself/Presenter References Other websites * ...

como Valentina "Vale" Urquieta *Vicente Muñoz como Alex Schilling *

Constanza Herrero Constanza Belén Herrero Parada (born July 10, 1991), is an Australian-Chilean singer, songwriter, and actress. Constanza first gained recognition as a teenager after becoming a member of the MTV award winner band Six Pack (Chilean band), Six Pac ...

como Daniela "Dana" Hamilton (season 3 only) *Nicolás Guerra como Cristian "Chris" Hamilton (season 3 only) ;Supporting cast *Gustavo Becerra as Inspector Palacios *Marcos Bucci as Marcos "Chanchivia" Valdivia *Patricia Irribarra as Miss Elena *Renato Münster as Uncle Arturo *Vania Alejandra López as Margarita *Peggy Cordero as Edna, Dana and Chris's grandmother *Carlos Embry as Manuel Valdés, Emilia's father *Araceli Vitta as Miss Fabiana Castillo *Paulina Hunt as Nurse María Eugenia *Javiera Hernández as Miss Daniela *Paula Sharim as Uncle Mariana *Daniel Herrera as Lucas *Francisca Reiss as Patricia, Emilia's mother *Rodrigo Leon as Diego, Fernanda's friend

Production and themes

The first Latin American telenovela for young audience, ''Karkú'' was co-produced My Friend Entertainment and

(TVN). Its title is derived from

mapudungún Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...

and means "to dare," which "faithfully reflects the spirit of the plot," according to TVN. The series was created Onell López Campos and José Francisco García, with Campos as director along with Juan Pablo Tapia, and García as executive producer, and Felipe Vergara and Soledad Pérez as producers. It explores the aging of teenagers, focusing on Latin America, and producers tried to prompt diligence, teamwork, and friendship on its viewers. López commented he tried to insert music as feature that "not only plays as an ornament, but is part of the undertaking of the protagonists, is a tool that they have."

Broadcasting

The first two seasons were broadcast by TVN in Chile; from February 5, to March 8, 2007, and from January 2, to February 6, 2008. The third season was first broadcast on Nickelodeon Latin America between June 17, and July 22, 2009. It aired in the other Latin American countries through Nickelodeon, with

Ecuavisa Ecuavisa is an Ecuadorian free-to-air television network that was launched on March 1, 1967 on Quito's channel 8 and Guayaquil's channel 2. It is one of the leading TV networks in the country. The channel has an international feed named ''Ecua ...

also airing it in Ecuador,

Señal Colombia Señal Colombia is a Colombian public Terrestrial television, which offers opinion, informative, entertainment, educational, sports and cultural content and is part of RTVC Sistema de Medios Públicos. History Señal Colombia began its broadca ...

in Colombia, and

TV Brasil TV Brasil is a Brazilian public television network owned by Empresa Brasil de Comunicação. Its main headquarters are in Brasília, DF and Rio de Janeiro, RJ, with owned-and-operated stations in São Paulo, SP and in São Luís, MA, as we ...

in Brazil. Spanish-language network

¡Sorpresa! ¡Sorpresa! ("Surprise!" in Spanish) is an American Spanish-language children's television channel. The channel is currently available for the United States and Puerto Rico on Charter Spectrum, Claro Puerto Rico, Cox Communications, Frontier ...

broadcast the series on its back to school programming in the United States.

Reception

It was a success in Chile; its debuted had a 14.4 rating against 11.7 and 6.7 of ''Mekano'' and '' Futurama'' respectively. The complete first season had an average rating of 14.1. It was also popular in several countries of Latin America.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Karku 2007 telenovelas 2007 Chilean television series debuts 2009 Chilean television series endings Televisión Nacional de Chile telenovelas Nickelodeon telenovelas Children's telenovelas Teen telenovelas Television series about teenagers Televisión Nacional de Chile original programming Spanish-language Nickelodeon original programming