Series / ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?

¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.? was a bilingual sitcom produced by Miami, Florida PBS station WPBT from 1977 to 1980. The show centered on the humorous travails of a Cuban-American family living in the Little Havana neighborhood, the Peñas (parents Pepe and Juana; their teenaged children, Joe and Carmen; and Juana's parents, grandparents Adela and Antonio) as they struggle to adapt to American culture and customs while holding on to their Cuban roots. 39 episodes were produced.

The use of language mirrored the typical real-world attitudes of Cuban-American families of the era: the oldest generation stubbornly avoiding learning any English, the middle-agers splitting about 50/50 between Spanish and English, and the youngest generation (mostly raised in the U.S.) speaking mostly in colloquial English, but still capable of communicating in Spanish.

This 3-camera, videotaped production (with a live studio audience) was a unique and ambitious project for a local PBS station. Despite its humble origins and relatively low budget (by Hollywood standards), it was well-written and capably produced, and is still rerun by many PBS member stations.

In 2018 a theatrical adaptation called ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.? Today...40 Years Later debuted in Miami, FL.

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This show provides examples of:

• Action Figure Justification: Juana and Pepe wonder if their son Joe is gay when they find textbooks on the subject. He blames her for buying Joe dolls as Christmas presents. Juana points out that they were G.I. Joes.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: And grandparents. At one point, they try playing matchmaker for Carmen and invite boys over while she is still in her bathrobe and bonnet. She shouts in Spanish that she has never been so embarrassed... except that she is so upset that she ends up screaming at the top of her lungs that she has never been so ''pregnant''^note A false cognate: "embarazada" means pregnant, not "embarrassed". The word she probably was looking for was "avergonzada" (ashamed).
• Ancestral Name: Father Pepe and son Joe have the same name: José Manuel Peña. Joe's nickname is an English version of his given name (befitting a Cuban-American teen who has grown up in the States and has no memories of Cuba). As for the fiercely proud Pepe, he goes by a common nickname for the Spanish name José.
• Back-Alley Doctor: An actually competent example. Antonio brings his friend Miguel to the house to examine Joe, who is laid up with stomach pains. After Miguel pulls his doctor's kit from a shopping bag, Carmen explains to her American friend Sharon that Miguel was a doctor in Cuba but does not have a license to practice because he does not speak English. He tells Carmen to hush because "the walls have ears".
  • Miguel still has his drawbacks; in another episode, Juana tells Pepe not to take her father to Miguel for a checkup because Miguel cannot take Medicare for payments.
• Bilingual Dialogue: Enforced trope; the Department of Health, Education and Welfare required the dialogue be split to be 60% English and 40% Spanish. No matter which was your primary tongue (or your fluency in the second one, if any) you would still get most of the jokes.
• Candy Striper: Carmen and Sharon get jobs as candy stripers. However, Antonio manages to get the impression that they are strippers. When the girls come out in their modest striped smocks, Antonio, who was expecting a more Stripperiffic outfit, grumbles, "OK, they start out all covered up."
• Character Tics: Carmen has a tendency to hide her head under a sheet or blanket (or whatever is available) whenever she is embarrassed, like when Pepe announces on live TV that she is going to remain a virgin until marriage.
• Child of Two Worlds: Joe and Carmen's parents and grandparents pressure them to cling to traditions and values from a country they can't remember (Joe) or never experienced (Carmen). At the same time, outside the home they both experience pressure to assimilate to America and set aside their traditions.
• Comic Role Play: The family calls their priest for advice in dealing with conflicts. He suggest they try this, with Joe and Carmen as the parents, Pepe and Juana as the children, and the grandparents as spectators. The latter spend the whole exercise interjecting observations:
  Juana as Carmen: (jumping up and down on the couch) I can't stand it anymore! Can't stand it, can't stand it, can't stand it!
  Antonio: Carmencita, ¡qué sangrona estás! (Carmen, you are such a nuisance!)
• Culture Clash: It becomes evident when Joe has to go to the hospital to get his appendix out. Despite living in the US for more than 15 years, the Peñas are appalled at the hospital regulations that only allow them to be with Joe during visiting hours.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Joe is interviewed on TV about being Cuban-American. The Peñas are very excited and proud until they hear him say that his parents and grandparents constantly complain about how everything in Cuba was better. They are all very upset with him already when Nosy Neighbor Marta comes over to proclaim that the neighbors are outraged because Joe made Cubans look bad, and are even collecting signatures to have him extradited from La Sagüesera^note a section of Miami settled by the first wave of Cuban refugees.
• The Ditz: Sharon, one of Carmen's two best friends. Unlike Carmen or her other friend Violeta, she is not of Cuban or even Latin ancestry. Her Spanish is limited to a few words or expressions, which leads to her spouting all sorts of nonsense, and the occasional truth. She shows some signs of improvement in latter seasons.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The theme song for the series was written by the head writer Luis Santeiro, and performed by Paquito Hechevarría and the Fly Outs Band. Just like the show featured bilingual dialogue, the song featured lyrics in both English and Spanish.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Joe quickly corrects a TV interviewer who introduces him as "José Peña" before the man asks him about being Cuban-American.
• El Spanish "-o":
  • While Joe and Carmen speak Spanish, sometimes they resort to turning English words into Spanish, like Carmen reporting that the dentist found she had "caberías" instead of "caries" (cavities), or Joe reporting his teacher had "flonkeado" (flunked) his class.
  • Mrs. Allen, the Peñas' American neighbor has come over to complain about someone parking on her lawn, and only finds Adela at first (she has been teaching English to Adela and Antonio, but they are not fast learners):
    Look, somebody in this house has park-o their car-o in front of me-o lawn-o.
• Faux Fluency: Averted when it came to Spanish – the principal actors were all actual Cuban refugees/transplants, many of whom had acted in their native country prior to fleeing Castro's regime. As for English, Juana and Pepe appear quite fluent but misspeak often enough (Pepe: "I am going to give him a piece of my head!"; Juana, who works outside the home, proudly announces on live TV that "I work in the street"). Adela and Antonio sometimes pretend they understand what's going on when it is obvious they don't.
• "Fawlty Towers" Plot: The arrival of wealthy cousin Milagros. During her stay, she is snobby, treating the family like servants (even throwing her coat at Adela, who was about to greet her) and going on constantly about how rich and refined she is. Except nobody finds out until later that her family is bankrupt and that she was pretending to have lost her luggage.
  Milagros: ¿Ustedes saben lo que es perder, los zapatos de Gucci, la cartera de Pierre Cardin, el vestido de Dior, y la bufanda de Givenchy? (Do you know what is like to lose, the shoes from Gucci, the purse from Pierre Cardin, the dress from Dior, and the Givenchy scarf?)
  Adela: Pero niña, ¿es que... toda tu ropa es prestada? (But dear, is it that... all your clothes are borrowed?)
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": In "The Cuban Funeral", Joe and Carmen were miffed at having to cancel a party to attend a funeral. Once there, Joe meets his crush and Carmen gets to talk to a cute guy. They protest when Juana tells them it is time to leave and makes them say good-bye to the bereaved:
  Carmen: (shaking the woman's hand) Felicidades, señora, gracias por todo. (Congratulations, ma'am, thanks for everything.)
  (Juana smacks Carmen's arm and pulls her away as Pepe does a Jaw Drop)
  Joe: We really had a good time, ¡hasta la próxima! (Til next time!)
• Garage Sale: A full episode dedicated to the Peñas holding one. Nosy Neighbor Marta comes over to flirt with Pepe right under Juana's nose:
  Marta: Why do you want to throw this...sexy dress away?
  Juana: (through gritted teeth) BeCAUSE it was never sexy to Pepe.
  Marta: (smirking) Don't blame the dress, honey.
  Juana: ¡Mira, Marta, paga antes de que te estrangule! (Look, Marta, pay before I strangle you!)
  • Other highlights include a Spanish-speaking couple who misunderstand the concept and ask about buying the garage. A rep from an antiques dealer shows up, hands Pepe his card, takes a look around... and takes the card back.
• Go to Your Room!: Juana and Pepe are constantly sending Carmen away to her room whenever they deem the subject unfit to her teenage ears. It even turns up as part of the Comic Role Play episode. As she protests in one instance:
  Carmen: ¡Yo siempre me pierdo todo! (I always miss out on everything!)
• Got Volunteered: Antonio is set to testify at a hearing before the city commissioner board, and at the last minute he drafts "my American friend Sharon" to interpret for him. Together, they convince the chairwoman to cast the deciding vote to save the park.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Sharon is a blue-eyed blond. As Adela is grieving for her friend, her grandchildren do not act very sympathetic. In contrast, Sharon does manage to express sincere condolences in her best (if awful) Spanish:
  Sharon: Yo muy sorry de you amiga!
• Hey, Let's Put on a Show: Carmen is running "Noche Cubana", a talent show centered on Cuban-American culture. The show features Violeta doing a dramatic piece with an English partner, Sharon as a last minute substitute for an ill cha-cha dancer, Juana succumbing to stage fright, and finally, Carmen and Joe dueting on a song they wrote together with lyrics in English and Spanish about their heritage.
• Hidden Depths: Violeta appears to just be a boy-crazy schoolgirl, but she is also quite knowledgeable about Santería and its Afro-Cuban roots. She is more than happy to counsel Carmen when it appears someone put a spell on her.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Violeta is the most boy-crazy of the teens in the cast, making sure to wear her cutest outfits and at one point, going off to see if Joe's friends have brothers her age. She even makes a play for her crush while attending a funeral.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: In the "The Cuban Funeral" episode, Adela's friend Caridad decides to rest before leaving and asks Adela for some coffee. While Adela is off in the kitchen complaining of how Caridad is a pain in the ass, Antonio comes in, finds Caridad has passed away, and tells the rest of the family. Adela immediately bursts out with "¡AY DIOS MIO! ¡Mi amiga del alma^translation My closest friend!!"
• Language Barrier: Played for Laughs. Grandparents Antonio and Adela speak Spanish, knowing only a couple of words of English, and often complain of always being left out of conversations. Joe was brought over from Cuba when he was three and Carmen was born in the US; they speak both languages but sometimes stumble in Spanish. Pepe and Juana's English skills are adequate but sometimes they still struggle.
  • Sharon (Carmen's American friend) only speaks English, which limits her ability to follow conversations. When she tries to speak Spanish, she butchers it.
• Large Ham: The acting style is unsubtle, which actually made it easier to understand plot lines if you were not fully bilingual.
• Limited Wardrobe: Joe often wears a gray T-shirt with "JOE" emblazoned on the back. Since Carmen is enrolled in Catholic school, she is often seen wearing her uniform. Pepe, who works in construction, is often seen in a blue button-down shirt and hard hat.
• Macho Latino: Pepe. He sees himself as the one who wears the pants. He is outraged when Juana registers in a bookkeeping class without his permission, let alone his blessing.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: When cousin Patria, who just married an English-speaking American, comes to visit with her husband and his cousin Lisa, the Peñas talk about how a marriage between an American man and a Cuban woman might just work, but the opposite (American woman and a Cuban man), not so much.
  Carmen: Does all this mean that it is OK for me to marry an American?
  Pepe: No. It only means that it is more "not OK" for Joe than it is for you.
• Mistaken Ethnicity: A burglar in a ski mask breaks in while Adela is home. As the Peñas (plus Violeta and Sharon) arrive, they all end up tied up while the robber steals their stuff. Fortunately a neighbor (Mrs. Allen, not busybody Marta) calls the police and the robber is caught. When the family sees the unmasked robber's blonde hair and fair skin, they make some disparaging about him being American. The robber retorts that he is "more Cuban than sugar".
• Mistaken for Gay: In the aptly titled episode, "Is Joe Gay?", Juana find a stack of Joe's textbooks with titles like "El homosexual latente", "Behavior Patterns of the Modern Homosexual", and "Homosexuality Throughout The Ages". She tries to convince herself that the books don't mean anything, but then tells her husband. They start arguing as to whose "fault" it is. Not a spoiler: Joe is not gay.
  Juana: Tell me, what are we going to do if our little boy is like... this?
  Pepe: Juana, he is not like that. But if he is confused, I will find him a female woman that will disconfuse him!
• My Beloved Smother: Joe needs to have his appendix removed. The entire family is appalled when they learn that hospital rules only allow them to be with Joe during visiting hours. Juana, who had packed a bag so she could stay overnight is so distraught, she scares away an expectant mother:
  Juana: (wailing, just as pregnant woman comes in) Pepe, I want to stay with my baby!
  Pregnant woman: (horrified) I am not having my baby in THIS hospital!
• Nosy Neighbor: Marta likes to drop-in unannounced and make trouble. She also flirts shamelessly with Pepe right in front of Juana.
• Old Maid: Antonio brings up this trope when he is discussing his niece Patria's marriage prospects. Meeting her new husband (he is not Cuban-American and cannot speak any Spanish) only reinforces his opinion:
  Antonio (in Spanish): Those who wait too long have to settle for choosing among the discarded ones or...the so-so ones^note Original: "Las que esperan mucho tienen que conformarse con escoger entre los descartados... o los "medio-medios".
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: It happens a lot. In one example, the family is discussing doing something nice for Adela. Of course, Adela manages to overhear them make plans to surprise her by taking her to a plant nursery, but thanks to her tenuous grasp of English, thinks they are talking of dropping her off at a nursing home, scaring her.
• Parental Fashion Veto: Pepe and Juana frequently get on Carmen's case about what she wants to wear. And when they don't, Adela or Antonio pick up the slack.
  • In an example, Pepe openly leers at Carmen's friend Sharon when she arrives in a tube top, but when Carmen turns up in a tube top as well, he orders her to her room to change.
  • When the TV interviewer comes to interview the family, Carmen is wearing a perfectly decent sundress. Right on camera, Pepe tells her she must be cold and drapes the couch afghan over her shoulders like a shawl. The afghan comes in handy when Pepe denounces modern youth and announces that his daughter will remain a virgin till her wedding day and she drapes it over her head out of embarrassment.
  • Deliberately averted when Carmen and Violeta plan to go out, but pretend they are having a girls' night in while Carmen's parents are out on a date. Violeta arrives wearing a raincoat but throws it off when the Peñas leave, revealing a halter top and Carmen likewise is dressed to party under a modest button-down shirt.
• Performance Anxiety: Carmen organizes a talent show with a Cuban-American theme. Her mother is set to sing an aria, but her nerves have her running to the bathroom multiple time. When it's her turn, she attempts to start her number three times but she breaks down and has to be escorted offstage. Later, once the whole audience is gone, her family and friends beg her to sing, which she is able to do.
• Revealing Hug: Of the cheek kiss-cheek kiss variety. Adela goes to greet Marta with a big smile to Marta's face, but a "yuck" expression behind the woman's back.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: An obituary for a woman whose name is the same as Adela's goes out, and two of her friends come to the house to pay their respects. Adela then finds out about the obituary and nearly passes out. On top of that, the more annoying of the two friends ends up dying while Adela is off making coffee in the kitchen.
• Running Gag:
  • Carmen hiding her face whenever her parents (or grandparents) embarrass her.
  • Marta dropping in with a smirk, knowing exactly how annoying the Peñas find her, but that courtesy prevents them from not opening the door.
  • The Double Standard in parenting that requires Carmen to be chaperoned on dates and have her clothes policed by parents and grandparents, but allows plenty of freedom for Joe.
  • Adela and Antonio complaining about being left out when the rest of the family has conversations in English.
• Significant Name Overlap:
  • Carmen brings over a boyfriend to meet the family. Pepe is weirded out when the young man turns out to also be named Pepe; Adela smirks that now he knows how it felt when she and Antonio met "Pepe #1".
  • An obituary for a woman whose name is the same as Adela's goes out, and two overwrought friends of hers come to the house. They are shocked to see that Adela is very much alive.
• Put on a Bus: When Steven Bauer (credited as Rocky Echevarría) left after the third season, Joe was written out as going off to attend Miami University in Ohio. Pepe's nephew Iggy ended up occupying the "young Cuban-American teenaged boy" slot for the last 8 episodes.
• Serial Spouse: Nosy Neighbor Marta barges in the middle of the evening, having overheard Pepe and Juana argue. She calls herself an expert in relationships, as she has been married four times.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Pepe tries to discourage Juana from participating in efforts to prevent the city from turning a park into a parking lot. He does not succeed.
  "Stay here and take care of your home, and your poor father, who is getting rusty!"
• Suspicious Ski Mask: The burglar that breaks into the Peña home is wearing one. When Adela first sees him, she thinks it's her Joe and smacks him upside the head. Antonio does the same thing. When the police arrives, the fam and Carmen's friends cannot agree on what he looks like.
• Token White: Carmen's friend Sharon. Speaking English and only a little Spanish and not being of Cuban or any other Latin/Hispanic origin makes her stand out more than her race.
• Unusual Euphemism: "Einstein's theory of relativity", for The Talk or any related topic.
• Visible Boom Mic: Befitting the invokedNo Budget show, it happens quite often. An egregious example happens in the final third of the episode where Carmen and Sharon go on a double date.

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