Stirring emotion, assessing progress -- Doña Bárbara or the complications of clear-cut melodrama -- Suffering and retribution : the politicized theatrics of El tungsteno -- What more can one man do? : Disillusionment and conformity in El amor brujo -- Romance, intrigue, and more in Gabriela, cravo e canela -- Episodes of passion and remorse : the excesses of La muerte de Artemio Cruz -- And then-- melodrama beyond the boom