SUMMARY

The story takes place during the colonial period in Latin America, a time of injustice and deep social differences, when people lived under the control of the nobility, and everybody, rich and poor, under the dark shadow of the Inquisition.

Maria Hipólita Díaz lives with her grandmother, Mrs. Carlota, in the town of Santa Rita, in Panama. Hipólita was born in México, but when she was very little she was separated from her mother, Asunción, and she doesn’t know who her father is.

In exchange for a good dowry, Mrs. Carlota manages to arrange Maria Hipólita’s marriage with Antonio, Mrs. Adelaida de Guzmán’s son.

Many months later, Mrs. Carlota dies without knowing that Antonio is impotent, that Hipólita’s marriage hasn’t been consummated and that Adelaida treats her with contempt for being an illegitimate child.

Adelaida, knowing that Antonio will inherit the fortune of his uncle Prospero only if he has a son, she takes advantage of the fact that her servants caught a fugitive and obliges him to pass himself as Antonio in the darkness and have sexual intercourse with Hipólita to pregnant her. The ‘criminal’ is Luis Manrique Arellano, a Mexican merchant that arrived to Santa Rita to close a deal under the command of his cousin Diego, the Count of Guevara, without suspecting that it was all a trap to kill him.

Before the threat to be handed to the law, Luis accepts to have intercourse with Hipólita, with the intention of fleeing through the bedroom window; but her tenderness seduces him and he ends up making love to her. Then, feeling repentant, he tells her the truth and runs away without telling Hipólita his name or showing her his face; the only thing she learns is that he is from Mexico.

Three years later, Hipólita arrives to Mexico with her little son, Rafael, after managing to free herself from Adelaida’s evil. She is determined to confront it all to find the father of her son to oblige him to give the child his last name.

In the middle of a storm of intrigues and violence provoked by Mrs. Juana, the sister of the previous Count of Guevara, Hipolita will have to fight for her life and for her son’s life, as her heart is torn between the hate for the stranger that, with tenderness, made her a woman, and the love she now feels for Luis, without knowing that both men are the same man.

Summary taken from Televisa’s official website.

OUR COMMENT

Carla Estrada did it again – no doubt she’s the best Televisa producer. It’s a pity that, though her working capacity is very well known, she cannot create two or three telenovelas at the same time, because in the meantime, between one telenovela and the next one, we miss her.

We don’t know whether Carla is good because she can make something good from everything she touches or because she simply chooses the best; but the truth is that any script in her hands is coherent: the direction of the actors is great, the construction of the characters is excellent and the production needless to say.

In “Alborada”, the script is original and daring, the characters have a personality of their own, the wardrobe is great, the setting is great… everything is good.

In Carla Estrada’s telenovelas, the cast is usually very carefully chosen.

What can we say about Alejandro Tomassi, as Felipe? And about Olivia Bucios as Mrs. Asunción, always fearful, educated and obedient, who then discovers a new world and a new destiny in her daughter Hipolita? And what about Daniela Romo, Monica Miguel and many others? Carla not only chooses excellent and versatile actors but also manages to make some of them give the performances of their lives.

Fernando Colunga is a good and handsome actor, but Carla Estrada manages to make him not only handsome but also attractive. She’s the only one who dared to offer Colunga roles in which he gets angry and falls in love, unlike those roles of the eternal gullible good-natured man he always plays. Luis Manrique is stubborn, tenacious, good and generous, strong but tender at the same time; he’s a sweetie.

Luis Roberto Guzman is outstanding. He plays the part of the weak and evil Diego, spoiled and bad mannered but fearful. His performance is full of gestures and silence that help to build the character in a much more subtle way than usual.

Vanesa Guzman, in the best role of her career, is great as the survivor Perla, far from those roles as a dyed doll that she always gets.

Ernesto Laguardia, recovered for telenovelas in “Amor Real”, is one of the actors that Carla confronts with varied roles, and in this case, he got the part of the upright and brave Cristóbal.

Sherlyn gives a step forward in her career, abandoning the roles of eternal adolescent, which are all alike.

Mariana Karr appears as aunt Isabel, a frivolous and superficial woman with a golden heart, who is also faithful to death.

And to finish, Valentino Lanús, who acted here much better than usual, plays a harder, and less ‘too good’ character, full of anger and nonconformity, feelings that he cannot control, which are directed to his destiny and his social class and his aspirations.

The scene of Martin and Hipólita in the village is very tender, and we cried our eyes out (and we weren’t alone because Lucero also got very upset).

THE BEST

After what we said, there’s nothing else to say. It’s a fantastic telenovela. The boy, Rafael, is so cute that he makes you feel like hugging him tightly. Personally, I love the character Adalgisa. Beatriz Moreno is the only Mexican actress who imitates the Spanish accent without making a single mistake with the ‘c’, the ‘s’ or the ‘z’. You doubt whether she’s really Mexican or not.

THE WORST

Honestly, the only thing that this telenovela is missing, which is really a defect, is the lack of passion. The rest of our comment is just to criticize and not to overdo it with the flattery.

The love scenes are terribly dull and the kisses are flashy. Although it is a period telenovela, without the need for the actors to wildly make out on the screen, the kisses should be more real.

In general, we consider Adela Noriega a quite prudish actress, but Lucero is way over more baffling.

If somebody has had the chance to see the interview that Cristina Saralegui made to the whole cast in “El Show De Cristina”, everything was said there. In that interview, Fernando Colunga said that he assured Lucero’s husband, the singer Manuel Mijares, that he’d not make a pass at her or would take any ‘improper liberty’. If her husband’s fuses did not blow after this statement it is because he lives in the Middle Age, I’m afraid.

In the interview, they talked about the anecdote as a token of gentlemanly from Colunga to Mijares, instead as what it really is, a token of prudishness, of modesty and, worst, a token of chauvinism raised to the power of five hundred. To start with, and the most important of all, Lucero is a professional and is a grown-up, and Colunga too.

Maybe Colunga has the reputation of being all hands and we don’t know it. We don’t understand why he has to make it clear that he will not make a pass at her. So, in the rest of the cases, with other actresses, as soon as the camera is on he lets his hair down? To conclude, if Colunga had anything to say to anybody as regards this question, it should have been to Lucero herself, and not to her husband, unless her husband is a feudal lord with the right to the Prima nocte, or as it is also known, droit du Seigneur; owner of women’s body and soul, which is impossible and illegal nowadays.

Anyway, the protagonists give the story a corny, sickly-sweet and cloying touch, which is unfortunately obvious in the telenovela, since everybody talks about how nuts Luis is for Hipolita, but when they are together, he just kisses her on the forehead. A pity.

As regards the rest of the ‘negative’ details, they are not really important; like the excess of hairpiece that Mariana Garza, as well as Irán Castillo, wear, because if they truly had so much hair their heads would fall off; not to mention the super hairpiece that Arturo Peniche carries, with a ton of hairspray.

It’s also exaggerated that the characters have their swords even when they go to the bathroom – it doesn’t seem very realistic.

Lastly, the ending, with the shouts for the Mexican independence and everybody feeling so happy is not really believable either, because we don’t understand how a millionaire count has anything to win from a revolution that chases equality and fraternity, but we buy it anyway, just to see Colunga’s dimples.