Thursday, September 14, 2006

Barrera de Amor: the early years. (Backstory)

It appears the characters in Barrera are going to keep sharing the information below with each other over and over until the show ends. To keep from having to type it over and over, here it is all in one place. I'm doing this from memory and I never paid much attention, so corrections are welcome. Jean helped me with some of this, thanks Jean!

Forty-some years ago, Pedro Vallodolid, a basically good rich dude, was forced to marry Jacinta (she was a nobody and her brother is Sergio). He was in love with Remedios, a humble girl. The night he was going to go off with Remedios, Jacinta sicced a big bull on him and he was trampled to death.

Remedios gave birth to Federico, Pedro's illegitimate son. Jacinta gave birth to Adolfo, Pedro's legitimate son. Remedios cut a Faustian bargain with Jacinta - she and Federico would live at the hacienda with Jacinta and Adolfo - and Federico would eventually get half the estate - but nobody would know about this little deal. It turned out rotten for Remedios, who was treated like a servant and lost the affections of her own son, who turned out completely evil and has been for many years an equal partner in crime with Jacinta.

Recently Remedios married Octavio, a nice professor, and they half-heartedly tried to convince Federico that Octavio was his dad. This hasn't gone well. Federico despises him.

Also forty-some years ago, Eloisa and Jose Maldonado had a thing. And so Eloisa had Maite. There was some misunderstanding and they never saw each other again and then Eloisa died and Maite was raised by her aunt Griselda. Maite never knew she had a rich wine-selling father; Jose now knows she's his daughter, but she doesn't. None of the Maldonado siblings married, they all live together and now Sergio (Jacinta's brother, who knows quite a few secrets) lives with them too.

Adolfo (son of Pedro Valladolid and Jacinta) lusted after Maite, who only had eyes for Unibrow (I know, I know). Adolfo raped Maite and so Unibrow pummelled him and was thrown in jail - Jacinta planned to keep him there forever.

Adolfo then blackmailed Maite into marrying him - it was the price of Unibrow's freedom. Unibrow felt thrown over, not knowing about the blackmail. Due to being raped, Maite had a baby, Valeria.

Jacinta was hot to raise Valeria as a Valladolid, and wanted to get Maite out of the way. She got a bent doctor to give her poison powders which she dumped in Maite's tea. Maite got nauseated, couldn't care for her baby, dropped her down the stairs, etc.

Then one day Federico whispered to Maite: Now's your chance to get away - Unibrow wants you to take your baby and meet him at the 8:00 train. So she left - but Unibrow (who knew nothing about this) had left on the 7:00 train. They didn't see each other again for many years. She was discredited; driven from the hacienda, she took refuge with her friend Magdalena who was a hooker in Elvira's house of ill-repute. Maite's picture got in the paper with the hookers. This is what Jacinta is now using to prove to Valeria that her mom was a mujerzuela.

Gustavo was a rich, older neighbor. He married young Manola, who had been cavorting with evil young Federico and never stopped (and is still doing so), and in fact Manola had a son by Federico - Rodrigo - who was raised as Gustavo's son, and used to be evil, but is now rehabilitated. Federico knows he's Rodrigo's dad, but Rodrigo doesn't. Gustavo knows Rodrigo is not his "natural" son but loves him anyway.

Manola threw Gustavo over a balcony and he was grievously wounded but survived. She didn't manage to finish killing him before he escaped; he is now living in Maite's apartment plotting vengeance. Nicolas is Manola's father and his complicity in her schemes extended to murdering Omar, Gustavo's attendant. Now Nicolas washes his hands a lot but they always look bloody to him...

Veronica is the (illegitimate) daughter of Adolfo and Magdalena the good-hearted whore. She, therefore, is also a Vallodolid, but she doesn't know it. She witnessed her mother's murder as a toddler and due to the shock has two secret selves - Vera (the bad, loud one) and Violetta (the sweet, submissive one), corresponding to her favorite dolls. She was raised by Maite and Victor, who lived together as friends until Victor found his true love Guillermo.

Veronica currently resides in the loony bin, where Doctor Monica has not figured out yet how to cure her.

Unibrow was a veterinarian. He had two sons by his first dead wife - Andres and Daniel. In their young years Maite was like their mom. After Maite married Adolfo, Unibrow married Nuria, a very nice woman who deserved better. Nuria raised his sons (while he was moping over Maite) and then got brain cancer and then Manola killed her, so Nuria (pregnant at the time) became Unibrow's second dead wife. Jean tells me Manola also killed Nuria's parents.

Now Andres has become a bullfighter, which Unibrow forbade for a stupid reason, so they are estranged. Andres loved Valeria, married her in secret, then they were parted due to Jacinta's machinations (in which Rodrigo participated). She went off to a convent and bore little Pedrito. Andres thinks Valeria's now a nun (she isn't) and doesn't know she bore him a son (little Pedrito) who is now installed at Jacinta's hacienda as a foundling (because Valeria didn't have the nerve to admit Pedrito is her son and, therefore, also a Vallodolid). Jacinta tried to murder Pedrito and may try again.

Andres' brother Daniel married Juanita (daughter of Theodoro and Martina) and got her pregnant with little Daniel. Then big Daniel died of a heart condition while trying to make peace between Unibrow and Andres. Unibrow, who went into the wine business with the Maldonados, took a job overseas and disappeared. He recently came back rich, bought Las Barricas, a nice place in Aguascaleintes, and his daughter-in-law (the widowed Juanita) and baby Daniel now live with him.

Besides killing her own husband by having him trampled by a bull, Jacinta also killed Maite's aunt Griselda and Teodoro's wife Martina when they discovered her poison-tea scheme - she burned them up in Martina's house. Then she killed the Padre to whom she confessed her murders (by letting him die on the floor when his medicine was within reach). Federico killed Adolfo, his half-brother, but nobody knows that.

Before getting roasted Griselda wrote a letter to Unibrow explaining how Maite sacrificed herself for him, but Manola and Federico intercepted it. It came into Unibrow's hands only recently, leading to a rapprochement between him and his one true love, and they are now trying to turn the tables on their enemies.

Jean says: "Let's compare murderers on this novela:

Federico - 1 (Adolfo)

Nicolas - 1 (Omar)

Rafael - 2 (Magdalena & Jacaranda's husband)

Manola - 3 1/2 (Nuria, Nuria's parents - she cut the gas line on Nuria's car - and Nuria's unborn child) plus 1 attempted (Gustavo)

Jacinta - 4 (Pedro, priest, Griselda, Martina) plus 1 attempted (baby Pedro)"

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Comments:
Very good, Melinama. I just have a couple of corrections:
-Unibrow found out that Adolfo raped Maite and he beat Adolfo up and that was why he got sent to prison.
-Nuria had a brain tumor but she was killed by Manola who turned on the gas on the stove while Nuria was asleep from her brain tumor medication. Why would Manola kill Nuria? To be able to get close to Unibrow who she wants for some reason.
So let's compare murderers on this novela:
Federico - 1 (Adolfo)
Nicolas - 1 (Omar)
Rafael - 2 (Magdalena & Jacaranda's husband)
Manola - 3 1/2 (Nuria, Nuria's parents (she cut the gas line on Nuria's car)and Nuria's unborn child
1 attempted - Gustavo
Jacinta - 4 (Pedro, priest, Griselda, Martina)
1 attempted (baby Pedro)
 

One of my favorite characters in "Barrera is the cat that lived with Gustavo in his "prison".
The cat meows constantly and everyone has to speak their lines over him, but he never said a word when he was with Gustavo.
 

Why "Unibrow" ?

It seems a little mean-spirited to make fun of a physical characteristic, and not in keeping with the general tone of this blog, which I've always found very amusing and clever, and lighthearted.

It actually becomes annoying to read that epithet over and over.

Please occasionally call him Luis Antonio.
Thanks for the recaps. They're invaluable.
 

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