Caray, Caray!

• We start with that great buildup of troops from the end of the last episode...
  
  ... Jimena staggering along under custody of her frosty sister Sarita [who's BTW gonna end up a spinster if she doesn't take off those glasses again!], it's a perp walk to Mommy -
  
  ... the Reyes brothers behind Eva, horrified eyes fixed upon the engineer who's been summoned by Gabriela (the one who designed the cabana but we never saw him again) -
  
  ... Mommy, clutching the envelope she got from the Doctor at the Asilo -
  
  ... and Sofia, determined to tell her Mom right this minute that she spurns precious yerno Furd [who never appears in this episode!! did he get a vacation?] in favor of the hairy baker who never wears a shirt...
  
  As Gramps watches through his telescope, all converge, and just as the engineer says he's never seen these bricklayers before in his life, Mommy "faints."
  
  Shirtless sweaty Juan picks her up and all troop into the house except for Oscar and Franco, frozen in a brief, pointless tableau staring blankly at the receding procession.
  
  
• Cut to the crooked Doc at the Asilo, chuckling at what a wad of cash Gabriela gave him just to provide a false medical certificate...
  
  ... the very certificate Sofia reads with horror as Gabriela is laid on a couch. "Oh no, this cannot be, she has a heart lesion [this reminded me immediately of the "brain cloud" Tom Hanks was supposed to be dying of in 'Joe and the Volcano' --Ed.] and is in danger!" Gramps is chuckling, he doesn't buy it: "Nah, weeds never die."
  
  
• Quintana goes to the market to gossip with her sister Hortensia, who fills her in on the Reyes' tragedy and is amused by Quintana referencing "mi don Juanito." They agree the widow is soulless. Quintana goes home and makes a little shrine for Libia at the bakery. When the boys arrive there are hugs all round and Juan is blank as he stands by the shrine. He kisses Libia's picture.
  
  
• The engineer congratulates the Reyes Bros. on the modifications they made to his plans - "You've greatly improved on my design! Good work! If you ever need a job, call me!" They are impactados in a good way. Heh.
  
  
• "Oh mother, why did you not tell us you were sick?" "I hide my troubles so as not to disturb you." "Please forgive my rebellion." "Do I have to die to get some obedience around here? I've been sick since your father betrayed me... [Gramps cannot stop grinning at this deluge of b-s] ... and you, Sofia! Oy, if I am not very careful I will die very soon! And who was it who hired those bricklayers?"
  
  Eva says she did it but Gramps busts in and says no, he hired them. "No, me!" "No, me!" Gabriela: "Well get rid of them!" Gramps: "No, don't run 'em off, you'll lose a lot of money and the work will stop and then you'll be stuck with me, don't forget, that's going to be my little house."
  
  Eva tells the Reyes boys about all this and how Gramps saved her butt with his false confession.
  
  The Reyes go see Gabriela, who frostily snaps: "I've been informed you aren't the real workers. How much of the job is left?" They mutter about the roof and the hardware. "Well, finish it fast! Now get out of here! Eva, you go too!"
  
  Gramps grins and asks to see the medical certificate but Gabriela grabs it very swiftly. "I just want to see if she needs an operation right away," he explains. Gab is indignant that he doubts her and cries, "My heart is not going to last much longer!"
  
  There are more miscellaneous scenes of the girls fussing over their mother, who says yet again, "I hope you realize everything I do is for your own good." When the last one leaves she smiles very happily and asks herself, "Why didn't I think of this before?"
  
  
• Gramps presses Eva: "I know the first time these boys came here, they were carrying guns. Who are they? Why are they here?" She doesn't tell. He goes to Gabriela's room, in his Sherlock Holmes outfit, and shuffles papers in her drawers, but is thwarted by a locked door.
  
  
• Father Bouffy visits the bakery to ask what's going down with the vengeance thing. Juan describes his dream of Libia appearing as an angel, giving him a flower, and his waking up with that very flower! And runs to get it and show it to Bouffy! Father Bouffy has been rolling his eyes a bit (I think) but he's not going to pass up whatever will keep Juan from hurting the Elizondo girls. He thanks God for sending Juan this flaky vision.
  
  
• After promising Gabriela tender devoted care yet again, Eva begs for info about her long missing daughter, and yet again Gabriela says nothin doin. "You want her to suffer? You want her to be ashamed knowing you are her mother? And how can you just rag on and on about your own little things when I am at death's door?"
  
  Gab is having a little get-together next day to introduce Jimena and Sarita to their newly-selected future husbands, Octavio and Benito Uribe, just back from Europe, "They're good people, like us, of our social class. I'm sure there will soon be a double wedding."
  
  
• I know Chris was disappointed on his night, so I hope he's enjoying Rosario's assets tonight. They are on display thrusting themselves way out of an odd jacket made from a shag rug.
  
  Franco sneaks up from behind and surprises her! How not cute! Then he takes her away from the Bad Love Bar for a nice picnic. He sings a little mariachi song, she sings a little pop song, "You sing nice," "No, you sing nice," him: "I want us to leave together and go where nobody knows us, where we can love each other freely," she says she can't go, she won't tell him her secret, he'll just have to trust her.
  
  Then they take off their clothes and go nekkid into the same body of water we have seen in many other novelas. And, whatever.
  
  
• Back at the Bollweevil Bakery, Juan has lovey-dovey flashbacks and then kisses his bun. Sofia is having flashbacks too, but she doesn't have a bun. She puts her head down on a chessboard and doesn't knock over any of the pieces.
  
  
• Jimena is loitering outside in the dark; Oscar sneaks up behind and surprises her. [I tell you, the Reyes think this is cute, they all do it, but myself, I hate it! A friend did this to me today and I jumped a yard in the air and shrieked as loud as an air raid siren! This will really give a person an infarto!!!] Jimena's moping because her unwanted suitor arrives tomorrow. Oscar says, "No, marry me!"
  
  
• Oscar and Juan are waiting at the Bad Love Bar when Franco and Rosario return. The boys have tequila except Juan has milk for his ulcer. (Heh.) They toast and remind each other it's all for one and one for all. Franco says he's not a kid. Oscar says he proposed to Jimena.
  
  
• Gabriela to Father Bouffy: "Oy, I don't know how much time I have left on this earth." The suitors arrive, at least they have shaved. They are wearing suits and ties. The Reyes commence hitting their thumbs with hammers etc as they watch. Gramps is observing the new arrivals through his telescope and is not impressed. "My daughter thinks the girls will marry these mamarrachos (defective, ridiculous, extravagant, not worthy of respect)??" Later he calls them mequetrefes (good-for-nothings).
  
  Peering around a corner, Sarita ventures that the Uribe Bros. are not bad looking, maybe even sexy, but Jimena says they don't compare to Oscar with his sweaty undershirt and perennial stubble. [OK I added that part.]
  
  Gabriela adulates the Uribes, they're just as wonderful as Furd! One of them says this pueblo seems awfully small after NYC and Europe, but they're back because their uncle Ricardo asked them to come, and they're considering starting a business. "Are you still bachelors?" "Yes! We don't want to give up our freedom! We're too young for responsibilities! We want to travel! Maybe live in Europe, where people are more liberal!" Franco hits his thumb again.
  
  
• Juan sneaks up behind Sofia as she languishes languidly against a wall. She does not shriek! He gives her a flower and asks why she's sad. "Not just because of mother, but because she's marrying off my sisters without love, the way she did me." Again with the "I have never given myself to Furd" speech. Again with the no shirt on. They kiss and kiss. She pulls away to rejoin the party and, watching her leave, he slumps, looking like he might have an infarto himself. Heh.
  
  
• Gramps observes his daughter, "Sister Storm," through the telescope as she gushes over the Uribe boys. He tells Eva he knows everything that goes on, and if he doesn't, he investigates. "Of course I know Sarita and Jimena love those bricklayers, everybody knows except my daughter." Eva thoughtbubbles, "It's good he doesn't know about Juan and Sofia."
  
  He approves of the lads, they have hearts of gold, and they're honest, they refused his doubloons when he offered them.
  
  Eva says Gab will never accept the lads, Gramps says "We need to develop a strategy." He reveals his cynical conviction that Gab is faking her illness, Eva is all ingenuous, no she couldn't, Gramps: "My daughter is capable of this and much more."
  
  Gramps asks Eva to find him a discreet locksmith so he can see what Gabriela is hiding. Eva is all for that - maybe there's information about her mysterious missing daughter in that cabinet!
  
  
• Sarita and Jimena meet the Uribes, who give them some modest little compliments, but then one of them (they have that Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee quality, I bet we never figure out which is which) complains to Jimena that her clothes are unfashionable! The Padre chides him so he takes another tack: "But we love girls with character!"
  
  Oscar is ready to go break their fingers.

The term may be a contraction of "Totanoca" although in reality it refers to "nacohatl" which means, "from around here" ... in modern times, the term is a bit ambiguous and confusing - even though it has been used disparagingly to mean indigenous people, most recently "nacos" are people who are short of culture, who do not have the urbanity of the upper classes. In general Mexican society uses this term indiscriminately in relation to economic status, social position, or even to signal a person who is different from others or has an unusual point of view.

Maybe from "Totonaca," a Mexican tribe of the Pre-Columbian era. Classless, pretentious, obtrusive, the Mexican version of white trash. Mostly blue-collar undereducated people, but can be applied even to a wealthier crowd (nouveaux riches, snob). They’re characterized for having no respect for others. Their only source of information is television. Males usually are truly soccer fans and females are telenovelas (soaps) fans. Most nacos like to name their sons with anglo-saxon names. It may be used as an adjective for both persons and objects.
"El Kevin cree que poniendole neon a su coche va a ser mas rapido, se ve bien naco."
"Kevin thinks that neon lights on his car will make it faster, it looks so naco."

Labels: Fuego

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