Caray, Caray!

Don't forget! Alborada starts Tuesday night, 10 PM, on Telefutura. Many count it as their all-time favorite telenovela. Almost everyone considers it one of Colunga's two best. With only 90 episodes, the plot really gallops. I've been told that it starts with a bang, so be sure not to miss the first episode!

I plan to post the page on Caray by 9 PM Eastern each night. For those who can't access Telefutura, I'll include a YouTube link for the night's episode. For now, here is an introduction to the characters and a synopsis of the plot.

Hipólita's People

Hipólita. Female lead. Antonio's wife. Illigitamate daughter of Asunción and Agustín.


Asunción. Hipólita and Catalina's mother, Francisco's wife, Andrés's stepmother.




Francisco. Hipólita's stepfather. Andrés and Catalina's father. Asunción's brutish husband.

Catalina. Andrés and Hipólita's half-sister. Asunción and Francisco's daughter. Forced into a convent by her father, to avoid paying a dowry.


Antonio. Hipólita's husband. Son of Doña Adelaida.







Luis's People

Luis. Male lead. Married to Agustín's daughter Esperanza. Believed to be Juana's son and cousin of the count. Actually he is the rightful count, son of the deceased count and countess.

Diego. Luis's cousin, believed to be the Count of Guevara. He is actually Juana's son, cousin of the true count. He is two months younger than Luis.




Doña Juana. Believed to be Luis's mother, but actually false-count Diego's mother and true-count Luis's aunt. The previous count's sister. Widowed. Her husband died when she was two months pregnant with Diego.

Isabel. Juana’s sister-in-law. Juana's husband was Isabel's brother. She's VERY rich. I think she never married. She was away in Peru when the fire occurred.



Esperanza. Luis's wife. Daughter of Agustín and his rich wife. Half-sister of Hipólita. She is too frail to carry a pregnancy to term.

Felipe. Luis’s right-hand man. Martin's father




Martín. Felipe's son. Young buck; recently attended university in Spain; now he works for Luis. He fell in love with Hipólita.


Cristóbal. Priest. Luis's best friend. His sister is Sor Teresa, abbess of the convent.


Perla. Luis's favored prostitute. He bought her freedom from the brothel and set her up in business.








Minor Characters

Marcos. One of Luis's men. He was a street orphan.



Marina. Isabel’s servant.



Adelaida. Antonio’s mother. Hipólita's mother-in-law.
Rodrigo. Antonio's friend.
Andrés. Hipólita's step-brother. Francisco's son, but not by Asunción.
Adalgisa. Hipólita's maid.
Rafael. Hipólita's son by Luis.
Agustín. Father to Hipólita and Esperanza. Knows Juana's secret.
Carlota. Hipólita's maternal grandmother.

Victoria. Marína’s mother.
Gasca. Diego’s henchman.
Modesta. Juana’s maid.
Vicente. Juana's prominent servant. He wears a silk head scarf.
Cirilo. Luis's white servant lad.
Carmela. Felipe’s wife, Martín’s mother.
Ramón and the mute. Two thugs.
Mirtha. Esperanza’s maid.
Carlos(?) and Aurora. The former count and countess.

Juana's "Debts"
The big secret of this novela is that Juana switched her son with the baby count. If that secret is found out, she and her son will be destroyed, so she must manage her house of cards very carefully.

Agustín knows the truth because he saw the identifying scar on Luis's leg. To keep him happy, Juana did three things: 1. She hid his illigitimate daughter Hipólita in Panama so her existence wouldn't embarass him. 2. She arranged for him to marry someone much richer than himself. 3. She married his homely, feeble-brained daughter Esperanza to her supposed son Luis, cousin of the count. Now she must keep Hipólita hidden, and keep Luis married to Esperanza, to continue to keep Agustín happy.

Asunción of course knows that Agustín is Hipólita's father. Juana must keep her happy or scared, to keep that secret. He got her a husband, the brute Francisco, with a promise that no one would find out that his wife had a baby before he knew her. I believe they live on their estate rent-free. Later Juana got Asunción's daughter into the convent and got her stepson Andrés a job working for the count.

Plot Synopsis
Translated from Esmas.com

The story takes place in colonial times in Latin America, a time of injustice and great differences between social classes, when people lived under the rule of the nobility, and everyone, rich and poor, under the dark shadow of the Inquisition.

María Hipólita Díaz lives with her grandmother, Doña Carlota, in the village of Santa Rita, Panama. Hipólita was born in Mexico but when she was very young she was separated from her mother, Asuncion, and does not know who her father is. In exchange for a handsome dowry, Doña Carlota manages to arrange the marriage of her granddaughter with Antonio, the son of Doña Adelaida de Guzman. That will trigger a series of events that completely changes Hipólita's life. Several months later, Doña Carlota dies without knowing that Antonio is impotent, Hipólita's marriage was not consummated, and Antonio’s mother Adelaida treated her with contempt for being illegitimate.

Knowing that Antonio will inherit the fortune of his uncle Prospero only if he has a child, Adelaida takes advantage of the fact that her servants have captured a fugitive. She makes him masquerade as Antonio and to have relations with Hipólita in the dark so she’ll become pregnant. The "criminal" is Luis Manrique y Arellano, a Mexican businessman who came to Santa Rita to close a deal on the orders of his cousin Diego, the Count of Guevara, suspecting it was part of a plot to kill him. Faced with the threat of being brought to justice, Luis pretends to accept Adelaida’s deal, but he intends to escape through the window instead. In the end, Hipólita’s tenderness seduces him and they make love. Afterwards he repents and confesses the truth to her. He leaves and Hipólita has neither learned his name nor seen his face. All she knows is that he is from Mexico.

Three years later, Hipólita arrives in Mexico with her young son Rafael, having escaped the evil Adelaida, and willing to confront everything to find the Mexican and force him to give his name to her son.

Amid a storm of intrigue and violence caused by Doña Juana, sister of the former Count of Guevara, Hipólita will have to fight for her son’s life and her own, while her heart is torn between hatred for the stranger who made her a woman with tenderness and passion, and the love she now feels for Luis, not knowing that both are the same man.

---

I'm the moderator, and if I want to add gratuitous eye candy, that's my prerogative!

Labels: Alborada, synopsis-cast