Caray, Caray!

Loved the silver mantilla in your screen shot Carlos. Doña Juana's headgear reminded me of my grandmother, once her hair turned gray, she switched from black to silver (the prerogative of age):
 

tonight on telefutura: Ladron que roba a ladron with Fernando Colunga, Miguel Varoni and Saul Lizaso
 

I think the Spanish part of my brain was broken today... I had difficulty following pretty much every conversation that wasn't covered in Melinama's very thorough recap... Asuncion was concerned about a letter, what was that all about? Is she worried that Antonio will see the return address?

And where did those guys come from that Perla was plotting with? I think one of them mentioned Felipe.

And it seemed that Luis knew that Rodrigo was coming and that he was a friend of Antonio's. How does he know that much about Antonio's social circle? (Or was business with Rodrigo the reason he went to Santa Rita in the first place?)

Sorry for these dopey questions... hopefully my Spanish won't be broken tomorrow too.
 

OK Julie, this is what I got (despite the captions being totally out of synch). Asuncion realized she had sent a letter to her mom (Hip's abuela) shortly before Hip arrived in Cuencas, not realizing that the lady was dead. This would mean that it could have fallen into the hands of the bad suegra and/or Antonio.

The guys Perla met up with were buddies of what'shisname who was one of Gasca's henchmen who I died after one of those dark encounters with Luís' guys out on the highway somewhere. I'm sorry to be vague,but I haven't been watching all along and I'm afraid of spoilers about particular events. He was the long-haired bad guy whose name I've forgotten, but Perla knew him from the burdel.

Luis knew the name of Rodrigo's father—he was the Panamanian buyer who was defrauded in the cochinilla deal by Diego—and so when Hip was concerned about the letter (see above) and the talk turned to Santa Rita, Luís thought to ask her if she knew of this guy. And of course, she said, yes, he (the son,Rodrigo) is my husband's best friend.
 

Oh, and the dead guy was the brother of Perla's brothel-mate. The one who stole the letter off Vicente, who they left for dead in the road. These two creeps were buddies and you might as well get used to them, because they will show up a lot more before we're through. The little guys is slick and slimy and the big guy is mute and maybe retarded.
 

Julie, Asunción said that she had sent a letter to Grandma a couple of days before Hipólita arrived. She didn't realize that the old lady had died.

Felipe and Luis are selling some bugs that red dye is made from (I think I learned this from Sylvia) to a guy in Santa Rita, Panama and his nephew Rodrigo is coming to represent him. Luis found this out from Felipe.

Perla has previously done business with these guys. I think that she may be planning something naughty involving Hipólita.

Carlos
 

Wow, thank you lxv. No wonder I was confused - I didn't fully understand the whole backstory on some of that stuff when it happened, and didn't recognize those guys.

Some days I get everything, and some days I don't get anything. Usually I luck out and don't miss anything important, but it seems I've been hitting the other jackpot lately. I really miss those captions!!
 

And thank you too, Carlos. Yes, Perla is hatching some mischief against Hip with those guys. One of them seemed to be hoping to kill her, but Perla said she'd be happy enough just to send her home to her husband in Panama. (Okay, so I did understand a FEW things today!)
 

Julie, the captions are pretty worthless when they don't coincide with the dialogue. But I have a complete (almost) set of disks and have seen this several times through. So, it's not that my spanish is so great; I just know the story.
 

Julie, it looks like Agnes understands things better than I do. I didn't know that there was a problem with the bug deal. I should have been paying better attention. As for Perla and her friends, I just assumed that they are up to no good.

Carlos
 

Carlos & Julie, they ARE up to no good. They are low-class gangsters whose solution is to provide services for anyone who will pay. They are trying to persuade Perla to have Hip either killed or sent back to Panama.

And the bug deal is a big deal. It seems Diego had adulterated some lots of the cochinilla dye and sold them to the Panamanian. This was discovered on the docks and Diego & Co. (which up 'til now has included Luis as a partner, although he wants out in a big way) are being sued for fraud. That was the urgent message Malachias had to tell Diego when he was more interested in his fencing lesson. Juana already knows this and when Felipe came to announce Luis' decision to quit the partnership, she was aghast and made all kinds of fake overtures, including putting her hand on Felipe's shoulder and thanking him for his devoted service over the past 15+ years to her "son". By the look on his face, he didn't buy it for a minute. The other bad business deals have to do with a collapse in one of the silver mines in which Diego has heretofore refused to improve safety, against the advice of Luis. There has been loss of life, but of more concern to Diego and Juana is the interruption in revenue from the mine. Several times they said "We are on the brink of financial ruin."
 

Julie...thanks for that mention of brain slippage concerning Spanish. Some days my "ear" works better than others, as well. No captions for my discs to help me out. I figure we'll really be set when we can understand what the retarded guy is saying! That should make us ready to graduate summa cum laude in understanding the language.
 

Ah, the plot thickens. There are so many things happening as of today's episode.

Damn that Perla! Why do the bad girls have to try our patience so?

I'm glad Francisco got his wretched butt kicked out of Las Tunas but I feel bad for Asuncion. However it looks like our wily Cristobal plans to use things to his advantage. Good for him!

As I recall from watching this before, the exportation of cochineal was a very big business. I just checked the wikipedia entry and during the colonial period it was the second most valued export after silver. So thanks to Diego he has pretty much screwed up the two most important export products going on at the time.
 

I forgot to say thanks to Paula for posting the recaplet and links, thanks to Carlos for the wonderful screen shot, and thank you lxv for the cute story about your grandmother.
 

Agnes, thank you, thank you, thank you, for such a clear explanation of the business complications. I don't think I understood it this well the first time around even when I was paying close attention. I did know that the count was bolluxing things up, I understood the stuff at the mine, but now I think I probably understand the business dealings probably even better than the count does. You are a sweetheart.

I enjoyed watching Doña Juana try to sweet talk Felipe and even wondered for a moment if perhaps there had been something between the two of them in the past.

Carlos
 

Well, it looks like Perla is not happy about the fact that the little casa from Luis is actually a ''lovely parting gift...thanks for playing.'' She also seems to be resisting Luis's offer of occupational retraining. Didn't she say ''My job is taking CARE of you.'' She added that she accepted that he was married but wouldn't tolerate him being with other women. He told her that their relationship was over , but if she needed anything ''you know where I live. '' This did not make our Perla happy. I think she called him an imbecile as he left. As for the two minor criminals, the little one was with Gasca and that other longhaired bad guy [the one that Felipe stabbed and Andres later smothered ] at the inn where Luis, Martin, and Marcos stopped after leaving Las Tunas. I guess the little guy and the big mute guy have now teamed up. At the end, the little guy suggests to Perla that she should kill Hip [whom Perla likes to call ''a dead fly.''] Perla says that she's not a murderer, but she'd like Hip to return to her husband in Santa Rita. The little guy tells her ''With monry, anything is possible.'' At the very end, Cristobal is talking to his trusted servant who suggests that Cris should ''look for a wife.''
 

The shipment of bugs (cochineal for dye) to a buyer in Panama had been adulterated with something else as a filler. This was Diego's brilliant idea because for some reason he was short the product. So the buyer (Rodrigo's Dad) sued for fraud and won. Now Juana and Diego have to pay a big fine for the fraud. The amount is to be determined after a negotiation between the two parties, that is why Rodrigo is coming to Cuencas on his father's behalf.

Yeah - all of Diego's lousy business dealings are really coming back to haunt him LOL!

Audrey
 

A few names we'll need:
Ramón - the thug that travels with the mute.
Rodrigo - Friend of Antonio (Hipo's husband), from Panama. He's coming to Mex about the business.

When Ramón was talking to Perla, he eagerly offered to kill whoever was the problem. Like, "Can I kill her? Can I? Can I?"

Hipo was so worried about her mother's letter - that Antonio will use that to find her. That's the least of her worries, now that Rodrigo is on his way to meet the count. But even if she dodges that bullet... Remember? In the coach heading to Cristobal's, Perla started questioning Hipo and found out her husband's name and where he lived. Perla tried to get Martin to take Hipo away, and that didn't work. I'm sure Perla could make good use of knowing Antonio's whereabouts.
 

I think Juana offered Felipe a bribe. Not that she said that per se. But she said something like, "You've done so much to help my son for a long time, and I've never done anything to show you my appreciation. It's about time that I do that. Oh, and don't tell Luis I said so." Felipe left, and Juana asked Modesta, "Do you think he'll tell Luis?" Without a pause, Modesta said, "Yep."

But I'm just trying to remembger what it was that Juana wanted Felipe to DO, for which she was offering to show her "appreciation." She thinks she can bribe Luis's right-hand man with wealth? Yeah, right!
 

Great comments today. Thanks everyone for making the bug business clear!

Paula- Juana was trying to convince Felipe to either convince Luis not to withdraw his investment in the business, or to do it (meaning not withdraw Luis' investment) without Luis knowing.
 

Anyone have prickly pear cactus growing in their area? It's really wide spread in North and South America and is not limited to desert, so you might be surprised. It grows in every state and province except for the most northern territories of Canada and Alaska.

If you see some, scrape off some of that small white fuzzy stuff with a key or something. Then wipe it on some tissue, squish it. You'll see a deep red or maybe purple liquid.

Then think of all the British Redcoats fighting in the American Revolution - those were all dyed with cochineal.

Here's a neat site on cochineal Cochineal Scale Cactus DesertUSA

Audrey
 

Paula, as you can tell I've not been paying very close attention to the business stuff, but I thinks that she simply wants Felipe to convince Luis not to bail out on his cousin.

Carlos
 

Another cochineal anecdote:

In my visit to Oaxaca (the same one where we visited the mescal factory/restaurant), we visited a native village that specialized in textiles. We visited one of the artisan shops, where the family explained how they harvested the cochineal and processed it to produce their dye. They also showed us a jar of bugs.

The cool thing was that the process was explained in Zapotec, which was then translated to Spanish, and then to English. I felt a kinship to the natives when I realized that Spanish was a second language to them too.

Audrey
 

Great stories Audrey. When I was in Peru a few years ago I visited a textile village. They demonstrated how they used natural products to make their dyes. I got very excited when I saw them using the cochineal because I knew a little about it thanks to Alborada. The man pointed to a beautiful lavender color and indicated it is also from cochineal. I asked him how cochineal could make the lavender color and he blushed. I kept asking and finally he whispered "orino". Orino? What in the heck is that? After a moment the light bulb turned on over my head, he was saying "urine". Add pee to the cochineal and you get lavender. We all got a good laugh out of that.

Carlos, I agree, Juana was asking Felipe to urge Luis not to pull his money out of the family's investments.

Juana is complicated. When she touched Felipe I wondered if there was a bit of flirtation involved, but I think it had more to do with the fact that she deigned to touch someone of a lower class than herself, reaching out as it were. She didn't fool him for a moment though.
 

Prickly Pear grows all over out the San Francisco bay area. In fact the ranchos used to plant Prickly Pear barriers around their houses and compounds to keep the bears out. There bears are gone but the Prickly Pear remains.
 

Paula, Carlos and faithful fans that comment often, thank you. I have watched this TN several times because it is my very favorite. All of the comments this time around have added a new dimension to my understanding of what is really going on. I wish I had found all of you the first time.

After watching StuD recentl, the thing that really stands out with this with viewing is how young Lucero looks. Her face has really matured (in a good way) in recent years. I also think Colunga looks older in this one. Either way, they are terrific together.

I love Juana, she is such a great villainess!

Audrey thanks for the info about the cactus. I have lived in South Texas all of life and never knew about the dye. I guess this explains why the pears are deep red.

Carlos, you have come a long way with your screen shots, I remember your angst with the first attempt. Of course, the first was terrific but they now seem very easy for you and you always capture the best.

Thanks to all.

Rosemary
 

Welcome, Rosemary. Don't be shy, post some more! We like hearing from everyone.

Alborada was the novela that gave birth to Caray Caray, so almost nobody knew about the site back then. Sylvia, were you on board then? In fact, I didn't even discover TN's until Fea, after Alborada had finished.

Audrey, I volunteer down at the elem school, helping the new arrivals learn English. I've had five kids that were from Oaxaca (Mixtecos), and although they know SOME Spanish, they're by no means fluent. I believe their parents know almost no Spanish. The boys seem to adapt much more easily than the girls. They're pretty resiliant, whereas the girls have been painfully shy. I think it's a cultural thing - women are expected to stay in the background, almost invisible, in mixed company. At least it seems like that from what I've seen.
 

Oh, and Rosemary, wait until you see the shot Carlos captured for tomorrow! I just need to come up with a good caption for it. Carlos, any ideas? Maybe "Elvis has left the zocalo."
 

Paula, I started reading Melinama's Alborada posts right about where we are in the story, maybe a week earlier. I spoke no Spanish at all when Alborada started but learned as the telenovela progressed. I even did one or two guest recaps but I think they were dreadful. Maybe they weren't SO bad considering I only knew the present tense of verbs at the time. However I recall being completely at a loss when the closed caps weren't working. At the time it originally aired I worked with two women from Mexico so I would take notes and then they would help me the next day with words and phrases.

Welcome back Rosemary! Thanks for commenting.

All right, I'm intrigued about tomorrow's screen shot.
 

I found Melinama's site when I surfed into Alborada one fine day at about the halfway point of the tn. I felt like I had discovered gold because I couldn't understand anything that they were saying.
 

Have you noticed that the creepy director in TdA is the same actor who plays the creepy commandant in Alborada ?
 

GREAT comments on this one - very helpful. Thank you!!
 

Susanlynn, if the commandant is the guy I'm thinking of he also played the creepy mafia stalker guy in Llena. He kidnapped a woman so he could play trivial pursuit with her and say her name, Camiiiiiilaaaaa. Gotta love these crazy characters.