Caray, Caray!

Funny, the way Antonio played with his hair (is that the hairstyle my mom used to call a "flip"?) when Juana was questioning him about his marital status.

I'm not sure how to read that - as a nervous mannerism or something else - but it struck me as really funny.
 

I noticed that too, I think the wig was bothering him.
 

That wig is bad. The conversation between Juana and Antonio was weird. She asked him if he was married with children, and I thought he said ''no.'' Then, she asked him if he was divorced , and he said , ''Yes.'' Confusing. I guess he didn't want to say, ''Well, I am married, but I don't know where my wife is.'' For those of you who commented about the amount of time devoted to Martin's unfortunate demise....and on it goes. And it's still not over. Basta. I like that big bell that Modesta has around her neck. I wonder if that's so that Juana can keep track of her. And I expected Luis to plead his case with Hip a little more. I'm still confused that a little glimmer of recognition didn't spark in Hip's memory bank when they made love the second time around in the casa he was buying for Raf and her. By the way, Luis's real estate agent must be a happy guy. First, Luis buys the little casa for Perla as a lovely parting gift ,and then he wants a nice big place for Hip and Son to live.
 

susanlynn: I wonder if Modesta's bell is the equivalent of La Poderosa's servant's wooden clanking things. Perhaps it just announces their presence. Very weird, but I'm sure they wouldn't have included such nutty details without some reason.
 

Martín... doesn't he look natural?

Carlos
 

Carlos~~~Martin looks really good for a dead guy.
 

Carlos, very funny. I've actually heard people say that at viewings. I wonder what they did for embalming in those days. Of course he had been bounced around in the carriage for several days prior to the funeral.
 

LOL, I hear that at EVERY funeral. I think people just say these things because it can be difficult to think of something else to say.

I don't think they did much embalming in those days. Not for regular people, anyway. Though if there is anyone in Martin's neighborhood who would know how to embalm a body, it would be Cristobal!

Ah, wikipedia says embalming didn't really catch on until the Civil War, and formaldehyde wasn't invented until just after the war. I don't remember exactly when Alborada takes place, but I'd guess that they would have had to go out of their way to find an embalmer.

Even nowadays they still don't embalm everywhere, and some religions forbid it. Every once in a while you'll read about somebody in rural Mexico or South America or Asia or elsewhere waking up from a coma, very surprised to be surrounded by equally surprised mourners at his own wake.

So I don't know what they did/still do to keep bodies from getting stinky when they're not embalmed, but I'm willing to bet the smell had a lot to do with the custom of sending flowers to grieving families.
 

"He looks like he's asleep,
It's a shame that he won't keep.
But it's summer and we're running Out of ice (out of ice)."

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Our story was some time between the French Revolution (Happy Bastile Day, everyone!), and the Mexican Revolution. That would put it between 1789 & 1810.

I can't imagine that they did open caskets before embalming came into vogue.

Julie, as I'm sure you know (don't you have Irish roots?), the custom of the wake was to make so much noise that if the corpse was actually not dead but "asleep" (coma), you'd "wake" him up. Apparantly there used to be widespread fear of being buried alive.
 

International business can be such a delicate affair. You can never be quite certain what things might offend someone from a different culture. Take for example Diego. There he is, trying to convince Antonio to buy into a partnership with him. Diego probably doesn't realize that in Antonio's country, it's considered offensive to say, "You apparantly don't like women."
 

Bonjour all. Sorry for the late comment but it's been a very busy day. The comments on Antonio's wig are funny. I recall we were quite obsessed with it and the accompanying hand gestures the first time around.

Diego is an incredible boor. Funny how I thought Antonio was a huge creep in Panama but compared to Diego he's quite the gentleman. Likable even. Although still weird.

Hipolita was at her hiccupy best in this episode.

Paula, you are so right that international business can be very delicate. It certainly behooves both sides to try to understand the other. Diego is hopeless I fear. There is that crazy mask thingie that continues to rear its ugly head.

Dang, Victoria's stint at the pirate queen felt very short-lived. I prefer her bossing around ne'er-do-wells on the beach.

Carlos, very interesting screen shot, all in black.

Thank you Paula, Carlos and Melinama for the recaps. And thank you Variopinta for the best avatar ever.
 

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I finally watched the two episodes before heading to bed last night. Hip really is refusing to listen to reason, isn’t she. I understand her initial anger, but now that she has her child back in her arms, and has her sister talking sense to her, she should be able to reason and realize that Luis would not have gone through the trouble of rescuing her if his only intent had been to steal Rafa away from her. And yes, Luis should have fought a little harder to get her to listen to sense. It seems that Hip would be able to forgive his omitting that he was the mystery boinker out of fear of her reaction. But from the things she said it doesn’t seem that she is able to forgive the act of the boinking in the first place. And I kind of agree with her. So does Marina, but Isabel’s only excused Luis by saying, well he got turned on. What’s a man to do? She got turned on too. Marina rightly pointed out she thought she was getting turned on by her HUSBAND. Frankly, he did not HAVE to boink her. He could have done exactly what he did to her AFTER he boinked her—gagged her, tied her up, told her what her suegra and husband had done, and made his escape. I’m not sure how he ever explains away this total lapse in character and judgement.
 

I’m fine with mourning Martin for a few days, as in real life. I remember being a little WTF when Linda died in TDA and people mourned for like two seconds and then went about their business. And I didn't even like Linda!

Obviously you all have not heard about the woman who woke up at her own funeral a few weeks ago in Russia:
June 25, 2011
Fagilyu Mukhametzyano, was pronounced dead after she collapsed at her home after suffering from a heart attack.

Her spouse Fagili made all the arrangements for her funeral. But it seems, Fagilyu was not dead. She woke-up in her coffin listening to mourners around her praying for her soul. Shocked, she started to scream.

Fagili immediately took his wife to the hospital, but she lived only for another 12 minutes in Intensive care. It is believed that she died of shock.
 

Carlos, thank you for the picture, as always a masterpiece. About open caskets... In my country when I was growing up there was not embalment and we still had the open casket viewing. They used to place a enormous piece of ice on the grown right below th casket. Now, people are buried there very quick because of decomposition. Even today; if someone dies in the morning it is buried in the early evening, if in the evening early morning. There's no three days on a hose carriage then taken out of the casket, lye the person on the bed...
I can't take Adalgiza and how a bad influence she is to Hip. IF Luis only wanted Rafael, he would have him no matter what. What would Hip, or Adalgiza do if that was the case. That woman is annoying.
 

No, Paula, I'm not Irish. Mostly French (via Canada) and a little bit Scottish.

I do remember that in FELS, after they fished the body of the murdered sister (played by Sherlyn) out of the river, they then kept her apparently unembalmed self on display for several days before burying her in a cave. Ugh.

Keeping dead people around is dangerous. Bad stuff comes out of decaying corpses, especially in hot weather! I do think they planned to bury Martin ASAP, but Mom needed to say goodbye, and I guess her grief was greater than the smell.

Regarding good manners, don't forget, Diego can say whatever he wants, because he's the Count! No, really! For reals! How many times must he tell you? One, one time! Bwahahaha! Two, two times! Ahahahaha! THREE, three times...

(Sorry, I thought a bad Count joke was way overdue.)

Vivi, you're too smart. Of course Luis didn't have to do the mystery boinking, and now that you mention it, I wonder why he did - considering he didn't want to, originally! I know Hip caught him trying to sneak out, but that would have been a good time for him to explain, rather than, you know.

Also, poor Fagilyu and Fagili. What a cruel ending to that story!