Friday, July 13, 2012

Weekend Discussion: Telenovela Villains -- More Parental Toxicity


Dirty Dozen #2: Toxic and Controlling Fathers

The other side of toxic parenting is the Controlling Father. While his female counterpart typically controls through guilt or other forms of emotional blackmail, he typically controls through the purse strings, sometimes also with keys and locks; insults and emotional blackmail are often his last resort. Most are wealthy and powerful, some are insecure and merely selfish, and some still are perverse.  Not as common as the Controlling Mother and usually less deadly, but perversion can compensate for that.  Some of these are candidates for redemption, although most usually pay the ultimate price.

It is rather surprising also, that this is the province of specialists and there are fewer actors cast in these series-length roles than for controlling mothers.  Why do you think this is?  I think it must be the deep voices.

Who is the most evil of them all?



Character (Actor): Alvaro Montellano (Sergio Goyri)
Series: Duelo de Pasiones (2006)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Unlawful detention (2 counts), domestic violence, attempted murder (2 counts)
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Psychological torture, banishment of daughter, prevarication
Interim Punishment(s): Arrest and trial
Karmageddon: Mauled to death by jaguar when attempting to save lives of wife and daughter







Character (Actor): Rodrigo Montes de Oca (Enrique Rocha)
Series: Yo Compro Esa Mujer (1991) / Corazón Salvaje (2009)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Murder for hire, unlawful detention, fraud
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Psychological torture
Interim Punishment(s): Threat of bankruptcy, social ostracism
Karmageddon: Manacled in basement of hacienda with no hope of rescue (YCEM) / Death by heart attack in prison following apology to his victims (CS '09)



Character (Actor): Federico Rivera (Cesar Evora)
Series: Abrazame Muy Fuerte (1999)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Murder (multiple counts), attempted murder (multiple counts), rape (2 counts), attempted rape (1 count), embezzlement of public funds
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Adultery, bastardy with paternal neglect (2, possibly 3 counts), prevarication, confessional abuse, psychological torture
Interim Punishment(s): Accident in hacienda, haunted by demon in possession of Raquela Campusanos while in hospital
Karmageddon: Shot to death by Raquela; soul spirals downward into hell



Character (Actor): Juan Jaime Mondragón (Juan Ferarra)
Series: La Fuerza del Destino (2010)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Embezzlement
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Psychological torture, humiliation of wife and children, abandonment of former mistress and illegitimate child
Interim Punishment(s): Contracting chronic disease
Karmageddon: Abandonment by family



Character (Actor): Rafael del Junco (Carlos Bracho)
Series: El Derecho de Nacer (2001)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Unlawful detention, kidnapping, murder and attempted murder for hire
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Psychological torture, prevarication
Interim Punishment(s): Illness during epidemic
Karmageddon: Madness followed by incarceration in manicomio



Character (Actor): Francisco Escobar (Manuel Ojeda)
Series: Alborada (2005)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Spousal abuse
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Unlawful detention (of daughter in convent)
Interim Punishment(s): None I can think of
Karmageddon: Abandonment by wife and daughter



Character (Actor): Clemente Soriano (Eric del Castillo)
Series: Niña Amada Mia (1998)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Unlawful detention (of Carolina)
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Attempt at controlling daughters' love lives, forced marriage of youngest daughter
Interim Punishment(s): Threat of bankruptcy
Karmageddon: None; he repented and won back the love of his daughters.



Character (Actor): Mariano Díaz de León (Enrique Rocha)
Series: Por un Beso (2000)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Murder, perjury, fraud, kidnapping
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Adultery, attempt to control son's lives, emotional abuse of wife
Interim Punishment(s): Temporary paralysis, abandonment by wife
Karmageddon: Shot to death by police



Character (Actor): Grigorio Negrete (Sergio Reynoso)
Series: El Talismán (2012)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Aggravated assault, felony murder, reckless endangerment, fraud, extortion
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Adultery (with daughter-in-law and others), luring addict to ruin,  attempt to control children and grandchildren
Interim Punishment(s): None (that I know of)
Karmageddon: Suicide



Character (Actor): Atilio Montenegro (Cesar Evora)
Series: Mariana de la Noche (2003)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Murder (multiple counts, some prior to first episode), attempted murder (multiple counts), incest, business fraud, unlawful detention, rape
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Psychological torture
Interim Punishment(s): None
Karmageddon: Falls to death in chasm near mine



Character (Actor): August Castañon  (Alejandro Camacho)
Series: Abismo de Pasión (2012)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law: Attempted murder
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law: Rejection of daughter; vilification of deceased wife; pedophilic lust
Interim Punishment(s):   Arrest, but only for a short time
Karmageddon: Murdered by Carmina



Character (Actor):   Gabino Raura Beltran (Sergio Goyri)
Series:   Mi Pecado (2009)
Crimes Punishable by Man's Law:   Murder, business fraud
Crimes Punishable by Divine Law:   Psychological and physical abuse of his children, adultery, lustful intent toward significantly younger woman
Interim Punishment(s):  None I can remember
Karmageddon:   Murdered accidentally by his son


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Comments:
Wow UA. Did you already do one for narcissistic mothers and I missed it?

Anyway, this was so interesting. Hard for me to picture Cesar Evora and Eric del Castillo as villains but I'm sure they did a great job.

And you were already with Augusto's dramatic demise. Well done amiga.

Y muchos gracias. You always add a little extra telenovela fun to our weekends.
 

oh dear...all ready and muchAs gracias...too bleary-eyed to proof-read.
 

This comment has been removed by the author.
 

JudyB, that was two weeks ago:

Controlling Mothers

If you want to see the Remake Games, I'll get those for you.
 

Yes, thanks for the links UA. Just wonderful. Will go to Controlling Mothers right now.
 

Wow. The Mothers List was awesome. Realize the reason I missed it was because our power went out the night before and stayed off for the next six days. Thanks for all your hard work. These women are really awesome. Tia of LQNPA is the only one, I think, who can also be delightfully funny.
 

I stopped laughing at Rosaura's antics a long time ago. Her tackiness also disturbs me. If this were the South I think we'd be calling her White Trash.

Per the discussion Rosaelena of Refugio will make the next list, especially after last night's episode when Padre Honesto finally got fed up with her.

Since it's just the two of us here I don't know if I will do the next pair of lists although there are many evil ones to put on them. By tomorrow this gallery will be pushed off the home page.
 

Wow. I haven't seen most of these and couldn't think of many more. Maybe controlling fathers aren't as big in TNs as controlling mothers are.

In any case, I did see the one in Alborada but have a feeling that his pettiness probably prevents him from making the top 5 list of heavy-duty evil dads.

The only other evil dad I could think of was in Pasión - the guy who ended up with a hook hand. I don't even remember what he did, just that I was very happy when he got his karmageddon.

I keep thinking I must have seen others, but I cannot come up with any! Maybe I just don't watch the kinds of TNs that have evil fathers.
 

It's a shame for this to get pushed off the main page. I know a lot of peopled would enjoy it, just like they did the Controlling Mothers. Since it's listed on the links, I hope more people will find it UA. You do a wonderful job with these, and it makes up for the fact that there are no telenovelas over the weekend. We're having withdrawal symptoms. At least I am!

Yes, Tia is an abomination but the actress plays her for laughs very well. I have a great deal of respect for this thespian ever since I saw her in Amor Real.
 

UA thanks for this list. I think the reason why there are more controlling mothers than fathers is so many depictions of women in the media are negative. And men being controlling is viewed as being more natural.

If you don't mind any suggestions, I would like to see how the punishments of male and female villains compare. I know several recappers have noted that women seem to be far harsher treatment than men.

Finally UA since vertelenovela website is a problem, where can I find Abismo? Thanks in advance.
 

I actually think that evil mothers are just more lethal because of the greater influence mothers in general have over their children, particularly when they're young. They're also better at handing out guilt for the same reason.

Karen, try this. Scroll down for the list.

As to how the punishments play out, I think that there is a higher repentance rate among controlling fathers. Since they are usually less guilty of messing with the minds of their victims, their crimes are lesser in general.
 

Thanks Urban! Another entertaining post. Yes, the truly horrible fathers seem fewer than the mothers, as are actors who play them. I agree that it may be the voice. But ol fairytales also usually have evil mother figures vs. evil father figures.

The tn mothers are definitely an interesting bunch. Maybe because they can play so many cards. They can be just as violent, or more so than the men. But they can also play the helpless damsel role, allowing them a greater ability to control and guilt people into doing her bidding. And they also use their sexuality for the same purpose. There is just more that you can do with their characters. Evil fathers come off as being pretty one note. That's why I find max in Refugio so interesting. He is an evil guy, who is also a great father-- except when he is crossed or contradicted.
 

Great point, Vivi. I often describe novelas (esp Televisa's) as fairy tales for adults.

Mothers also play the religion card. I'm amazed that Roselena of Refugio didn't push one of her children into the religious life.

The other controlling fathers I could think of don't usually go through the entire series. Like Don Severiano of Abrazame Muy Fuerte, who is only in the prologue. Great performance by Joaquin Cordero, but not a character in the length of the series.

Of the lineup presented in this discussion I'm casting my vote for Atilio Montenegro. He kills the first three fiances of his "daughter" only to find out that she is not his daughter but his step-daughter (wife pregnant with former lover's child) and then becomes sexually obsessed with her, nearly killing his real son in the process. He deserved worse than he got in the end.
 

Yeah, that's pretty hard core! I never saw Mariana de la Noche, but I'd vote for him too!
 

UA, I would probably vote for Atilio Montenegro as the worst. The parent/child bloodlines in that TN were totally mixed up. Also, the location felt very isolated and Atilio's obsession felt like it could run rampant.
La Paloma
 

Urban these are wonderful all of the ones you have done. You shouldn't be pushed off the page next week, since Refugio is down to an hour now.

Since I have only been watching TN's for a couple of years the worst for me is Greggorio Negrete or Piggorio as we called him. Hated him beating the pregnant Mariana, murdering the baby at the same time, and then eventually murdering Mariana. Also his son Tonio trying to poison him was a little of an interim punishment so to speak. He took the coward's way out by killing himself, but he would have died anyway from the poison.

The other is Rodrigo Montes de Oca. He was horrid. Ruined lives, wanted baby Juan dead, jailed people for life, cause he couldn't stand not being loved. Having the doctor killed. Multipule attempts at murder, Rosenda for one, Juan San Roman, Sr., Juan del Diablo, and poor Fifi that got killed because of him by Leonarda.

Carlos had a link to a clip of a TN that had a horrid villan in that one too. He was a cross dresser. I can't think of the name of the novela right now. That guy was scary.
 

Madelaine, that was La Madrastra. I didn't see all the episodes, but the cross-dressing thing was a new one for me.

The actor was Guillermo Garcia Cantu, who will end up with a long resume of sexually perverse villains, which will be its own list.

Refugio will be down to an hour, but there is a new series starting tomorrow at 8.
 

Thanks for the thoughtful discussion about why mean TN dads are so outnumbered by mean TN moms, and the comparison to fairy tales. Very insightful!

UA, despite the somewhat low comment traffic on your weekend posts I really hope you know how much I appreciate and enjoy them!
 

I'm glad you do.

I was thinking about what next weekend's discussion should be and I have decided that it's time to start discussing what we would change or keep about the popular cliches. The lead post will stay on the home page because it won't have photos and will therefore be much shorter.

One more thing: Most of us who recap are rather verbose, which is not the end of the world (My recaps are typically 7 or 8 typed pages) so we should all be careful about spacing and other formatting issues to keep those write-ups from taking up more space than they need. There also needs to be a better indexing system so we can more easily find older ones or things that get shoved off the main page.
 

UA thanks for the link. Also I love your idea of discussing new plot lines instead of old TN cliches! Can't wait to discuss this weekend.
 

Dishonorable mention: Alejandro Camacho in "Bajo a la Mismo Piel" as Bruno Murillo Valdes. Cast included Diana Bracho as his abused wife and Kate del Castillo and Lasha Wilkins as their daughters. It was Marga Lopez (El Privilegio de Amar)last telenovela. Full of abuse and manipulation, violence. I never liked Camacho after seeing that tn. He made my skin crawl.
Great list. It is hard for me to decide which gender is the "Most Evil". Your list of both is chilling.
sfchicabonita
 

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