Caray, Caray!

I like that the villains have been established (Diana Bracho- Lucrecia, Flavio Medina-Cesar, Diego Amozurrutia-Ulises) and a few of favorite characters have appeared (Alejandra Barros-Juliana, Andres Mercado-Ivan and Hernan Canto- Lucio)
 

I am loving this tn. I wish it was on in prime time, instead of any of the others that are on right now.
 

I'm so glad you guys are covering this TN. It's better than the ones at night.
Sue in miami
 

Anon 7:57- I agree with you. I wish that we'd have a channel like CanalDeLasEstrellas where all the novelas of the moment are shown.

Anita- Lucrecia's sister I splayed by Luz Maria Jerez. Her character's name is Eloisa.
 

CS--Thanks. I think I'll delete it after all and make those editorial changes. Does the rest sound right to you?

 

Young Mauro Montesinos (Alex Sirvent/later José Elías Moreno) is the owner of the coffee plantation, El Paraíso. He inherited the property from his wife, Elena Carmona. Together they had one child, Juliana (Alejandra Barros). After being widowed for some time, Mauro fell in love with Florencia Martínez (Karyme Lozano), a young woman who owned land next to the Montesinos that was producing exceptionally good coffee.

They are about to marry for love when Mauro finds out an old “friend” of his, Lucrecia (Elena de Tellitu/later Diana Bracho), is expecting a child—his child. Mauro and Florencia separate, despite their great love for each other. Mauro marries Lucrecia, never loving her, but manages to father four children—César (Flavio Medina), the oldest son; Maximiliano (Cristián de la Fuente), Flavia (Cassandra Sanchez Navarro), and Lucio, Flavia’s twin brother, who has emotional problems due to his having witnessed a terrible scene in his childhood. He’s in the care of Lucrecia’s sister, Eloise (Luz Maria Jerez).
 

Meanwhile, Florencia married David (Abraham Ramos), the administrator of El Paraíso and together they have a daughter, Amaya (Karyme Lozano).

Over time both Florencia and Mauro realize they are in unhappy marriages and confess they have never forgotten each other. Nevertheless, they know theirs is an impossible love and they shouldn’t continue to harbor these feelings, let alone act on them. Lucrecia becomes aware of their sentiments toward each other and decides to “get rid of” Florencia. David becomes insanely jealous and through misunderstandings and a succession of accidents, Florencia and David die. Florencia dies in a horrible car accident when her car, carrying a very young Amaya in the back, goes off the road and into a swirling river. Amaya is saved and orphaned. She is raised by her godmother, Dolores (Olivia Bucio). She is married to Cipriano and had a daughter, Mariana, late in life. Cipriano is a n’er do well and Mariana speaks her mind about it. Dolores suffers.

Thirty years later Mauro begins reminiscing about his and Florencia’s past and begins to convince himself that Florencia never died. This comes back to haunt him when Max falls in love with Amaya, after Max rescues her from an eerily similar car accident where it goes off the road and into a river. He stays with her at the hospital and rescues her again from a menacing man who comes for her in the hospital where she is recuperating. Max agrees to take her away to one of his favorite family retreats to convalesce. They spend several days together, but neither sharing much of their background or marriage status. She leaves abruptly when his father shows up and blows up at him for his negligence to his family. She doesn’t leave him a way to contact her and the cell phone she used to call her godmother got busted.

At this time, Amaya is married to Horacio (Salvador Zerboni) and has a young daughter. Max, on the other hand, is about to marry his fiancée, Constanza (Adriana Louvier), the daughter of Mauro’s best friend. They haven’t seen each other in five years and the strain is obvious.

It isn’t long before Mauro discovers Amaya is the daughter of his great love, Florencia. This doubly convinces him that Florencia might have survived the accident. Amaya begins to wonder the same thing.

Mauro, in a fit of regret, steps forward to liquidate the debt of her parents, something left pending when they died. César recognizes Amaya’s importance to Mauro and sets out to woo and win her, while separating her from Max. This naturally leads to a great rivalry between the two brothers.

Meanwhile, Amaya learns that Lucrecia could have been involved with the death of her parents and that Mauro took advantage of their deaths by appropriating their land. Amaya is determined to find out the truth and take vengeance on those responsible for her parents’ deaths.

Amaya and Max will have to face huge obstacles before learning whether their love is stronger than resentment, vengeance and hatred that began in the past.

The novela opens when the Montesinos are waiting in the family home in Mexico City for the return of Maximiliano from a 5-year stay in Spain where he was studying. He appears to be a big-hearted, moral, but fun-loving guy, as opposed to his straight-laced older brother. When Max goes “missing” for a few days, there is both alarm and resentment within the family and with Constanza.
 

I never saw much of Amor Bravio, but I see that a lot of the cast comes from it. I like a lot of the actors (like Diana Bracho, Jose Elias), and I like that it's not too slow so far.
 

Anon at 11:42--The Producer, Carlos Moreno Laguillo likes to keep his casts together whenever possible. Sort of like the old stock companies.

I watched all of Amor Bravio (liked the first half better than the second--but most everyone did) and bought the DVD--as a keepsake. I was disappointed in how much of the interaction between Camila and Daniel they left out. It was so obvious the actors got along well and were at ease working with each other (not to mention a whole lot of smokin' chemistry on screen).

If you ever have a chance to watch the whole first half, you'll know what I mean.
 

It's refreshing to see a "Godsister" who really loves the person who was "adopted" by her mother. They call each other sisters and the love and respect between them is obvious. None of this "recogida" or "arrimada" stuff from Mariana. The lazy, good-for-nothing father is another story.
 

Short recap of Tue Sep 30
Part I

Max arrives home to a delightful family reunion. Everyone is happy except Cesar who immediately starts sniping at Max, for taking off for the finca instead of coming straight to the city. Mauro interrups him to say that Max already told him why he was delayed and will explain to everyone later. There is some finger-fondling between Mauro and Eloisa. It’s not too much of a stretch to think she might be taking care of Mauro as well as caring for Lucio. She’s very pretty.

Manuel joins them and greets Max warmly. Constanza is not coming. He scolds Max for not getting in touch with Constanza. Max says he’ll straighten it out. Manuel doesn’t stay for dinner and Mauro walks him to the door. There he confesses that going back to El Paraíso brought back such strong memories and feelings. (We get a flashback of happier days when Mauro is about to pop the question to Florencia and David, his administrator and friend confesses he is also in love with Florencia. They agree to let her pick between them.)

Lucrecia arrives – late – due to her prior engagement, but genuinely welcomes Max back home. They go in to dinner. Dinner at the Montesinos includes a lot of snipe, served hot and cold and slung back and forth between the two big brothers. Mauro is proud of what Max did for that girl. They toast to the family being all together until Max reminds them they are missing one, Juliana. Mauro announces he’d like to reconnect with Juliana. She’s living in Italy. Cesar figures out that Max saw her there and put the idea in Mauro’s head.

Meanwhile, a parallel dinner is taking place in Dolores’ home. (Amaya calls her Neena, si I will, too.) She, Mariana and Amaya sit down without Cipriano. Mariana says he’s probably in the cantina, drunk as usual. This is a good opportunity to be without him and have some serious conversation. She wants to know all the skinny on everything that happened to Amaya.

Amaya says she learned for sure that Horacio was being unfaithful. The marriage is over. Lord knows, she tried to save it, time and time again. Horacio has another woman. She’s reached her limit.

Horacio meets “that woman” for dinner in a restaurant. She is a friend of Lucrecia’s and instrumental in getting him a white-collar position at Mauro’s Nestlé enterprise. Well, he thought he’d be working independently, but it seems he is to be Cesar’s gopher. She tells him to suck it up if he wants to move up the ladder. Cesar is the CEO’s son. The other son is due back, but he might not stay around too long.

Mariana is expressing her opinions about all men as rat-finks. Amaya tells her they are not all losers. She tells them about Max. Neena is shocked, Mariana doesn’t believe he had no ulterior motives. Now, Amaya is sorry she left abruptly and will never see him again. Yes, she definitely felt the earth move beneath her feet (mover el tapete—tapete being a small rug). Something she had never felt before, ever. Amaya doesn’t think she’s in love with him, but she’s confused and frightened by her feelings toward him. Neena minimizes it saying it’s probably gratitude. Amaya hopes that’s all it is because she is a married woman with a child and shouldn’t have these feelings for another man.

Amaya doesn’t want these feelings to be a repetition of her mother’s story, in which she was in love with another man and was prepared to run away, leaving her husband to be with him. Neena says that wasn’t true (or is she lying). Amaya says Max not only saved her life, physically, but spiritually, as well. He woke something that was dead in her and her marriage is dead anyway. She’s going to file for divorce when she returns to the city.

Neena worries about Amaya being alone if she divorces Horacio. Who will take care of her, what about Valeria. Amaya knows it will be difficult, but it’s worse to keep up this farce of a marriage. Neena is sure Horacio has changed, think of all the flowers and the love-call.

 

Tue Sep 30 - Part II

Constanza is having a pity-party at home in bed and avoids Max’s phone call. Her dad, Manuel, returns home and insists she listen to Max’s side of the story. He tells her. She concedes she let pride get in the way and will see where it goes tomorrow.

The Montesinos are still at dinner. Max has told them all about his river adventure (but not that he was shirtless in the water with Amaya). But, Cesar still wants to know why he went to El Paraíso first. Max tells them he has a new project involving the coffee which will benefit not only the family but all the employees. He wanted to check things out at the finca before launching the project.

Max is seen settling into his old room. Once he’s alone he calls Ivan at the finca to see if he’s had any luck locating Amaya. Sadly he doesn’t. Max wonders to himself what is going on with these feelings for Amaya. He recognizes that Amaya became his priority and he forgot everything else. He should have come home to Constanza first.

Amaya and Mariana go to bed and leave the older folks to argue. In the middle of the night, Amaya has a dream that Max has been looking for her and finds her. They confess they are in love with each other. It turns into a nightmare as Horacio appears and attacks him. She screams.

At the finca next morning, Hector, the current administrator is talking to his two sons about the Max caper. Ivan says Max wasn’t too upset that he took Mauro out to the cabañas. But he’s never seen Max so desperate to find Amaya. He’s like, loco. He wasn’t this upset when Constanza’s mother died and they had to postpone their wedding.

Neena and Amaya have come to the cemetery to leave flower for Amaya’s parents. They meet the caretaker and Amaya sees the mausoleum with the words El Paraíso on it. The caretaker says it has nothing to do with Paradise, it’s the name of a nearby coffee plantation that belonged to the Carmonas. They were the original owners and are now buried here. Amaya has a flashback and knows she was there. Neena looks distressed. She tells Amaya that she lived there until she was 4, because her father was the administrator. After her parents died, Amaya came to live with her. Amaya gets all excited and wants to go visit the finca. Neena, still looking distressed, thinks it’s a bad idea to stir up painful past history and besides, doesn’t think anyone there can tell her anything she, Neena, hasn’t already told her.

Mauro calls Juliana She’s cara de impactada. He tries to explain that he searched for her for 20 years, until Max found her. Juliana doesn’t believe it took him 20 years of searching. She thinks it’s a little late for a reconciliation. Lucrecia never made her feel part of the family and Mauro always backed her up. Mauro regrets it all. He’s changed. He wants to see her, meet his grandson. He’d like her to come for his birthday.

Constanza forgives Max who hands her a big honkin’ arrangement of roses.

++++++

This may or may not be a regular recap, depending on my time. But it's helpful to establish character dynamics in the early stages, especially if there are folks out there who need a little help with the Spanish and don't have CCs.
 

Thanks much for the recaps Anita. Can't expect one person to carry the load, that's above and beyond, but I do thank you for at least helping sort things out so far.
Hving trouble finding reliable on-line versions with active spanish subtitles. any other non-dvr people have ideas?
 

Thank you Anita, This really helped me. I had a hard time understanding the ladies dinner conversation. I wished it had English cc. I'm surprised how much I got now that I have read your recap. Thanks again for everything you are doing and will do in the future.
 

Bluejean--
Thank you, BJ, I'm recapping Reina tonight, so will get back to QA over the weekend, maybe do a quickie, but hit the important conversations.
 

So, some how mama blames Max for a lost singing career?
And the therapist says Lucio has the behavior of an oxygen deprived baby, but what, but wasn't that way at first? Or his early records are missing?
 

Anon--You are way ahead of me right now. I'm about to post a "short" recap of last Wednesday's episode.


 

Am I correct that those of you who are watching Quiero Amarte can see the action, but don’t catch all the important conversations?

That makes the recapping, not more difficult, but takes longer. I will try to concentrate on the important dialog and let the rest speak for itself, so no long passages on where people are or what they are doing, what they are wearing or the expression on their faces (except when I feel like it—especially with César).

Recap for Wed Oct 1 - Part 1

Max asks Constanza to forgive him for being an unfeeling jerk and if they are going to break up, he’d like to do it with flowers and end up at least being friends. Consta says she was the jerk, pride and jealousy got in the way and asks him to forgive her. She loves him and wants to spend the rest of her life with him. They promise to always tell each other the truth, then kiss and make up. Consta wants to hurry and go tell Manuel the good news, that, they are back together. Max says, whoa, let’s go slow, he needs to get to work on his new coffee project. He reminds her they did things her way for five years, staying with Manuel after her mother died, he’d like the same consideration for him and to take things slow.

Cipriano calls Horacio and informs on Amaya. She’s planning to divorce him, has a new guy in her life—maybe the one who rescued her. Horacio is p.o., of course. Who knows, says Cip, enjoying this, she just might even run away with her lover, like her mother did.

Cesar meets with mommy dearest, Lucrecia. He doesn’t want Juliana back in his dad’s life. He doesn’t want to be displaced. Lucrecia is in agreement. She can’t risk Juliana’s return, especially if Juliana has learned of Luce’s role in having her leave the house and family. And, she doesn’t like Jules getting close to Max. She instructs Cesar to find a way to keep her from coming back to Mexico.

Juliana and her husband talk over her conversation with Mauro over dinner with their son. The phone call rattled her, yes, but she’d been waiting for it. Hub encourages her to take up Mauro’s offer, but only on her own terms since Jules wonders if he really wants to see her for who she is now or because, after talking to Max, her father feels guilty. The important thing is how she feels about a reconciliation, not his motives. Son wants to go and meet his grandfather.

Mauro is reminiscing, holding Juliana’s photo. He has a flashback to her departure 20 years ago because he wouldn’t accept the man she was in love with. Mauro is telling her this man won’t make her happy. What does that have to do with the price of eggs…Jules doesn’t think he was ever happy with Lucrecia, yet he married her. Mauro gives her a terrible choice, she can choose between the young man or her father and her family. Jules wants to know, what family? Yes, she was given shelter and food, but never a home. She leaves. End of Flashback.

Cesar interrupts his reverie and learns Mauro has already been in touch with Juliana and has invited her to come to Mexico for his upcoming birthday. Mauro is going to send her airline tickets. He’s afraid she hasn’t forgiven him for the way he treated her in making her choose. She was just a rebellious teen-ager and he just didn’t know how to manage her. He tells Cesar if she doesn’t come to Mexico, then he will go to Italy, but he wants her back at his side. (César is not liking this turn of events.)

Cesar throws cold water on the whole idea. If she doesn’t want to come, then it’s because she doesn’t want anything more to do with him. Still, Mauro insists, she’s his daughter so he will make the effort. Cesar back pedals a bit and offers, ever so nicely to make the arrangements. Mauro gives him Juliana’s phone number. (We know immediately he is up to no good.)
 

Recap for Wed Oct 1 - Part 2

Eloisa is in the garden arranging flowers. Lucrecia reminds her Juliana is not welcome in their house and not to encourage Mauro with this idea of her coming to visit. Elo says he’s been looking for peace of mind ever since she left. Luce says he’s been a tormented man long before that and having Jules come won’t change that. It would only complicate their lives. Jules made her life difficult from the time she married Mauro.

Eloisa thinks everyone has a right to make a mistake and Juliana deserves a chance to redeem herself. Luce scoffs—her error and Eloisa’s are unpardonable. Elo says she’s paid dearly already for her mistake. (Hmmm. We have yet to know what this might be—could it involve the twins, or Lucio alone?) Lucrecia will stop Jules from coming if she tries.

Twin Flavia shows up at the School of Engineering registration desk and asks to see all the classes Salvador is teaching. She’s going to sign up for all of them! Salvador (hunky Ricardo Franco, yummm) comes out to greet her and learns what she is up to. Just because she is Max’s sister (and he is Max’s BFF), it’s not going to influence him to go easy on her; so what is her game? No game; she just wants to finish her degree as quickly as possible.

Mauro and César are talking business as they walk into their office suite. Mauro needs that contract signed, sealed and delivered for a five-year term asap. He stops by Genoveva’s desk to ask for 3 round-trip airline tickets from Venice to DF and back. Cesar wants to know why 3. Mauro is asking Juliana, her husband and son—maybe Cesar didn’t know about her son, his grandson. (César is not liking this at all.) Turns out he doesn’t have the names of Jules’ husband or son and César offers to get the information for him. César ends up having a totally insincere, but pleasantly conducted chat with Juliana by Skype.

Manuel is distracted by his daughter’s situation. His assistant reminds him there is an important new campaign starting in two months. He agrees, he needs to be busy. I guess Consta wins, they go visit Manuel. Manuel sees that everything is patched up to the point of getting married. Max thanks Manuel for intervening. Don Manuel is elated for them to get married—in a month, Max—not so much. He doesn’t think a month is enough time to plan a proper wedding.


He’s putting all his hopes and energy into this new coffee project, which will be an economic success for the company, its employees, the coffee growers, just everybody, down the line (including the Mexican IRS, I guess). Whether the project even gets off the ground, it will depend on his presentation. Max needs Consta to understand that if things don’t go right, he is basically unemployed and won’t have an income for them to begin married life. Consta wants to know why he thinks it won’t be approved. Well, César, of course. He’s already poo-pooing the idea and Mauro listens to him. (Consta has an ace up her sleeve—she’s going to put a little daughterly pressure on her father to sway a few votes Max’s way.)

Max finally agrees to the wedding, on one condition—they decide where they are going to live before they set a date. Consta is ok with that. Hugs.

Amaya and Neena show up at the registration desk of the retreat only to find their bill had been paid. The clerk gives Amaya a note from Max with his phone number on it and asking her to call him. Amaya is thrilled, Neena not so much. They argue over the money owed. Neena wants to pay what they owe here and let him come and get it. Amaya wants to contact him to thank him again for rescuing her. Neena insists, looks at the retreat registry and sees Maximiliano Montesino’s name. Cara de impactada de Neena. She becomes desperate for Amaya not to have anything to do with that family that she grabs the slip of paper out of Amaya’s hands, tears it up and it ends up in a pail of water. Now it is illegible. Amaya is furious. Neena had no right to do this and why.
 

Recap for Wed Oct 1 – Part 3

Horacio is on the phone, leaving a nasty message for Amaya at Neena’s house. He accuses her of being a hypocrite since the guy who saved her is none other than her lover. She’d better call him if she doesn’t want their daughter Valeria to learn what kind of woman her mother is.

Iván (Hector’s son) and Jorge (Max’s buddy from Italy) go to the retreat office and find out Amaya was there, but no word on the taxi driver. The clerk (who doubles as a housekeeper) gives them an envelope with money, but no note from Amaya. They aren’t too concerned because Amaya has Max’s contact information. The clerk says, actually that isn’t true. It got ripped up and ended up in the pail. It seems to her Amaya didn’t want anything to do with him and not to look for her. At least that’s what she heard her tell her godmother.

Amaya and Neena are waiting in school for Mariana. They are still arguing over the Max contact information incident. Neena was doing what she thought was best for her. Amaya disagrees. Neena made a decision which should have been hers to make. But finally she agrees with Neena. After all, she left without saying good bye, so it was probably true she had already decided not to have anything more to do with Max. They forgive each other. Mariana arrives. Neena says for the two of them to go on home, she’s going to go to church first.

Manuel has come to see Mauro to tell him about their children’s reconciliation and wedding-talk. Mauro shares that he was in contact with Juliana and his plans for her to visit. Mauro has a flashback to a happier time when as a young widower, in love with Florencia, has asked her to marry him. She accepts. By joining their lives and their lands, they will make it one of the most productive finca in the region. She knows they haven’t known each other very long, but they immediately make love al aire fresco, maybe she puts her huge headscarf down for them to lie on.

David concedes defeat gracefully. Mauro’s happiness last only a fleeting moment because here comes Lucrecia to announce she’s pregnant with Mauro’s child. He confesses she was really only a tide-me-over after his wife Elena died, but Lucrecia feels betrayed, she thought it was serious. Her child is not going to be a bastard, born out-of-wedlock, regardless of how much he offers to maintain them, and insists on marriage. End of Flashback.

Back in the pueblo, Amaya is telling Mariana about losing Max’s contact information. There’s nothing more she can do about him, but now she has a different adventure in mind. She wants to go to the finca El Paraíso. She knows for sure she remembers things from her early years there and wants to talk to the current occupants.

Neena, meanwhile, is unloading on the Padre. Apparently he knew about the secret she’s been carrying around for over 30 years—about Amaya’s mother’s affair with Mauro and that she was going to run away with him. Neena she updates him. She’s just learned that Maximilian, the young man who rescued Amaya from the river is a Montesino, and probably Mauro’s son. Padre thinks it’s time for all to be revealed to Amaya, including reclaiming her mother’s lands from the Montesinos (could be because they never married). She’s afraid for Amaya because when Neena tried to file a claim, they threatened her with harm to her family. They are powerful. She know that after the way Florencia and David died. She needed to stay away from that family at all cost.
 

Recap for Wed Oct 1 – Part 4

Iván is on the phone with Max, giving him the bad news about Amaya. His interpretation of what the clerk recounted makes it seem as though it is Amaya that ripped up his contact information and doesn’t want him looking for her. Sad Max. He really doesn’t understand her attitude. He was sure they had made a connection. From the look in her eyes. No, he didn’t know her at all, but one has a perception and he did, that she was a principled woman. Otherwise, she would never have come back to the retreat to return the money. Well, Iván thinks it might have had more to do with Max’s father’s reaction to seeing them together in the river. Or, Max thinks, it might have more to do with that man she was trying to get away from, but she never told him who it was. Neither think it is worth looking for the taxi driver. The money was never important to Max, it was just an excuse to continue being in contact with her.

Amaya and Mariana arrive at El Paraíso. Jorge greets them. Amaya would like a tour of the finca. He’s thinking it over. (Remember, he never saw Amaya, only Iván did.)

 

Thanks much.

Thanks especially for the rundown on Eloisa being involved in some sort of unforgivable nefariousness. Luce seems to have said to herself: well now I've done it, crossed the line, morals and right and wrong don't matter anymore. Is that psychopath or sociopath?

I think we get it that Mauro wasn't behind the apparent murders/fatal accidents, but surely he would have been involved in the land grab and so forth? Between the ugly ultimatum to Juliana and the financial skulduggery we are sure being asked to accept a pretty big personality reversal.
Chris in FL
 

Chris in FL--Mauro is not unique. All of us facing the last decade or so of our lives have certain regrets. Some we try to rectify, some we can't. In Mauro's case, he wants to try. Believe me, I know what he's talking about. But I had to wait for that person to come to me, although the door was always open.
 

CorazonSalvaje--
I'll put up the headliner for this coming week. We're getting close to the bottom of the front page, ok?
Anita