Caray, Caray!

Tierra. Wow! Just wow! What an exciting finale! And ultimately what a satisfying ending!
 

Tierra-Span Prof

I TOTALLY agree. I was hoping for death by fire for Leo, but I think the quick sand was even better.
I loved this novela! GREAT job by all!!! AnonGringa
 

Tierra. I second that AnonGringa! In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a better death scene for a villain. Leo and Isadora fall out about the theft of the million dollars by Eleazar and Matilde, each blaming the other, Isadora is bitten by a poisonous snake (and Caye tries to help her! What a changed person!). Leonardo brags about all his crimes--including the rape of Sofia and the murder of Alma. Isadora shoots him in the back and he goes into convulsions. The actor must have practiced those for days; they were incredible! And the expression on his face! If there's a villain death-scene award, this actor should definitely get it! And then slowly sinking into quicksand. Perfect! Nice special effects, btw. And Arturo shows what a great guy he is by trying to pull Leo out of the quicksand--too bad; he couldn't because Leo had shot him.:) Isadora says something conciliatory to Arturo about her admiration for him and shoots herself. I almost felt sorry for her. And up to the deaths of these two, the level of suspense was incredible! Great job indeed.
 

The only fault I can find with this episode is that when Pati starts singing and dancing again, after having been shot in the stomach, there's not the trace of a scar. Also, it doesn't seem to have affected her dancing at all.
 

It was also very satisfying to see Fernández "forced" to kill Nicholson, who after all had killed Brigitte! I was also glad to see that Miranda had had the good sense to use her cell phone to call for help. When the patients attacked the evil psychiatrist, who looks like Edward but is actually Leo's cousin (which explains a lot), allowing Juana and don Felipe to escape, I was practically cheering! Caye's words to Arturo would have made a great death scene, but fortunately she survives! Patricia was incredibly classy at Samuel's and Andrea's wedding reception. 3 years later we get a glimpse of the 6 main characters'children--Irina and Flavio have a little girl! Fernández and Caye are still together, and there was a glimpse of Verónica and Pablo in the background, along with Sole and José Antonio. The only loose end couples-wise, seems to be what happened to Rocío and Inspector Cabrera. Did they get married or not?
 

Oh, and Edward and Candela still seem to be together--maybe he's not such a bad guy.
 

Yes, it was a good ending, but I would have liked to have seen a little more fear from Leonardo when I was going down in the quicksand instead of him screaming to Arturo about how he had won. I wanted an "Oh crap, I'm sinking" reaction and possibly begging Arturo to save him. But he's gone and that's the important thing.

Did anyone else notice when Samuel was at the alter that he was still wearing his wedding ring from his marriage to Beatriz?
 

Tierra. Leonardo's relationship to reality sometimes has seemed a bit tenuous. Maybe he just didn't really believe that he wasn't going to get out of this somehow. :)
 

I wonder who the head writer on tierra was...would be very interested to see what they do with an original novela. This was a pretty good adaptation, VERY satisfying ending, but sometimes it felt like they wanted to take it in a new direction but felt obligated to use PdG's plot instead, if that makes any sense.
 

Tierra- SpanProf

Thank you for expanding your comments which was very helpful to me. I watched it with a Mexican friend
who has learned a good bit of English but not enough to explain everything.

The demise of Leo was PRICELESS. He had not an ounce of goodness in him.Silly me. I've been wondering
whether or not they pulled him out for burial or left him in there. I too felt a twinge of sadness for Isadora . I
was truly upset when Patito seemed to be dying. I got just what I've been hoping for with Caye, only I wanted
to actually see her marriage to Nestor. I guess it led one to believe that they did.

AnonGringa
 

Tierra. AnonGringa: There were a few more loose ends I would have liked to see tied up too. For example, who ended up with the Gallardo ranch, which Valverde had evidently seized illegally? Did José Antonio get his promotion? Did he retire? What did Caye and Andrea have to do to restore the Rancho del Junco to its pre-Leonardo prosperity and reputation? What happened to Linda? Even if one of the supporting characters had come on as narrator at the very end to explain what had happened to everybody--sort of like a 19th-c. novel--I think it would have made the satisfying ending even more satisfying. Btw, that swamp? An example of the high water table in East Texas which is the reason most houses don't really have basements. I almost expected little demons to come flying out of Leonardo's head as he sank further and further down.
 

Tierra-SpanProf

I thought that Caye might not want to live in that house anymore after all that had happened there, the guy being
shot, memories of Leo, etc. Maybe they just thoroughly cleaned and painted.Your idea about the narrator at the end
is a good one.

I guess I'll check out the new one tonight since Gabriel Porras is a favorite.

AnonGringa
 

Hola chicos y chicas. I'm going to check out the new telenovela, Bajo el Mismo Cielo. If I like it, I will be back to write recaps!

-El Señor EC
 

bajo
Well, I watched the first episode of "Bajo el Mismo Ciel" last night. I found the language harder to understand than on many other telenovelas. It's probably more like Real Life, but even after an embarrassing number of years, my Spanish apparently isn't ready for Real Life (then again, I'm not sure how ready the rest of me is, either). I'm hoping some kind souls will offer recaps. Without them, I'm not sure be able to stick it out. Also, of course, it's more fun when there's discussion.
 

Bajo. There was a fair amount of Spanglish, probably pretty authentic. The setting, in East LA surrounded by gang culture, was quite dystopian, and very gritty. Prisons are controlled by gangs, Adela's brother Matías is murdered for a drug deal with a rival gang, Adela narrowly escapes gang rape only to be tortured, and a branding that marks her for death, etc. It makes the viewer ask him or herself why people would risk crossing the desert with a coyote who might or might not be reliable to reach a place where your children's lives could be in danger at the hands of gangs. On the plus side, Adela is a mechanic. How cool is that! The main character is kind, decent, hardworking and charitable--even though he has a hard time controlling his son Luis, possibly because he very traditionally tries to lay down the law. There's a good use of flashbacks. It's definitely filmed in LA. The other thing I wonder about is how authentic someone who had entered the country this way and lived in a big latino barrio would find this telenovela.
 

Bajo. Btw, it's possible to use closed captioning--we have to anyway because my husband has a hearing loss--and sometimes the combination of written and spoken Spanish helps with comprehension.
 

Bajo. Huffington Post had an article yesterday on this telenovela.
 

Bajo. The Chicago Tribune has a story today about Latino gang culture in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago.
 

bajo
Muchas gracias, SpanProf, for your helpful remarks. I have to confess that even with the Spanish closed captioning, I often found Bajo a challenge. But I'm hoping to stay with it.

One thing I wondered about was Carlos' house. I assume he rents it--housing prices in LA would make buying even a modest house impossible for someone like Carlos who had a hard time putting together enough cash to buy the truck. But even rentals for a decent-looking house like his are likely to be pretty steep.
 

Bajo. Yes, he probably rents, and it may be a bit better place than someone in his situation could really afford, no matter how hard he works. Otoh, it is in an unsafe, gang-infested part of East LA, which may lower the rent a bit. And if he has rented it for most of the 18 years he's been in LA, the rent may not have gone up quite to market level.
 

Bajo
I have a question about his sister. Is she undocumented? Why is she not sponsoring him somehow? (I don't know the procedure.) She seemed to have a very nice house and was able to peel off that $2000 from a wad of bills and still have some left over. I had to beanie adjust for that.

 

Bajo. I think we don't know if the sister is undocumented or not, though I may have missed a reference to that. Regardless, she seems to have married well, and be a bit better off than Carlos is. She (and a few other characters) mentions that Carlos is not as well off as he might be because of all the expenses he incurred due to the illness and death of his wife. No idea if a family member can still sponsor someone for legal immigration and citizenship.
 

Bajo. She seems to think that Carlos is somehow responsible for her current level of prosperity and that she somehow owes him.

 

Bajo
Whoops! Thanks for that memory jog. I had forgotten she said that Teresita had died of cancer.
 

Bajo
Interesting. I didn't catch that she felt that she owes much to Carlos. I hope there's a flashback for that.

BTW- I think that that may have been the best meeting for a romantic couple I've seen in a novela!
 

Bajo. Yep, it isn't every heroine who knows how to hot wire a truck! :)
 

Bajo...
Not feeling it after the first episode, but that's normal. Pilots always seem forced as they set up the story.

Sara, careful with that beanie. This is only the first episode! lol, but really, who has a few thousand dollars in a wad in their home for when their brother needs help? And even if you do, you should not reveal it to anyone. I have some money saved up, and I can help you. Come back tomorrow after I've had a chance to go to the "bank".

Juanita, I was thinking the same thing about the house. But then, I have never seen a telenovela that had truly poor people as main characters.

-El Señor EC
 

BAJO

Back after a long absence. Juanita is the only commenter I remember from the last time I was here and did some recapping for Dueños del Paraíso.

I enjoyed the first episode. I think Gabriel Porras and Maria Luisa Camargo are both trying on "campensino" or "street" accents. I've found them both easier to understand in other roles. Maria Luisa is one of my favorites. It was nice to see Gabriel in a heroic role, and not as an obsessed cop, which he was in the first El Señor de los Cielos. I only watched the first ES and thought it would have been better if they'd killed him off after that one.

So I'm probably in for Bajo, although I don't know how I'll EVER get through the long list of DVR'd Avenida Brasil episodes I can't seem to get watched!
 

BAJO

Whoops, I meant that ES would have been better if they'd killed the narco portrayed by Rafael Amaya.
 

Bajo el mismo cielo

ok, let me see if I can put together the story,

Carlos crossed the border with his wife Teresa and his son Rodrigo, (18+ years ago) Teresa later died, but I guess they had another son Luis, who was born here. Rodrigo in the flashbacks leaves his family to join the gang, La Colonia, and we see he is currently in jail.

an older guy, José "Colmillo" (fang) Giménez, is the leader of La Colonia, but doing life in prison.

Adela and her brother Matias, are also members of La Colonia, he was seen doing some sort of drug deal with the rival gang, the scorpions, so they were rounded up by ?? gang, he was killed and she was branded a traitor, but earlier she had given the drugs to Noemi and I think the scorpions want the drugs back.

(Adela is referred to as a 'chola' if you wish to google the style)

Carlos younger sister Maria, also entered the U.S. illegally, lived with and was helped by Carlos, but later married a person with papers and she became a citizen.

the guy Carlos was working for decided to return to Guatemala, so Carlos decided to buy his truck and take over the business, which takes us to how you borrow money without going to a bank, not sure if that guy was just a loan shark or if he was part of the original deal for the truck.

(Luis Ernesto Franco (Rodrigo) was 'El Alacrán' in "Camelia La Texana")

 

BAJO

Thanks, Deb! I've missed you. Excellent condensed recap.
 

bajo
Hola Novelera. Great to see you back!
I too have found Gabriel Porras and Maria Luisa Camargo much easier to understand in other roles. I'm really struggling with Bajo, even with the Spanish captions. It all goes by so fast....
 

bajo
Muchísimas gracias, deb, for your very helpful recap! The info about the gangs was especially useful. So am I right that the muy guapo, muy inteligente guy who had his wound stitched up without anesthesia is Rodrigo?
 

Bajo el mismo cielo

ok, some new characters,

Maria, Carlos' sister, is married to Rudolfo Solis, a singer/musician, who works with his wife in a bar owned by Felicia Mendez, who has the hots for Carlos.

(the guy who plays Rudolfo is Raúl Arrieta, he looks so different in everything I've seen him in, in Perro Amor he had a samurai haircut)

Greicy Cordero, a shy nursing assistant begins work at the jail just after the big fight, and patches up Rodrigo, who wants no anesthesia, but keeps saying ow, are there sparks here?

Luis has a girlfriend, Sharon López, who has a brother with friends that Luis tries to avoid.

and the dog's name is Flag.

I can't tell what the brand on Adela's is.

(love the loan shark with his bimbo and the american flag on his desk, did Luis say he was russian?)

'Migra', is slang for immigration police.

(btw I'm adding in little tidbits from the character descriptions)

 

Bajo el mismo cielo

Juanita- yep that's Rodrigo, he was a lovable bad guy in Camelia, and here he is the son of Carlos, so...

novelera- I am so happy you have reappeared, I thought you traded your Telemundo channel for a sports channel, basketball and all, I think you are sharing my appreciation for this writer, Perla Farias.

I lived in LA for a while, it's changed, you could drive for an hour and still be in the city, you could drive for 2,3,4 hours and be in a place surrounded by people from LA, there is no escape.

so forget LA, forget gangs, but a good guy like Carlos, who lives to make things good for everyone, you gotta love this guy (and if you have ever seen off-the-set photos of Gabriel Porras with kids, he fits right in as if he one of them) and Adela, I think she has had enough of gangs, has she ever met a nice guy, this has all the makings of a gran amor, but, I was thinking she would return his truck but instead she sells it, could this work, and what about Luis, he hates Felicia.

question, the shoes on the power lines, I know it's a gang thing, but did they say it was related to someone dying?

 

BAJO

The shoes do have something to do with dying. I'm leaning toward the shoes being the shoes of the dead boy and are hung up by his homies to honor him. At first I thought they were hung by the guys who killed him, but I think I vaguely remember it being by the gang members of the same gang as the one whose shoes are hung.
 

Bajo. At least Carlos got his dog back! And Carlos'sister felt that she owed Carlos because he is the one who has been sending money back home to their mother, had loaned them money for their daughter's medical expenses (though they had repaid him), and he had sent money back to Mexico to help support some nephews whose father had died, etc. All signs of a very generous person!
 

Bajo. The shoes were put up to commemorate Matías, Adela's brother, but I'm not sure which gang did it.
 

Bajo. I find Carlos's truck dilemma kind of sad and frustrating. There's nothing escapist about this telenovela. Otoh, the description of Adela that Carlos gives to Luis is kind of cute--you can tell he's already attracted--and Luis is an excellent artist!
 

BAJO

SpanProf, Sara, Juanita, and deb: I think you're the only Bajo commenters so far. Just checking to see if you all knew (maybe it was already discussed) that this telenovela is loosely based on the movie A Better Life with Demian Bechir. He won an Oscar nomination for the role. But I have a feeling Carlos is going to get his truck back sooner than what happened in the movie.
 

Bajo. Yes, it is supposed to be loosely based on the English-language movie A Better Life, directed by Chris Weitz, I believe. Presumably the Bajo el mismo cielo writers have added a number of characters and subplots to turn it into a telenovela. I think the film was based on a novel, though, El jardinero?, so maybe they have mostly added things back in.
 

Was there no recap for this last episode? I wanted to know what was being said by the woman at the end .The English translation is "LAND OF HONOR", but what was she saying before that. ↑→→TIERRA de
REYES.
 

Bajo. Evidently El jardinero was a screenplay, so presumably Bajo's writer is adding material.
 

Nina: Do you mean the last episode of Tierra de Reyes? You can probably piece together most of what happened from my and AnonGringa's comments. I don't remember specifically what a female charactr said right at the end.
 

Bajo
I think the screenplay "El Jardinero" became "A Better Life."

Deb-thank you for the information on the show. I still haven't gotten a chance to watch the second episode, but your character info will give me some context going in to it. Hopefully it will help my comprehension.
 

Tierra de Reyes

Nina,

At the very end, the voice-over says:

This is a new land, a land with the scent of peace, of freedom, of the future. (Esta es una tierra nueva, una tierra que huele a paz, a libertad, a futuro.)

This is the new ranch of the Gallardo-Del Junco family. (Este es el nuevo rancho de la familia Gallardo - Del Junco)

This is Tierra de Reyes.

[Is this the part you mean?]
 

Tierra. Thank you, Novela Maven. I had forgotten the final voiceover.
 

Tierra

SpanishProf, I'm not surprised you didn't remember those lines. They weren't exactly memorable. I wasn't following this show, but Nina's question made me curious so I checked out that last part at the T-mundo website.
 

Bajo
Hi all (old- & newcomers). As luck would have it I am home this week and managed to catch the first 2 episodes. But alas, I'll be away again, off the grid and without TV, until October but from what I've seen, I'll probably rejoin the Bajogroup at that time, albeit with a lot of catching up to do. The 9 o'clock slot has always been the best for me.

Yes, the east LA Spanglish is fast and difficult, but I think with Spanish captions and a bit of acclimatizing it will become more manageable for a semiliterate like myself over time. My stomach turns when the protagonist is put through the ringer at the very beginning. This truck dilemma is so horrible. They are doing a great job showing that there is no easy way for the undocumented, no matter how decent and honest to access the justice system. It also satisfies my craving for all things LA. I get a little homesick at times and shots of the freeways and the beaches and the bungalows and the perpetually white sky with palm trees brings it back. The street scenes are great. LA has alleys, unlike New York.

I think I saw that the horrible brand on Maria Luisa's ribcage was in the shape of a curled up scorpion.

Thanks deb for taking a crack at a recap. And I agree that Carlos' house is rather posh for his circumstances. Glad to find a good group of Caray-ers for this one. Looking forward to tonight.
 

TELEMUNDO...

"¿Quién es quién?" is rumored to have started filming in Miami, starring Danna Paola.

this is a new adaptation of Chilean production "Amores de mercado", that was also remade in 2003 by Telemundo under the name "Amor descarado".

Tells the story of twin brothers, one rich and one poor, who were separated at birth and reunited years later. By a twist of fate, they will change their identities, which will cause them to face very difficult situations, but it will also be very funny.

http://masquetelenovelas.blogspot.com.es/2015/07/asi-lucira-danna-paola-como.html#more


 

BAJO

Interesting twist, at least for me. They introduced the stereotypical "other woman" who's after the protagonist. She looks like the stereotypical blonde villana. Except she doesn't seem like a bad person at all. She was abused by her ex and wants Carlos because he's a hottie and an honorable man besides. They even had a hot sex scene where he, as the protagonist, wasn't drugged by the evil blonde to make him think he'd been with her. Instead he was more than willing! Are telenovelas growing up?
 

BAJO
Great comment, novelera! Felicia does seem like a good person. Since I'm assuming that Carlos will wind up with Adela (who is also a good person, as seen by the fact that she fed half her sandwich to Flag), I'm wondering whether perhaps Felicia will be killed off by gang violence, either intentionally or by accident.

I was pleased last night to see Carlos respond violently and effectively to the goons at the used car lot. Until then, he seemed to me too much the wuss, so unrelievedly virtuous that I was about to give up on the novela. I'm still not completely sure I'll stick it out, however. Even with the Spanish captions, things go by so fast that I miss much of what Carlos and Adela say. For now, though, I'm hoping that my ear will gradually pick up more.
 

Bajo
Another sub-theme I've been noticing is the feisty stance of the women in this show. Adela is an unapologetic auto mechanic; and the prison staff speaks out forthrightly to that matron (could they have made her more matronly?) about the risks and hardships of their work assignments with the clear idea that they would organize if need be.

I'm also guessing Felicia will have to be sacrificed because Gab & Maria-Elisa are the designated protas. But I think she could be instrumental in "saving" Carlos's son, Luis from going over to the bad side. Was that steamy bedroom scene a memory of past intimacy or just the fantasy of a hormone-addled woman desperate to get pregnant?

I love the scenes of Rod & his contact over in solitary talking through the pipes. My grandmother had to do the same thing in a WWI prison. She was an upstanding person in every other way, but when Brussels was occupied and she was thrown into solitary, she learned to work the system quite nicely.

Yes, glad to see Carlos 18 years of struggle has not made him into a wussy pushover. So, another reason he and Adela could easily end up together. They are both survivors. She pretty much summed it up when she said, "You're not the only one who's lost everything." They have a lot to teach each other.

Adela looks like a contemporary chola but her evil nemesis (I forget her name) could fit in back in the '80s when I last lived there.
 

Bajo. I too am glad to see a lot more commentary sparked by the Bajo telenovela. I started commenting on Tierra de reyes in the first place because so few other people seemed to. My question about Felicia is: Who is that man she seems to be paying off? Is it a gang leader she's paying for her bar/restaurant's protection? Now that not only happens in real-life but is a movie cliché going back to at least the early 30s. Did she pay him to kill her husband? She seems like much too religious a woman to do that, and besides, as María told Carlos, she is a "buena persona". I hope that instead of being sacrificed that she finds some nice, kind stable alternative to Carlos. Btw, Felicia's walking in when she did on Carlos and Adela and misunderstanding the situation was sort of an inevitable plot development. And as for Noemí, she seems like the worst sort of friend anyone could have--willing to betray her best friend Adela, and have Adela's mother killed, for her own financial profit. And very ominous that the first and second in command of La colonia gang in prison have put out a hit on Adela--I guess branding wasn't enough.
 

Bajo

some other characters,

the guy that Adela worked for is called Tuercas played by Victor Corona.

Greicy Cordero, the shy nurse is played by Kendra Santacruz, who was also Camila in "En Otra Piel" and Isabel in "Dama y Obrero"

Willy Lopez, brother to Luis' girlfriend Sharon, seems to be shaking down Felicia.

and we meet Padre Domingo who Felicia turned to after being beaten by her former husband and losing her baby.

I didn't really get this, was Flag named because borders have a Flag on both sides?

 

Bajo. Does it seem to anyone else that the prison matron is a bit too chummy with and reliant on the #2 gang leader? Couldn't she have a prison guard protect Greicy and the other nurses as they treat patients?
 

Bajo. Thanks, Deb!
 

Bajo

Yes, thanks so much Deb for the additional info on characters in the novela. SpanProf, I agree about the woman I suppose they're calling matron, but wouldn't she actually be the warden? Unclear about her role. But I got a little vibe she might lust after Rodrigo. It took reading it here on Caray for the penny to drop that the canny prisoner who's the gang leader is Rodrigo, Carlos' missing son. For one thing he's blonde, and the flashbacks they've shown of his being "jumped in"; i.e. beaten bloody as proof of his mettle, show a dark haired young man.
 

Bajo

some questions I have,

did Felicia say something about Carlos not wanting a steady girlfriend until he recovered Rodrigo?

and the gang thing, what was the deal that Matias made, that seems to have left both gangs wanting the drugs, and which gang killed him and branded Adela and what was the significance of that, and which gang was chasing her when she stole Carlos' truck.

now Adela gave the drugs to Noemi to make things right but she just kept them and didn't say anything, right? but Adela blames her for Matias' death.

Adela's mom is pretty worthless, not taking Matias body because she didn't want the expense.

 

Bajo. Maybe Felicia killed her husband, on purpose or by accident and Willy knows about it?
 

Bajo. Deb: I think it was María, Carlos' sister, who told Felicia that Carlos wouldn't get serious about another woman until he recovered Rodrigo. I believe it was La colonia that was chasing Adela and that had killed Matías for being a traitor for participating in a drug deal with the Alacranes--he was going to sell a packet of drugs for them. Noemí had known about the drug deal and had betrayed Matías, presumably in order to get the drugs for herself, and now she is willing to betray Adela, who had given her the drugs after Matías' death, I think. Noemí seems to be the real villana of this story.
 

Bajo. Weird about the change in hair color for Rodrigo. In the opening flashbacks of crossing the border, he's blonde, as is his mother.
 

Bajo

Does anyone know the fairly recent novela in which the actress playing Adela's mother had a very
similar role? I would really appreciate an answer since it's driving me nuts to try to remember.

I'm already liking Carlos, Luis, and Adela. I find Adela's spunky personality winsome. So far, I like Felicia too and
remember the actress as Gina in Duenas De Paraiso. I want to add Flag to my like list.

AnonGringa
 

BAJO
AnonGringa, although I didn't recognize her, Wikipedia claims that Rosalinda Rodriguez (the actress playing Adela's mother) also played Carmen de Ortiz, the widow of Reina's father in Reina de Corazones.
 

Bajo-Juanita

Thank you so much!! You're great for taking the trouble to look it up and responding. I had an inkling that it might be that one
and seem to remember her speaking spanglish(like me) . Thank you again. AnonGringa
 

Bajo

Juanita and AnonGringa, I remember Rosalinda Rodriguez very well from Reina de Corazones. She was the wicked stepmother who conspired against Reina. I liked that novela and we had wonderful recaps and very spirited discussions about it here on Caray. The first novela I saw her in was El Cuerpo del Deseo where she played Catalina, the wife of the simple peasant whose body was taken over by Andrés Garcia's rich guy character. She's was also in La Casa de al Lado in a humorous role. She's very good at comedy.
 

Bajo

Here's a link to the full version of the song in the opening credits, La Bamba Rebelde;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xv-FjbXaqk

Does anyone else think they decided to name this "Bajo el mismo cielo" to capitalize on the enormously popular, though unrelated, film, "Bajo la misma luna"?

I think this show is going to resonate for its audience. It may not be, strictly speaking, authentic – it's far too stylized and romanticized for that – but it gives voice to the community in a sympathetic way. Personally, I'm very impressed so far and happy to see the interest here among old and new friends. (¡Hola Agnes! ¡Qué tal, el Señor!)
 

Bajo

NovelaMaven, thanks for putting up the theme song link. I went so far as to tell a friend who's also a telenovela lover that this one was based on the Kate del Castillo movie you referred to. I had to watch the first episode to realize it was "A Better Life" and, apparently, before that El Jardinero. Not sure if El Jardinero was a movie, a TN in another country or what.
 

Bajo. I suspect they use La Bamba, in this case in its "rebelde" form, in part because this telenovela is about undocumented immigrants, but maybe also because Richie Valens was from LA. I hope its liveliness and positive lyrics bode well for this tn's outcome! Very likely the title is related to "Bajo la misma luna," though I have taught "La misma luna," and it presents a much more positive picture of the life of undocumented immigrants. The lead is Kate Castillo, and the movie is about how the heroine's young son, who is being cared for by his grandmother, who passes away, travels on his own from Mexico to LA to be reunited with his mother. A very nice and well-made "quest" movie. I suppose one could say that "Bajo el mismo cielo"is a bit more authentic, despite its stylized and romanticized elements--it has to be a telenovela, after all!--because it does incorporate prisons, gang culture and the daily hardships and frustrations of people who don't so much as dare report a theft.
 

Bajo

You're welcome, Novelera. "El Jardinero" was the working title of this telenovela until very recently. According to its promos, it was based on a story by Roger L. Simon (who happens to be a New Yorker who writes in English and, although he has written screenplays, is known for his "Moses Wine" detective novels.

SpanishProf, thanks for the additional info on "Bajo la misma luna" and La Bamba.
 

Bajo. Thank you, Novela Maven. I may be the only person on this blog who actually remembers Richie Valens. :)

 

Bajo
Great comments, thanks all for the background info and theme song links.

One small peccadillo is that the interior set for Carlos' house is expansive and sort of luxurious which completely contradicts the exterior shot of a (actually, not-so) tiny Compton bungalow (although, a spruced-up, freshly-painted one).

Tonight will probably be my last chance to see it until October. So ¡Hasta luego! chicas y chicos. Glad to know I'll have something to come back to.
 

BAJO

I may be the only person on this blog who actually remembers Richie Valens. :)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Not even close, SpanProf, not even close! You've just been hanging out with the Tierra kids, that's all.
 

:) Well, I was still a little kid back when he was popular and still in elementary school at the time of that terrible plane crash.
 

BAJO

OK, you've outed me, SpanProf and NovelaMaven. I was in high school during the popularity of Richie Valens. So you're in "seasoned" company, SpanProf!
 

Bajo

did Willy feel a pang of jealousy before he tried to run down Felicia and Carlos?

did Sharon really want to play russian roulette with Luis?

is Flag trying to speak the english word DuH, by sitting in the chair Adela was tied to?

would any sane women marry a musician, so Rudolfo is Felicia's cousin?

will Carlos ever see his troco again, did he mention dealing with the russian mafia?

will Luis ever be happy about anything?

does Noemi have any friends?

and Laura, Adela's mom, seems to know how things work, I'll drink to that.

I am so intrigued with watching María Elisa Camargo (Adela) and Gabriel Porras (Carlos) interact,

this writer, the story builds on itself, she does this so well...

 

Bajo. We learned that Felicia's brother is a police officer, who probably could have tracked down Carlos's truck and would have had a better chance of finding Rodrigo than Carlos does. Also, the brother must be a citizen and Felicia probably is too. If Rodrigo married her, all his immigration problems, as well as some of his financial and family problems, would be solved. He must really not want to be beholden to her. There is a slight parallel to La misma luna, when a nice anglo fellow falls in love with the Kate del Castillo character, and she almost marries him, but at the last moment can't bring herself to because she doesn't love him. Wow! Noemi really is evil! She offers to take Adela out for Rodrigo, and at the end of the episode almost does it. What would Rodrigo think if he knew she was also about to kill Luis, who is presumably his younger brother? I notice they have started alternating camion and camioneta, the proper Spanish words, for troca. Maybe they're thinking of this tn's syndication to the rest of the Hispanic world? Also poor Greicy is in real danger! Will Rodrigo save her? Has he lost too much status for being the nurses' "minder"?
 

Bajo. Btw. Don't they have surveillance cameras in that prison? Also, I believe that Noemi offers to "recover" the drug--ironic since she is the one who has them.
 

Hello everyone! I did not expect to like bajo el mismo cielo. It is very different to other novelas I've watched. Their are some words that make me at first confused. For example, Rodrigo "el faier" likes to says "si man" but my closed captioning makes it seems like he is saying "simon." My favorite story is the jail storyline. It is ironic that Adela may lead Luis and Carlos to find Rodrigo. She is the key that they will reconnect.
Noemi should have more influence in the Colonia , but her father called her "duerta"; I believe he thinks she is really dumb and incapable of leadership. What he wanted was a son which she is not.
The blonde federica seemed to have some connection to Luis; I am not sure where that will lead. Maybe she , like others have mentioned, will be like a mother figure and stop him from going down the wrong path.
 

BAJO
@marvybaby11, simón is used a lot in Mexico as a way to say sí. (That just about exhausts my knowledge of Mexican Spanish :-) )
 

BAJO
Add me to the list of los ancianos who remember Richie Valens.
 

Bajo. Love the community feeling this tn seems to be inspiring! I looked up Richie Valens in Wikipedia. I had no idea how short his career was! I guess time moves more slowly when you're in elementary school. :) In this last episode Rodrigo's character is softened a bit when we learn that he wounded but did not kill the other convict he replaced as #2 in La colonia. He is also genuinely trying to protect Greicy and warn her of dangers. Maybe he still is his father's son after all. Carlos knows a lot of proverbs--"the wisdom of the people." In that he's a bit like Sancho Panza, whose proverbs quite often contained genuine insights.
 

Bajo
Appreciate all the informative comments.

Telemundo has some character descriptions, might help knowing who is who.
 

Seeing as you are all such generous souls with sharing of info on this site,

couls someone kindly tell me what Cayetana's words of reconciliation were to Arturo

at the final scene. Thank you.

It is driving me crazy I can't make out what she said.

I know you have all moved on to the new novela now, but anybody please explain.
 

What happened to Eleazar and Matilde?? ?

 

What happened to Eleazar and Matilde???
 

I really wanted to read the Tierra de Reyes but seems there are no recaps