Caray, Caray!

Hello Everyone!

I recently started watching Amor de Barrio and spent all this past week catching up on past episodes to be able to watch it live, hopefully with all of you.

I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw because, while this is a "traditional" novela rosa (with plenty of cliches) they are either handled in a fresh way or are revealed so quickly it never weighs down the story. I also love that both female protagonists, Paloma and Laura, are career women who go out into the world and the galanes are to brain dead insecure men who believe hearsay.

It is also the first novela in 9 years for Roberto Hernandez Vazquez, who last produced Heridas de Amor.

This is my first summary/blog so bear with me, please. This is a summary of the first 35 episodes so here goes nothing!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Paloma Madrigal is a muchacha de barrio that recently finished her specialty in criminal law and needs to win her first case in order to get a job at a respectable law office. The case she chooses is that of Blanca Estela Bernal whom was unjustly imprisoned by Catalina Lopezreina for killing Catalina’s husband, Saul.

Catalina blamed Blanca Estela for Saul’s murder because Blanca Estela refused to tell Catalina where Saul’s lover, Dalia and her son, Rodrigo, were hiding. Blanca Estela, pregnant with Paloma, told her husband, Gustavo, everything was true when she was condemned to life in prison. She gave Paloma to Gustavo as soon as she was born WITHOUT knowing her if she gave birth to a boy or girl. Gustavo then told their children that their mom died during Paloma’s birth.



Daniel, Catalina’s son, a doctor who works at the local hospital and prison hospital, meets Blanca Estela and Paloma when he saved their lives. Daniel’s deteriorating relationship with his mother reaches a breaking point when he moves out of his house and into Paloma’s barrio after which Catalina cuts access to his car, cell phone, credit card, etc. Catalina also buys the barrio where Daniel is living and pays off the landlord to spy on everyone in the barrio.

Seemingly poor, Daniel doesn’t tell Paloma of his status and she assumes he is just as poor as she is. This causes tension between Paloma and Rodrigo, her boyfriend whom she recently accepted after years of him asking her to be his girlfriend. Without knowing they are brothers, Daniel and Rodrigo continue to fight for Paloma’s love. Daniel, who is engaged to Eugenia, is only with her because Eugenia and her father, Claudio, blame Daniel for the accident that left him in a wheelchair.

Daniel breaks off the engagement and Eugenia tells Claudio to use his contacts to make sure Daniel will never be a successful doctor. This plan backfires and all they accomplish is also fueling Catalina’s fury against them. Eugenia then asks Rodrigo to spy on Daniel and Paloma.

Paloma’s problems are multiplied by the fact that Gustavo lost his job and Gabriel only dreams of being a rock star. They get involved in a pyramid scheme of cleaning products with the local hoodlum. Eventually, Gabriel finds a job as a singer at Don Cosme’s bar and her father as an accountant while the hoodlum threatens them with physical harm if they don’t continue to pay him for the cleaning products.

Daniel is saved from a deadly mugging by Rodrigo, who gets shot in the process. Daniel is able to donate his blood (which is not readily available at hospitals because it’s rare) and save Rodrigo’s life. Out of gratitude, Dalia gives Daniel a pen belonging to Saul and finds out inadvertently that he is Saul’s son. He tells her about his father’s death via heart attack and Dalia is saddened by the fact the love of her life is dead.

Dora Luz, Daniel’s sister, is equally tired of Catalina’s antics but, instead of fighting her, eventually comes to dress and act like her mother to make Catalina realize because like her is not the best way to go about life. Dora Luz is also Adalberto’s daughter, a fact Saul knew before his death and changed his will so that Daniel is the only heir to all his fortune, businesses, etc. Daniel will receive this money when he gets married.

In addition, he stipulated that Blanca Estela receive an allowance. She has managed to hide these two clauses by paying off the family lawyer, who has recently died, and left in his place another lawyer who is determined to reveal the truth. Adalberto eventually steals the will documents from the law office and the lawyer realizes that he’d be safer in the U.S. while he finds Daniel and Blanca Estela, who Catalina both hid from him.

Catalina had also “taken care of” her brother’s equally poor lover, Rosa, by drugging her and having Adalberto rape and take photos of Rosa to make Ariel believe she had cheated on him. From that rape, Laura was born, and Rosa became an alcoholic who lives at the mercy of her now husband, Edmundo, who took take of her and Laura when they had no one else in the world.

Edmundo works at the barrio bar, La Lucieniga, where Rosa drinks and works in the coat check with Laura. Laura hates Edmundo because he used to beat her when she was younger and Rosa always told Laura she had a rich dad.
Laura, Paloma’s best friend, is in love with Daniel’s cousin, Raul, who recently came back to Mexico to help his dad, Ariel, in the family business. Laura and Raul eventually start working together at his company where Laura builds a monitoring system so that Raul can see what everyone in the company is doing on the computers. Some employees berate and belittle Laura and think she only has her position because she is his girlfriend.

Raul’s dad recently married Tamara, who has a double life as Monalisa, a dancer in Edmundo’s bar by night, and respectable wife by day but has not been able to consummate the marriage. She escapes at night with the help of her servant, Delfina, who tells everyone Tamara is very sick and she must inject medicine behind her ear every night so she can sleep. Tamara is attracted to Raul since she saw him in La Lucieniga.

Laura presents her system but the employees that hate her plant a virus in her program that threatened the electronic structure of the company. Laura is able to find the computer’s IP that planted the virus and two employees are arrested. Raul suggests a chauffeur at the service of Laura for her protection but Laura decides to leave Raul’s company for a while to help Edmundo with the Lucienga, which he recently bought. Edmundo offers Laura a good salary and half of the nightclub but Laura is wary of accepting his offer.

When Tamara finds out Laura and Raul are falling in love, she steals a patron’s wallet at the Lucienga so Rosa will go to jail. On the way to the police station, Rosa becomes ill and is taken to the hospital where she comes to realize that Ariel was not the man she had lost her virginity to all those years ago but Adalberto.

Rosa runs away from the hospital and is struck by a car, hitting her head in the process. She loses her the memory but doesn’t forget she has a daughter. Tamara finds Rosa and hides her away in a psychiatric center to make Laura suffer. Tamara also hides from everyone that her own parents were in a psychiatric hospital and, while her mother died years ago, her father still lives.

Laura finds an old picture of Rosa with Blanca Estela and does a composite of the photo to post on social media in hopes of finding her mother. Raul runs a picture of Ariel through the system as well and Laura comes to realize the rich man her mom was always talking about is Raul’s father, making them brother and sister.

Laura, hoping Ariel tells her the truth, reveals she is Rosa’s daughter causing him to have a stroke. While he is rushed to the hospital, Tamara finds a picture a Rosa in Ariel’s study and also realizes Laura and Raul are brothers. She confronts Laura about it and Laura begs her to keep her secret while she figures out what to do.

Catalina confesses to Daniel and Dora Luz that their father didn’t die of a heart attack but was murdered by his “lover” Blanca Estela while Laura confesses to Paloma that Raul and Daniel are cousins. Paloma breaks off her relationship with Daniel believing him to be a liar and a con man that only got close to her to sabotage Blanca Estela’s trial when paying off Paloma didn’t work. Daniel eventually comes to believe, because of Catalina’s lies, that Paloma seduced him in order to help free Blanca Estela and the two break it off.

Catalina also finds out from Daniel that he helped saved Blanca Estela and is furious but forgives him if he vows to help her win the case against her. Daniel obliges and Catalina returns his car, credit cards, etc.

Tamara finds out from Catalina that Rosa didn’t sleep with Ariel but with Adalberto and Laura is not Ariel’s daughter. Tamara and Delfina decide that, because Laura and Raul would immediately know they are not siblings, they decide to make Raul believe that Laura and Edmundo are together and helped get rid of Rosa.

Dalia has a heart to heart with Blanca Estela about being Saul’s lover. Dalia begs Blanca Estela to forgive her because she never believed Blanca Estela didn’t kill Saul. Blanca Estela accepts but lets Dalia know that she suffered Catalina’s wrath because she never believed Blanca Estela didn’t know where Dalia was.

Catalina recognizes the pen Dalia gave Daniel and tells him it was his father’s favorite pen. He goes to Dalia and she lies about knowing her father personally. She told him she found the pen in a garbage can outside the office.

Catalina reveals to Paloma she owns el barrio and threatens to evict everyone if she continues the trial to free Blanca Estela.

Paloma and Rodrigo get engaged with the Dalia gave him and Eugenia and Daniel walked on him proposing.

Ariel wakes up from the coma but can’t speak even though he can hear.

Claudio loses even more money on gambling as Eugenia scrambles to get Daniel back and move up the wedding as they are running out of money to sustain their appearances. Secretly, he has also been starting to stand up on his own albeit for only a few seconds.

Gustavo tells Paloma that while he doesn’t approve of her career choice, he will support her on the condition she doesn’t talk about any of the cases she is currently working on, including the very important one she is currently working on.

Catalina is furious that while Daniel has returned home, he still goes to the prison hospital so Dora Luz suggests Catalina open a hospital in the car dealership and tells Catalina and Adalberto she approves of their relationship if they have one.

Eugenia discovers Claudio walking and cheers him on. She wants to tell Daniel but Claudio tells her not to because then they would have nothing to blackmail him with, especially considering that they only have a month to pay what they owe the bank or she might go to jail as she signed all the loan documents.

Catalina is furious to know Raul is trying to find out about Rosa while Adalberto hires a PI to find Dalia and Rodrigo so that he can marry Dora Luz. When Rodrigo inherits the Marquez fortune, he will reward Adalberto. He orders the PI to not tell Catalina.

Rosa becomes friends with an orderly at the hospital who lets her use his cell phone to call Laura. The phone’s battery dies before Rosa can reveal where she is but Laura takes the number to the police but it can’t be traced, as it’s disposable. He also gives Rosa a Rose and she remembers her name.

The local hoodlum gang (whose leader is the owner of pyramid scheme) steals the orderly’s cell phone during a bus ride and answer Laura’s call demanding money for her mother’s safe return. The leader sees this as another business venture despite not having Rosa. The police trace the phone call and arrest the all hoodlums, who eventually confess to the fire from the beginning and the pyramid scheme.

Catalina goes to Laura’s house to tell her to stay away from Raul because Tamara told Catalina that Laura was just as poor as Paloma. Catalina gives the landlord the order to throw Laura out of the barrio and the landlord tells Catalina about the “relationship” between Edmundo and Laura. At the same time, Edmundo is becoming increasingly obsessed with Laura.

Saul’s lawyer visits Blanca Estela and tells her she will inherit some money based on a clause. The warden, Mirtha, tells Paloma about the clause and also that Blanca Estela told her Dalia was Saul’s wife.

When Paloma speaks to the lawyer, he worries that Catalina might say Blanca Estela murdered Saul for the money. While Paloma argues that that isn’t true, the lawyer reveals that Catalina knew about the clause and that Dora Luz isn’t Saul’s daughter.

Delfina, having a fantasy about being rich, reveals she is Tamara’s sister and also that she ordered the treatment that left Tamara’s parents crazy. Lugo, the orderly, overhears Delfina’s plan to order the same treatment for Rosa and tells her. The two escape the hospital during the night. They return to Edmundo's house and, while Laura and Edmundo are ecstatic but she doesn't remember them. She slowly is starting to remember the more she continues to live with them.

Laura agrees to be Edmundo's partner in La Lucienga and tells Monalisa that her mom returned.

Daniel catches Claudio walking when he goes over Eugenia’s house. Daniel realizes that Claudio wanted Eugenia to marry Daniel to take care of his debts. Claudio lies and says that Eugenia had two other offers for marriage and turned them down for Daniel. Daniel finds out via her "suitors" that these were lies to entrap him and breaks off the engagement indefinitely.

Dalia reveals to Rodrigo that his father was married and she was his lover. His father has since died though so he can’t meet him.

Daniel is having a recurring dream about Saul who tells him to take care of his brother. He asks Catalina if he asks antoher sibling since he would like to share his fortune with them. Dora Luz and Catalina are not willing to share anything.

Issac, a patron at La Lucienga's son, meets Laura and falls for her. He asks Laura to dance and Monalisa is able to take compromising pictures.

Daniel asks Paloma to marry him and Rodrigo hears everything.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There you have it! A lot has happened in 35 episodes and I'm sure there's more to come! :)

Labels: barrio, index