Caray, Caray!

At last, it seems Televisa and Univision have come together to give Carayers a traditional telenovela with characters with very recognizable traits. From the beginning, there is no doubt as to who the protagonistas are and the antagonistas they are up against.

This is Puebla, where the landscape is verdant,  the town vistas are inviting, the palette is bright and cheerful, houses are grand, but there are dark shadows in this two-dimensional world, including at least three separate staircases of doom. By way of  introduction to Corazón Que Miente, it should be noted that there is: The Unhappy Rich and Powerful Family; The Servants of the Rich and Powerful Family; The Not so Rich and Not At All Powerful but Happy Family; The Family Who Owes the Rich and Powerful Family Favors and Envies Their Wealth and Power; The Guy Who Has a Chip on His Shoulder; and Low and Behold, a Modern Day Plainclothes Priest. The Yin-Yang is embodied in sibling rivalries, family rivalries, lost and found loves, an infinite desire to enlarge personal wealth and an infinite desire to heal the sick and downtrodden. At the start, almost everything is in balance.

Into this mix one man returns to the town of his birth, having become a successful sculptor elsewhere. He harbors deep feelings for someone which are unresolved. He will be the instrument to upset the balance. His godmother is waiting to pick him up at the airport. They find each other. She chides him for having been away for so many years and then they depart for the palatial house he left her.


Introducing some of these special residents of Puebla, who will no doubt reappear regularly are:
Mariela – a delightful child of about 12, who dearly loves her grandfather and whose love is reciprocated. She claims she is willing to live anywhere he wants to live. She has a couple of playmates—a girl, Lety and a boy, Alonso. She secretly favors Alonso. She is also Carmen’s friend, and by extension will meet Leonardo. Don Manuel remembers him, too.
Don Manuel – a beloved area physician, nearing retirement age, but still short of realizing his dream of building a clinic to treat anyone and everyone who needs medical services. He has plenty of land on which to build, but regrettably, no funding with which to proceed. Someone wants his land. No offers are good enough, though. His land is not for sale. It belongs to his daughter and will someday belong to Mariela. He sends a message to Demián—first dead before ever selling the land.

Demián – an impresario in the construction industry, known for his ruthless business practices, despicable treatment of both his employees and his family. He shows obvious favoritism toward his older son, Alonso who, he claims, is most like himself. He thinks Santiago, the younger boy, as needing to “man up” (i.e. too much like his mother). He has made no secret that he covets Don Manuel’s land in order to assemble a large parcel of land to develop a hotel, as only he sees fit.
Lucía – a beautiful woman, married to Demián, unhappily so, and makes no secret of it. She is protective of her two sons and tries unsuccessfully to have their father treat them equally.  She won’t leave her husband because of the two boys. At one time she was in love with Leonardo. She doesn't seem to have forgotten it.
Sara – as Lucía’s mother, she and her husband were instrumental in forcing Lucía to marry Demián most likely for the sake of his social standing and wealth. She is not sorry about this. She is disturbed to hear Leonardo has returned and has actually seen Lucía and her two grandsons. There is no love lost between herself and Rafaela. She obviously knows something we don’t.
Daniel – as a priest of the church, he knows many secrets, including Leonardo’s. He lets Leonardo know that Lucía never told Demián about their earlier relationship. He is also Demián’s brother and has warned him often that his soul is at risk for his greed and also risks losing his family with the way he mistreats them, which Demián denies. The two boys, Alonso and Santiago are very attached to their uncle and spend a lot of time with him, no doubt seeing him as more of a “father” figure than their own father.
Rafaela –  an employee at Demián’s empresa and confidant of Lucía's. She knows her misery and is compassionate. She is also Lucía’s cousin and lives with the family.
Alonso and Santiago – at their young age, there doesn’t seem to be any natural sibling rivalry. They get along well and do things together. Their father, though, promotes competition. This may not bode well in the future. For now, Santiago acquiesces to their father’s demands that he be excluded from certain father-son activities.

La Servidumbre, the father, Noe – works at a Ferrer construction site and wears a maroon sweater. He is married to the cook-housekeeper at the Ferrer mansion. He doesn’t seem to be in the best of health.
La Servidumbre, the mother, Amalia – in the kitchen and uniformed as befits any self-respecting servant. She and hub seem to have a solid marriage and one young daughter.
Lety – their daughter and playmate of Mariela’s. She continues to question her parents why it is not fitting for her to be friends with and play with the Ferrer boys. She’s told by her father that they are employees of the patrones of the house, dependent on them for their livelihood and thus, must remember their place in the social hierarchy.

Leonardo – the successful batchelor sculptor has recently returned to Puebla, but not certain why. He sees his lost lady love in a chance meeting in the sanctuary of Daniel’s church, “surprised” that Lucía even remembers his name, after rejecting him in favor of marrying someone else and no doubt why he left Puebla years ago. He also sees that she has two boys. He opines to Daniel that if things had been different, those two boys might have been his and they would have been happy together. He learns from Carmen, that Lucía never smiles anymore. She doesn’t come right out and say Lucía is unhappy, but she sure does hint at it.
Carmen – has and will forever support Leonardo in whatever he does. She’s grateful to have been left this palatial house to live in by Leonardo, but loves him unconditionally. She's happy he's back.

Eduardo – at first seems to be Demián’s enforcer, but in truth he is someone willing to do any favors for Demián, as in deliver the latest offer for his land to Don Manuel. In return, he would like help securing a lucrative position as notario*—which apparently Demián can facilitate. He reminds Demián that the position will be beneficial to both of them. Demián keeps him on a string, reeling him in and then letting him out to swing in the uncertainty of his promise reminding Eduardo that it will benefit Eduardo and his family more than it will him. (*Remember that notarios in Mexico are lawyers in almost every sense of the word.)
Karla – his desperate housewife, desperate to live up to the outward social trappings of the Ferrers. She is so desperate to be accepted she can’t choose an outfit to wear to the Ferrer’s by-invitation-only dinner. The couple has a son.

Rogelio – a devious and untrustworthy employee of the Ferrer business enterprise. He imitates his boss by chewing out the underlings and make them do what he wants them to do, no questions asked. He also has a sweet spot for Rafaela, who thinks he’s too presumptuous for looking at someone too high above himself socially. He charges her with the same fault. This is confirmed when he actually sees Demián and Rafaela in a lip-lock just off the kitchen wine room, where Rogelio was helping himself to a couple of bottles—sure that no one would miss them (the bottles, of course).

Labels: miente