FIN -- Maria la del barrio

This telenovela went crazy on me. In a good way. As the show develops, so many convoluted and generally awful things happen to the characters, even the antagonist, Soraya. She, too, is chasing after Luis Fernando aka "prince charming". While attempting to sabotage Maria, she falls out of a window. Everyone thinks she's dead (understandably). However, she returns, after marrying and murdering a millionaire in America. What a life. Luis Fernando and Maria, of course, marry, surprisingly early. They have a child, but Luis' jealousy and paranoia forces him to divorce and abandon her. She falls ill to mental illness and literally hands her newborn child to someone on the street.

Luis honestly is a horrible person. He abandoned Maria while she was pregnant with his child. He accused her of being unfaithful again later in the series, and then had an affair himself! What a hypocrite.

After watching this telenovela more, I can further understand the overly "characterized" people on these shows. There are hopeless romantics, hypocrites, and evil mistresses. People aren't actually like any of these things though, at least not to the extreme they are depicted in Telenovelas. But that's just it. These are just glorified examples of everyday people we encounter in our lives, and traits we can find within ourselves. We can all find ourselves lost in romance, contradictory at times, and somewhat mischievous. There are characters we'll love, and characters we'll hate. Just like in real life, there will be some people we can blend with and some will just turn us off.

I'm probably going to view people in terms of Fernandos and Sorayas now.. I hope I meet more Marias though!

This class has been so much fun, and I truly feel inspired, having learned about this world of telenovelas. Thanks Dr. A!