''La Madrastra'' (English: ''The Stepmother'') is a Mexican

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...

. It was produced by

Televisa Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...

and broadcast on

Canal de las Estrellas Las Estrellas ("The Stars"; previously El Canal de las Estrellas, or "The Channel of the Stars") is one of the cornerstone networks of TelevisaUnivision, with affiliate stations all over Mexico, flagshipped at XEW-TDT in Mexico City. Many of t ...

in Mexico from Monday, February 7, 2005 through Friday, July 29, 2005. The program became an unexpected success, garnering ratings in excess of 30 points.''

La Opinión ''La Opinión'' is a Spanish-language daily newspaper and website based in Los Angeles, California. It is the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States and the second-most read newspaper in Los Angeles (after ''The Los Angeles Time ...

'', 19 June 2007.
Retrieved 23 February 2010.
Starring

Victoria Ruffo María Victoria Eugenia Guadalupe Martínez del Río Moreno-Ruffo (born May 31, 1962) is a Mexican actress notable for her roles in telenovelas. Biography 1980s Ruffo began her acting career in 1980, starring in supporting roles in teleno ...

and

César Évora César Évora Díaz (; born November 4, 1959, in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban actor. Biography Évora started his career in Cuba appearing in more than ten movies before moving to Mexico in the early 1990s. He became known for playing minor roles ...

, who last appeared together in 2000's '' Abrázame muy fuerte'', while

Jacqueline Andere María Esperanza Jacqueline Andere-Aguilar (born August 20, 1938) is a Mexican actress. Life and career Andere was born in a Jewish family located Mexico City on August 20 1938. Her appearances in telenovelas began with 1960's '' Vida por Vid ...

Guillermo García Cantú Guillermo García Cantú (born April 23, 1960 in Monterrey, Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States ...

Sabine Moussier Sabine Moussier (; born Diana Sabine Moussier August 23, 1966 in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany) is a German-Mexican actress who is best known for her villainous roles in Televisa's telenovelas, such as ''El privilegio de amar'', ...

René Casados René Casados Morales is a Mexican actor best known for his roles in telenovelas. Biography Casados began working as an actor in the 1970s, appearing in films, television, and theatre, as well as working as a co-host of the program ''XE-TU'' w ...

Cecilia Gabriela Cecilia Gabriela Vera Sandoval ( born January 9, 1962) is a Mexican actress known best for her work in telenovelas. She was born in Mexico City. Filmography Awards and nominations Premios TVyNovelas The Premios TVyNovelas are presente ...

Martha Julia Martha Julia () is a Mexican actress. She is best known for playing Isadora Duarte Montalvo in the telenovela ''Destilando Amor.'' Career Martha Julia debuted as soap opera actress in 1995 playing Consuelo Flores, a mistress, in the melodrama '' ...

and

Sergio Mayer Sergio Mayer Breton Izturiz Pinilla, (born May 21, 1966 in Mexico City) is a Mexican actor, singer, producer, and politician. He is serving as a federal deputy to the LXIV Legislature of the Mexican Congress. Biography Sergio started his ca ...

starred as the antagonists and the stellar performances of

Eduardo Capetillo Eduardo Capetillo Vásquez (born April 13, 1970) is a Mexican actor and singer. Life He was born in Mexico City, Mexico. He belongs to the Capetillo family, who have a long tradition of being bullfighters. Being still very young, he partic ...

Ana Layevska Anna Sergeyevna Layevska ( uk, Анна Сергіївна Лаєвська, Anna Serhiyivna Layevsʹka, russian: Анна Сергеевна Лаевская, Anna Sergeyevna Layevskaya; born January 10, 1982), known as Ana Layevska, is a Mexic ...

Mauricio Aspe Mauricio Aspe (born Edgar Mauricio Aspe López on July 25, 1973, in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican actor. Biography Career He began as a child model before emerging as an actor at age 17, when he joined the school of acting of Televisa t ...

Miguel Ángel Biaggio Miguel Ángel Olivares Biaggio (born September 3, 1976, in San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí), also known as Miguel Angel Biagio, Mike Biagio, Mike Biaggio, is a Mexican actor. Life Biaggio made his acting debut in the 1996 telenovela ''El v ...

Michelle Vieth Michelle Jacqueline Vieth Paetau (; born November 19, 1979) is a Mexican-American television personality, actress, and model best known for her starring roles in Mexican telenovelas between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Biography Michelle's ...

José Luis Reséndez José Luis Reséndez Santos (born October 14, 1978 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico) is a Mexican actor and model. He won the national male pageant El Modelo México and represented his country in Mister World 2003, held in London, England, wh ...

, Mariana Ríos and the leading actors

Ana Martín Ana Beatriz Martínez Solórzano (born 14 May 1945), known professionally as Ana Martín, is a Mexican actress and model. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She won the Miss Mexico title in 1963, which ...

Margarita Isabel Margarita Isabel (born Margarita Isabel Morales y González; 25 July 1943 – 9 April 2017) was a Mexican Ariel Award-winning film and television actress. She died on 9 April 2017, aged 75, from emphysema Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is ...

Patricia Reyes Spíndola Patricia Verónica Núñez Reyes Spíndola (born 11 July 1953) is a Mexican actress, director, and producer. She has received four Ariel Awards, two for Best Actress ('' Los Motivos de Luz'' in 1985 and ''The Queen of the Night'' in 1994), and ...

and

Joaquín Cordero Joaquín Cordero (; August 16, 1922 – February 19, 2013) was a Mexican actor of the cinema, theatre and telenovelas. Biography Shortly after his birth, Cordero's family moved to Mexico City, and in the following years he studied in a seminary ...

, ''La madrastra'' tells the story of María, a woman who lost twenty years of her life after being falsely accused of murder and who returns to Mexico to exact revenge on her husband and friends who abandoned her and to see her beloved children once more. ''La Madrastra'' is fourth in a series of remakes of the 1981

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

an production of the same name. The program aired five nights a week, Monday through Friday, at 9 pm for 25 weeks. A follow-up special, ''La madrastra: años después'', aired shortly after the finale on Saturday, July 30, 2005. From June 15 to August 21, 2015

broadcast reruns 12:00 replacing '' Rubí'' with ''

Hasta que el dinero nos separe ''Hasta que el dinero nos separe'' is a Mexican telenovela premiered on Canal de las Estrellas on June 29, 2009, and concluded on May 16, 2010. The series is created and produced for Televisa by Emilio Larrosa, based on the Colombian telenovela ...

'' replacing it on August 24.

Plot

A terrible tragedy puts an end to a group of friends' vacation in

Aruba Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of P ...

. María (

) hears a gunshot and finds her friend Patricia (

Montserrat Olivier Montserrat Oliver (born Montserrat Lourdes Socorro Oliver Grimau on April 13, 1966) is a Mexican fashion model, business entrepreneur, actress, and talk-show host. Life and career Oliver started her modeling career at the age of 16. She quic ...

) dead; in the confusion of the moment, she picks up the gun. María is thus found guilty of murder and is sentenced to life in jail. Her husband, Esteban (

), an important businessman, does not believe her proclamations of innocence, and when he returns to Mexico he divorces her, buys the silence of all who were with them on the trip, and tells his young children that their mother died in an accident. He then erects a painting of another woman, whom he names Montserrat, above the fireplace Twenty years later, María is freed from prison as a result of her good conduct and returns to Mexico City in search of vengeance. She wants to find Patricia's real killer and confront Esteban, whom she now hates for abandoning her, but what she wishes for most is to have her children, Héctor (

) and Estrella (

), back. The first thing that María does when she arrives is to confront everyone who was with her on the trip: Esteban; Servando (Lorenzo de Rodas), one of Esteban's business associates at the Empresas San Román; Demetrio (

), Esteban's corporate lawyer; Daniela (

), Demetrio's wife and the aunt of Esteban's fiancée, Ana Rosa (

); Bruno (

), another of Esteban's business associates; Fabiola (

), Bruno's wife who is nonetheless in love with Esteban; and Alba (

) and Carmela (

), Esteban's two aunts. Everyone is horrified to see María, and she puts fear and doubt into them when she tells them that she did not kill Patricia, and that the real murderer has lived among them for the past twenty years. In the course of her investigation, María finds a portion of Patricia's diary and learns that her friend was not the good person whom she appeared to be: Patricia knew the secrets and weaknesses of everyone in their group and purposefully made María believe that Esteban had made sexual advances toward her. Furthermore, María learns that Patricia never loved her own son, Leonel (

), and María resolves to prevent Leonel from learning this terrible truth. María remarries Esteban so that she can win back her children's love; however, Héctor and Estrella are unaware that María is their real mother and loathe her, believing that María has come to usurp the rightful place of their mother, whom they have idealized. Plus, María must deal with the intrigues of her former friends, most notably Alba, who secretly harbors an

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity ( marriage or stepfamily), ado ...

uous love for her own nephew and hates all of the women who grow close to him, and Fabiola, who was once engaged to Esteban and resents María for winning his heart despite her low socioeconomic background. María is also stunned to learn that Esteban has a third child, Ángel (

), whose mother Esteban refuses to name. Ángel is a frequently ill and insecure young man, and María accepts him immediately and treats him with love, and vice versa. Thanks to María's support, Ángel grows into a self-confident and optimistic man. Little by little, María wins her own children's love without revealing the true ties that unite them. She helps Estrella to mature and leave behind her life as a superficial and capricious youth, and helps her to understand that of her two suitors, Carlos (

) and Greco (

), it is the latter who truly cares for her. Héctor is also immature and arrogant, and María helps him to accept responsibility when he falls in love with and impregnates Vivian (

), María's former cellmate. However, María's biggest problem is Esteban. María finds herself at a crossroads when she realizes that she still loves her husband, and that he still loves her. Now, with her heart hardened by twenty years of suffering, loneliness, and abandonment, María must find the strength to choose between vengeance and forgiveness.

Alternate ending

Two endings to the novela currently exist: following the original airing in 2005, ''La madrastra'' had a rerun in 2007 in the 6pm time slot on Televisa. Producer Salvador Mejía Alejandre arranged to reunite most of the cast in order to re-film the ending so that viewers could once again eagerly anticipate discovering the killer's identity. The two versions thus diverge at the point when Esteban is let out of prison after the Aruban authorities discover the killer's identity, though some new scenes were added in earlier episodes. A notable difference is that the first version consists of 120 one-hour episodes, but the second version was compressed into 115. Many scenes from the original broadcast were either edited out or tweaked during the second broadcast, such as the deaths of Ana Rosa, Carlos, Alba, Rebecca, and Servando. In the original ending, Demetrio is revealed to be Patricia's murderer immediately after he shoots Ana Rosa in the abandoned warehouse; it is also revealed that Demetrio is a

crossdresser Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...

, and that he was able to cast suspicion on his wife, Daniela, because he committed the murders while wearing her clothing and a hairpiece identical to hers. Demetrio is soon seen to be slightly unhinged, and he sets out to murder Esteban, Bruno, Fabiola, and Carmela for having abandoned him after claiming to be his friends. He is ultimately arrested after attempting to kill María in the final episode, and he is sent to prison, where it is strongly implied that he is

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

d by the other inmates. In the alternate ending, the killer is not revealed to the audience until the penultimate episode, at which point Bruno discovers the videotape of Fabiola murdering Patricia. In a fit of insanity, Fabiola stabs Bruno to death and then psychotically runs through the streets of Mexico City, alternately searching for María and hiding behind lampposts. She eventually corners María in the San Román home with a gun, but the police arrive and she is arrested and sent to a mental institution. In this version Demetrio has a happy ending in which he is reunited with Ángel and Carmela at Alma (Ximena Herrera) and Ángel's wedding; in the original version Fabiola, too, has a happy ending in which she and Bruno abandon their glamorous personalities and devote themselves to one another. The alternate ending has only ever aired in Mexico; the 2009 re-run of ''La madrastra'' on Telefutura in the United States used the original ending in which Demetrio is the killer. The DVD set of ''La madrastra'', which was released in 2006, also features the Demetrio ending. Furthermore, there exists no alternate version of the follow-up special to the novela, ''Años después'', for the Fabiola ending; Demetrio is Patricia's killer in this special.

Años Después

A follow-up special to ''La madrastra'' entitled ''La madrastra: años después'' (English: ''The Stepmother: Years Later'') aired on El Canal de las Estrellas on Saturday, July 30, 2005, the day after the series finale. Set ten years after the finale's quintuple wedding, the special portrays the happily reunited San Román family, including four new grandchildren, as well as the Xochimilco residents (reformed villains Bruno, Fabiola, and Daniela do not appear in the special; Daniela is said to have happily married an older man, while Bruno and Fabiola have devoted themselves to helping sick children). The San Románs go to Patricia's lake cabin in order to celebrate their shared ten-year wedding anniversary, unaware that Demetrio, whom they believe died after escaping from prison a year prior, is actually alive and well and is conspiring with his grandson, Ángel and Alma (Ximena Herrera)'s young son Angelito, and the San Román grandchildren's nanny, Diana, to kill the entire family. After numerous failed plots to kill his family members, Angelito lures María to a shack in the woods where Demetrio is holding Estrella hostage. Esteban comes to their rescue, but while fighting with Demetrio a candle is knocked over and sets the structure on fire, killing Demetrio and Diana. Angelito is left near death after the event, but María's prayers to the Virgin Mary save the child, and his grandmother gives him the silver figurine of the Virgin that she made in prison in order to remind him to always be good.

Cast

Main

- María Fernández Acuña de San Román *

- Esteban San Román *

- Leonel Ibáñez *

- Alba San Román *

- Socorro de Montes *

- Daniela Márquez ex de Rivero *

- Ana Rosa Márquez / Sofía Márquez *

- Demetrio Rivero *

- Bruno Mendizábal *

- Fabiola Morán de Mendizabal

Also main

- Carmela San Román *

Lorenzo de Rodas Lorenzo de Rodas (August 2, 1930 – December 18, 2011) was a Spanish actor and film director who participated in several telenovelas and Mexican movies. Biography He was married to the actress María Idalia, who has a son named Leonardo Da ...

- Servando Maldonado *

- Venturina García "La Muda" *

- Padre Belisario *

- Vivian Sousa de San Román *

- Estrella San Román Fernandez de Montes *

- Carlos Sánchez *

- Héctor San Román Fernandez * Mariana Ríos - Guadalupe "Lupita" Montes de Ibáñez *

- Ángel San Román / Ángel Rivero San Román *

Ximena Herrera Ximena Herrera (born Carla Ximena Herrera Bowles on October 5, 1979 in La Paz, Bolivia) is a Bolivian actress. She has acted in telenovelas such as '' La madrastra'' and ''Corazones al límite''. She was married to Alex Sirvent Alejandro Sir ...

- Alma Martínez de San Román *

- Greco Montes * Carlos Bonavides - Rufino "El Pulpo" Sánchez * Arturo García Tenorio - Leonardo "Da Vinci" Montes * Liza Willert - Rebeca Robles * Marcial Casale - Mañas * Arturo Muñoz - El Panteón * Rubén Morales - Detective Figueroa *

Irma Serrano Irma Consuelo Cielo Serrano Castro (; born 9 December 1933) is a Mexican singer, actress and politician. Famous for her "tantalizing", "untamed spitfire" voice, she is one of the most noted performers of the ranchera and corrido genres; she was ni ...

- La Duquesa

Special participation

* María Luisa Alcalá - Fanny *

Mariana Karr María Elena Coppola González (29 November 1949 – 31 July 2016), better known as Mariana Karr, was an Argentine-Mexican actress who worked mostly in films and telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera p ...

- Prison guard * Mario Casillas - Dr. René Rubén *

Montserrat Oliver Montserrat Oliver (born Montserrat Lourdes Socorro Oliver Grimau on April 13, 1966) is a Mexican fashion model, business entrepreneur, actress, and talk-show host. Life and career Oliver started her modeling career at the age of 16. She quic ...

- Patricia de Ibáñez * Archie Lanfranco - Lic. Luciano Cerezuela * Óscar Morelli - Director of Jail * Sergio Jurado - Investigator Muñoz *

Alejandra Barros Alejandra Barros (born Alejandra Barros del Campo on August 11, 1971) is a Mexican actress. She is best known for her role in Televisa's telenovela Mariana de la Noche (2003). Biography Barros studied in New York in ''The Lee Strasberg Theat ...

- Diana *

Laura Pausini Laura Pausini (; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian singer. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with her debut single " La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an interna ...

- to herself

Broadcast history

''La madrastra'' premiered on

's El Canal de las Estrellas (XEW-TV) on Monday, February 7, 2005 at 9:00 PM, replacing '' Mujer de madera''. The program aired weeknights at this time for one hour until Friday, July 15, 2005, when the telenovela was originally scheduled to end after a 115-episode run. However, after ''La madrastra'' became such a ratings success, Televisa ordered an additional ten episodes, bringing the episode total to 125. These final episodes were reduced from the normal hour length to thirty minutes each,''

El Nuevo Herald ''El Nuevo Herald'' is a newspaper published daily in Spanish in Southeast Florida, United States. Its headquarters is in Doral. ''El Nuevo Heralds sister paper is the '' Miami Herald'', also produced by the McClatchy Company. About ''el Nuev ...

'', published 14 July 2005.
Retrieved 22 February 2010.
ceding the latter portion of the hour to ''La esposa virgen''. The series finale aired on Friday, July 29, 2005, with the ''Años después'' special airing the following evening. It aired on Univision Monday March 21, 2005, 9pm/8c replacing ''Amor Real''. The last episode was broadcast Monday September 5, 2005, with ''La esposa virgen'' replacing it. The novela was then replaced with ''La esposa virgen'', which expanded to take up the entire hour. Televisa later re-aired the program, with a new ending, in 2007.

Prior versions

''La madrastra'' is a remake and is the fifth version of this telenovela to be broadcast. The four previous versions are: *'' La madrastra'' (1981), produced by Canal 13 in Chile, with Jael Unger and Walter Kliche. *''

Vivir un poco ''Vivir un poco'' (English title: ''Live a little'') is a Mexican telenovela, which was produced and broadcast by Televisa in 1985. The story was a remake of the very popular Chilean telenovela, ''La Madrastra'' from 1981. ''Vivir un poco'' tells ...

'' (English: ''To Live a Little''; 1985), produced by Televisa in Mexico, with

Angélica Aragón Angélica Espinoza Stransky (born 11 July 1953), known as Angélica Aragón (), is a Mexican film, television and stage actress and singer. She is daughter of the Mexican composer José Ángel Espinoza "Ferrusquilla". She is recognized for her ...

and Rogelio Guerra. *''Para toda la vida'' (English: ''For All of Life''; 1996), produced by Televisa in Mexico in conjunction with

Megavisión Red Televisiva Megavisión (MEGA) is a Chilean private television network headquartered in Santiago. It currently airs on digital frequency channel 27 ( ISDB-Tb) for HDTV. In 2012, ownership of Mega channel was transferred from Claro Group to B ...

in Chile, with

Ofelia Medina María Ofelia Medina Torres (born 4 March 1950) is a Mexican actress, singer and screenwriter of Mexican films. She was married to film director Alex Philips Jr. and actor Pedro Armendáriz Jr. Biography She was born in Mérida and has four ...

and Ezequiel Lavandero. *''Forever'' (1996), produced by

Fox Television The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations and ...

in the United States in conjunction with Televisa, with Maria Mayenzet and James Richer.

DVD release

''La madrastra'' was released to

region 1 DVD DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to ...

on 21 March 2006. The series was considerably abridged in order to fit on the three double-sided DVD set, which contains 710 minutes of material. In addition to the abridged novela, the release also features the post-finale ''Años después'' special, as well as the original trailer for the novela,

blooper A blooper is a short clip from a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms o ...

s, and promotional photographs. The DVD release also has optional English

subtitles Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informa ...

In popular culture

''La madrastra'' was featured in Mexican sketch comedy show ''La Parodia'', which spoofed the program in a parody called ''La madre ésta''. The character of María was portrayed by Gaby Ruffo, younger sister of Victoria Ruffo, who plays María in the novela. The telenovela gained notice in the English-speaking United States in 2005 after being featured on numerous episodes of E! network's '' The Soup''. Host

Joel McHale Joel Edward McHale (born November 20, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, and television host. He is best known for hosting '' The Soup'' (2004–2015) and his role as Jeff Winger on the NBC sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015). He has performe ...

often singled out Bruno for the amount of eyeliner that the character wore and "that bitch Alba" for what McHale described as her "crazy eye" that appeared to bulge noticeably larger than the other during particularly intense scenes. ''The Soup'' also mocked particular scenes of the novela, such as when Alba poisoned Rebeca with rat poison, causing the latter to flail and foam at the mouth before dramatically dying on the floor. McHale at one point emphatically stated that "I can think of fifteen network shows I ''understand'' that aren't this good!"

Awards and nominations

2006 TVyNovelas Awards

2006 Bravo Awards

2006 ACE Awards

2010 Tv Adicto Golden Awards

2020 TLN Awards

, -

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Madrastra (2005 TV series), La 2005 telenovelas 2005 Mexican television series debuts 2005 Mexican television series endings Mexican telenovelas Televisa telenovelas Mexican television series based on Chilean television series Spanish-language telenovelas