''Rubí'' 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 (film and television), drama genres around the w ...

produced by

José Alberto Castro José Alberto Castro (born José Alberto Sáinz Castro, 31 May 1963) is a Mexican producer and director. Biography He is the brother of actresses Verónica Castro, Beatriz Castro, telenovela producer Fausto Gerardo Sáinz, and the uncle of Mex ...

for

Televisa Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April ...

. It is based on a comic strip by Yolanda Vargas Dulché, published in installments on the 1960s Mexican

romance comics Romance comics are a genre of comic book, comic books that were most popular during the Golden Age of Comics. The market for comics, which had been growing rapidly throughout the 1940s, began to plummet after the end of World War II when military ...

magazine '' Lágrimas, risas y amor''. Starring Bárbara Mori, Eduardo Santamarina, Jacqueline Bracamontes, Sebastián Rulli and

Ana Martín Ana Beatriz Martínez Solórzano (born 14 May 1945), known professionally as Ana Martín, is a Mexican actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder. She won the Miss World Mexico 1963. which took her to compete in Miss World 1963 in London, w ...

Canal de las Estrellas Las Estrellas () is a Mexican television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. Its first official broadcast took place on 21 March 1951. It airs free-to-air through affiliate stations throughout Mexico, based on XEW-TDT in Mexico City. It is co ...

aired ''Rubí'' from May 17 to October 22, 2004, with '' Apuesta por un amor'' replacing it.

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...

broadcast ''Rubí'' from September 20, 2004 to March 7, 2005 and has named it as the top telenovela of all time.

Plot

In the heart of Rubí ( Bárbara Mori) reigns a constant struggle between every woman's desire to find true love and a desperate obsession with money. Although fate has denied her a good economic situation, it has instead favored her with extraordinary physical beauty and Rubí is determined to use it to marry a rich man who will give her the life of luxury she aspires to. Rubí studies at a private university thanks to a half scholarship and the support of her sister, Cristina ( Paty Díaz), who works hard to help their mother support the household. At the university, Rubí befriends Maribel ( Jacqueline Bracamontes), a millionaire yet sweet and simple girl, who was left disabled in one leg by an accident. Maribel thinks that, more than a friend, she has found a sister in Rubí and she cares for her sincerely, without knowing that Rubí's affection is poisoned by envy. When the beautiful young woman visits her friend's mansion, she becomes convinced that this is the kind of life she deserves and she will do whatever it takes to get it. Maribel, a shy young woman because of her physical defect, spends hours on her computer chatting on the Internet with a young man named Héctor ( Sebastián Rulli) and soon after they become a couple without ever having met. When they finally meet in person, Héctor overcomes Maribel's disability and asks her to marry him. Maribel accepts, happy and in love. Héctor introduces Rubí to his best friend, a young orthopedic doctor named Alejandro ( Eduardo Santamarina), and a deep love is born between them as well. When Maribel finds out, she feels that her happiness is complete. Rubí is also happy, because in addition to being in love with Alejandro, she thinks that life will finally do her justice when she marries a handsome and rich doctor who furthermore adores her. That is why she is so disappointed when she finds out that Alejandro's family is not wealthy. Rubí has to choose between marrying the man she loves and her desperate desire to be rich and, even though she knows that another love like this may never come into her life, she breaks off her relationship. Heartbroken, Alejandro walks away from her forever and devotes himself body and soul to his profession. Now, Rubí is more determined than ever to marry a millionaire and, to achieve this, she is willing to commit the vilest of betrayals by stealing Héctor's love from Maribel. However, even though her dream of luxury and wealth comes true when she marries Héctor, Rubí will finally have to learn a painful lesson: that vanity, pride and greed are terrible sins and divine justice is implacable.

Cast

Main

* Bárbara Mori as Rubí Pérez Ochoa * Eduardo Santamarina as Alejandro Cárdenas Ruiz * Jacqueline Bracamontes as Maribel de la Fuente * Sebastián Rulli as Héctor Ferrer Garza *

as Refugio Ochoa Vda. de Pérez

Also main

* Josefina Echánove as Francisca “Pancha” Muñoz * Antonio Medellín as Ignacio Cárdenas * Ana Bertha Espín as Elisa de Duarte *

José Elías Moreno José Elías Moreno (12 November 1910 – 15 July 1969) was a Mexican character actor. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1937 and 1969. He was from the state of Jalisco. His José Elías Moreno Jr., son of the same name, born in 1956 ...

as Genaro Duarte * Olivia Bucio as Carla Ruiz de Cárdenas * Luis Gatica as Cayetano Martínez * Leonorilda Ochoa as Dolores Herrera Guzmán "Doña Lola" * Roberto Vander as Arturo de la Fuente * Ofelia Cano as Victoria Gallegos *Miguel Pizarro as Loreto Echagüe * Paty Díaz as Cristina Pérez Ochoa *Arlette Pacheco as Lilia López de Duarte * Jan as Marco Rivera * Íngrid Martz as Lorena Treviño

Recurring

*Dolores Salomón "Bodokito" as Mariquita *Roberto Sen as David Treviño *Sergio Jurado as Lawyer Millán *José Antonio Ferral as Dr. Garduño * María Fernanda García as Valeria *Eduardo Rodríguez as Saúl Arce de la Borbolla *Sergio Argueta as Francisco "Paco" Gómez Gallegos *Jorge Flores as himself *

Marco Méndez Marco Méndez (born Marco Anibal Méndez Ramírez on October 1, 1976, in Uruapan, Michoacán) is a Mexican actor. Méndez began as a model and later studied acting in Televisa's CEA. He made his television debut as 'Oscar Méndez' in the telenov ...

as Luis Duarte López *Tania Vázquez as Sofía "Sofí" Cárdenas Ruiz *Ramón Menéndez as Pichardo *Hugo Macías as Isidro Roldán *Sergio Zaldívar as Gazcón *Mariana Rountree as Íngrid Mendoza *Manuel Foyo as Ernesto Bermúdez Aranda *Karen Sandoval as Natalia "Naty" Duarte **Nicole Vale as child Naty *Kristel Casteele as Fernanda "Fernandita" Martínez Pérez ** Bárbara Mori as older Fernanda

Guest stars

Yadhira Carrillo Yadhira Carrillo Villalobos (born May 12, 1973) is a Mexican actress, model and beauty queen. Early career Yadhira Carrillo was chosen Nuestra Belleza Aguascalientes in 1994, the state qualifier for the national Nuestra Belleza México, to det ...

as Elena Navarro *

Manuel Landeta Manuel Landeta (born José Manuel Goenaga Jassan on October 5, 1958) is a Mexican singer and actor of telenovelas. His two sons Imanol and Jordi Landeta are also actors and singers. Career Manuel Landeta started his acting career at the age ...

as Lucio Montemayor, Count of Aragon * Sergio Goyri as Yago Pietrasanta * Carlos Cámara as Dr. José Luis Bermúdez * Adriana Roel as Hilda Méndez *

Lorena Velázquez Lorena Velázquez (; 15 December 1937 – 11 April 2024) was a Mexican actress and beauty pageant titleholder. At the time of her death she was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. Biography Born María de la C ...

as Mary Echavarría *

Lilia Aragón Lilia Aragón (born Lilia Isabel Aragón del Rivero, 22 September 1938 – 2 August 2021) was a Mexican film, television, and stage actress and politician. She was the Secretary of the National Association of Actors. She also served as Deputy ...

as Nora Vda. de Navarro * Manuel "Flaco" Ibáñez as Onésimo Segundo *Gerardo Albarrán as Gabriel Almanza *Alicia Farh as Romina * Marlene Favela as Sonia Echavarría

Awards and nominations

Reception

' October 22 finale broadcast of ''Rubí'' earned a rating of 28 points.

's March 7 finale broadcast of ''Rubí'' was watched by 8 million viewers.

Remakes

In 1968, the original version for television, titled ''Rubí'', was directed by

Fernando Wagner Fernando Wagner (November 7, 1905 in Göttingen, German Empire, Germany – October 20, 1973 in Cuernavaca, Mexico) was a German-born Mexican actor and film director. He had prominent roles in ''La perla (film), La Perla'' and ''The Wild Bunch' ...

and produced by

Valentín Pimstein Valentín Pimstein Weiner (9 August 1925 – 27 June 2017) was a Chilean Television producer, producer of telenovelas. Biography Pimstein was the seventh child of nine in a Belarusian Jewish family (from Minsk), which owns a glass shop in Bar ...

, starring

Fanny Cano Fanny Cano Damián (28 February 1944 – 7 December 1983) was a Mexican actress and producer. Death Cano died on 7 December 1983, in an airplane accident in Madrid, Spain. Her flight was an Iberia Boeing 727 which was about to take off for Rome ...

, Antonio Medellín and Carlos Fernández. In 1970, a film version with the same name as the telenovela was produced, directed and adapted by

Carlos Enrique Taboada Carlos Enrique Taboada Walker (July 18, 1929 - April 15, 1997) was a Mexican screenwriter and director. He is best known for his supernatural Terror and suspense films including Hasta el viento tiene miedo, Más negro que la noche, Veneno para la ...

, starring Irán Eory, Aldo Monti and

Carlos Bracho Carlos Enrique Bracho González (born October 6, 1937) is a Mexican actor and writer. Filmography Films Television References External links * 1937 births Living people 20th-century Mexican male actors Mexican male tel ...

. In February 2010,

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN is a leading Philippine media and content company. It serves as the flagship media brand of ABS-CBN Corporation, a subsidiary of Lopez Holdings Corporation. Once the country's largest free-to-air television network, ABS-CBN has since ...

announced

had given them permission to make a Philippine version of the series. The Philippine adaptation stars Angelica Panganiban and

Shaina Magdayao Shaina Garcia Magdayao (; born November 6, 1989) is a Filipino actress. Known primarily for her dramatic roles in film and television, she began her career as a child actress and starred in her first titular role ''Lyra (TV series), Lyra''. She ...

as the female leads, with

Jake Cuenca Juan Carlos Cuenca (; born December 30, 1987), popularly known as Jake Cuenca, is a Filipino actor. He also played for United Football League Division 2 sides Team Socceroo FC. Career At the age of nine, Cuenca was discovered by talent scout ...

and Diether Ocampo as the male leads. It was launched as one of the network's offerings for the 60th year celebration of Philippine television dramas ("ika-60 taon ng Pinoy Soap Opera") during the Trade Launch for the 1st quarter that same year, entitled "Bagong Simula" (New Beginning). In January 2012, O3, with permission from

, produced an Arabic version of the series titled ''

Ruby Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapph ...

''. The Arabic adaptation stars Cyrine Abdelnour and Diamant Abou Abboud as the female leads, alongside

Maxim Khalil Maxim Hani Khalil (; born on 7 November 1978 in Homs) is a Syrian actor. Career After he finished high school, he began as ballet dancer. In 1998, he worked as an assistant director for two years and was at this stage performing small roles. S ...

and

Amir Karara Amir Karara (; born 10 October 1977) is an Egyptian actor and TV presenter. His real beginning came during his presentation of ''Star Maker'' in 2003. Karara is best known for his dramatic and action roles such as his roles in ''Karmouz War'' (20 ...

as the male leads. It was aired on MBC1 in the Arab world and LBCI in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. In January 2020,

made a remake starring

Camila Sodi Camila Ía González Sodi (; born 14 May 1986) is a Mexican singer, actress and model. She is the niece of the singer and actress Thalía and a member of the Sodi family. Family life Camila Ía González Sodi was born in Mexico City, Mexico ...

. The 2020 version serves at the same time as a sequel to the 2004 telenovela as it follows events 20 years after the story's ending.

References

External links

* {{José Alberto Castro 2004 telenovelas Female characters in comics Mexican comics titles Mexican comics adapted into films Television shows based on Philippine comics Spanish-language telenovelas Televisa telenovelas Television shows set in Mexico City Television shows set in New York City Television shows set in Cancún Television shows set in Montreal Television shows set in Madrid Television shows set in Vienna Television series set in the 2000s 2004 Mexican television series debuts 2004 Mexican television series endings