As I am near the end of my telenovela, things have somewhat settled in the way of new themes popping up. One of the first representation storylines that I noticed was the racism towards Elena's boyfriend. The family is Latino and lives in Mexico, and the boyfriend, Dominique, is African American and lives in New York. The family, specifically Virginia, was very unaccepting and basically ignores him to his face while whispering behind his back. About ten episodes in, Dominique finds out Elena is cheating on him, but chooses to ignore it. In attempt to stop Elena on cheating with her half-brother, Virginia helps Dominique propose. This was remarkable, as Virginia went from saying she would simply die if her daughter married a black man to helping the very man in question propose to Elena. The two ended up having a rushed wedding before confronting each other about Elena's affair and deciding marriage was a bad idea. After this, Dominique randomly disappeared and hasn’t shown up again since. To me, this suggests that the audience did not enjoy his character or the storyline, as it all felt very abrupt.
In the LGBTQ+ storyline that is centered around Julian, there have been several developments. Julian now has several lovers: Lucia, his long-term girlfriend and recently the mother of his child, Diego, longtime on again off again boyfriend, Willy, and Mara. Julian has been accepted by his family for his bisexuality, which is huge in the telenovela world. In my opinion, Julian's storyline is the most entertaining and takes the most twists and turns. The drama around acceptance by his family was entertaining, but it was satisfying to watch his family come to terms with everything and end up supporting him.
Now that I am over halfway through, I have decided that there are four protagonists: Virginia, Elena, Paulina, and Julian. Each of these characters have distinct storylines that are separate and intertwined at times. At the episode I am in right now, Virginia has disappeared and is thought to be dead, but I just do not believe that, as most of the intertwined storyline was centered around her. It is important to highlight that most of the protagonists are women, and Virginia and Paulina's storylines are not centered around a man. This is major in the telenovela world, as typically the gender roles have guaranteed that women have to be centered around a man, while the man is the one with a successful career and can be independent. I am excited to see how the loose ends are tied up!
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