La Madrastra
Genre	Telenovela
Created by	Arturo Moya Grau
Written by	Liliana Abud(adaptation)
Directed by	Rafael Banquells Eric Morales Jorge Edgar Ramírez
Starring	Victoria Ruffo César Évora Eduardo Capetillo Jacqueline Andere Ana Martín Cecilia Gabriela Martha Julia Guillermo García Cantú René Casados Sabine Moussier
Opening theme	"Víveme" performed by Laura Pausini
Composer	Jorge Avendaño Lührs
Country of origin	Mexico
Original language	Spanish
No. of episodes	120 + 1 after-finale special
Production
Executive producer	Salvador Mejía Alejandre
Production locations	Mexico City, Mexico
Cinematography	Lino Adrián Gama Esquinca Jesús Nájera Saro
Editors	Marco Antonio Rocha Pablo Peralta
Running time	41-44 minutes
Production company	Televisa
Original release
Network	Canal de las Estrellas
Release	February 7 (2005-02-07) – July 29, 2005 (2005-07-29)
Related
La Madrastra (1981) Vivir un poco (1985-1986) Para toda la vida (1996) Forever (1996) ¿Quién mató a Patricia Soler? (2014) The Stepmom

La Madrastra (English: The Stepmother)^[1] is a Mexican telenovela. It was produced by Televisa and broadcast on Canal de las Estrellas 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.^[2] Starring Victoria Ruffo and César Évora, who last appeared together in 2000's Abrázame muy fuerte, along with Eduardo Capetillo, Jacqueline Andere, Ana Martín, Cecilia Gabriela, Martha Julia, Guillermo García Cantú, René Casados and Sabine Moussier, 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 Chilean 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 Canal de las Estrellas broadcast reruns 12:00 replacing Rubí with Hasta que el dinero nos separe replacing it on August 24.

Plot

A terrible tragedy puts an end to a group of friends' vacation in Aruba. María hears a gunshot and finds her friend Patricia 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, 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 incestuous 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.

Cast

Broadcast history

La madrastra premiered on Televisa'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,^[3] 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.

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 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

References

External links

• La Madrastra at IMDb