aetr character guide part 1
AETR Character Guide
This is an ensemble programme that airs daily and there are a lot of storylines going on. The character guide is aimed at the Ana and Teresa relationship, however, and so is restricted to those characters who play a major or significant peripheral role in relation to them.
Parte 1 - Los personajes principales (Major Characters)
La familia Rivas
Ana Rivas Ortiz - A tall, beautiful, intelligent and savvy, abeit sometimes impulsive businesswoman, Ana Rivas is the daughter of wealthy Ramon Rivas, the owner of a small chain of department stores. She's also the daughter of his stepmother, but we'll get to the mama drama in a minute.
In order to learn the business from the bottom up, Ana first works as a regular shop girl in Almacenes Rivas, one of the stores (it's probably the flagship store, because the president's office is in there), keeping the secret of her heiress status from her colleagues. She seems to really enjoy this, and keeps at it for some time, even though her father thinks it's a little crazy. It's here she meets Teresa. Ana is in love with Teresa from first sight but works hard to control her feelings, no matter how much it hurts her. She supports Teresa’s marriage to Héctor because she believes it makes Teresa happy, and marries Teresa's brother Alfonso in part as an excuse to be forever connected to her.
Ramón Rivas - Owner of the Rivas Stores. Had an affair with his stepmother, Encarna, which resulted in Ana. In order to deflect the scandal such an event would cause, he and Encarna find a young women for him to marry, trick her, and with her ‘adopts’ his own daughter. Understandably, Ana’s pretty upset when she eventually discovers all this (she hires Héctor to do some PI work and he discovers the whole sordid tale), but she loves her parents and is close to them anyway. After the employees discover Ana is his daughter (remember she’s been secretly working as a regular shopgirl), he puts Ana in charge of his stores. At one point Encarna tries to kill his wife, Marta, in a fire but she just ends up paralysed. Later, in a scuffle, he accidentally kills Encarna and enlists Alfonso to help with a cover up that no one with half a brain would believe but whatever, it works.
A little after this he and Ana’s adoptive mother Marta go off to Venice and kill themselves…or do they? Several years later Ramón is found in Spain, dead and missing an arm, and sans Marta. It’s said he lost his memory and wandered around like a vagrant, but no one seems to know the real story. At least we know Encarna didn't do it, being already dead and all.
Doña Encarnación Llanos - Encarna, matriarch of the Rivas family, and stepmother and lover to Ramón. She loves Ana, but family honour is of utmost importance to her and so she helps arrange Ramón’s cover up marriage to Marta and masquerades as Ana's grandmother. At one point she seems to realise Teresa has feelings for Ana and tries to discourage their friendship, but part of her actions are related to the idea that Teresa and her family, from a different ‘world’ than the Rivas family, are merely after Ana because of her money and the family’s power. They're not, but chances Encarna will believe that are slim to none.
Did I mention she killed her husband (Ramón's father) so that he wouldn't find out about the coming baby (Ana)? Ya, she did that, though she didn't admit it to Ramón until much later, when all of the family's secrets are being uncovered by Héctor. She's evil, but at the same time just a little bit awesome, and crazy loyal, albeit in a totally misguided way, to her chosen few.
Marta Ortiz - Ramón’s wife. Ana considers Marta her mother, even after discovering the truth that her ‘grandmother’ is her biological mother. Despite the fighting and insanity that characterises the Rivas household, because Ramón and Marta aren't exactly in love or anything like it, Ana cares deeply for both her parents and has a difficult time accepting their loss, particularly because their deaths leave her alone in the world.
La familia García
Teresa García Guerrero - A young, pretty girl who doesn't get enough credit for her intelligence from most of the men in her life. From a small village, Teresa moves with her mother and brother to Madrid and, needing to make money, applies for a place at the Rivas Stores. She will turn out to be a smart businesswoman herself, and becomes Ana's right-hand woman (in more ways that one), but at first she’s just starting out as a regular shopgirl. After one of her fallouts with Ana, she quits Rivas Stores and opens her own small shop. She is married to Héctor, who is alternately an ass and an ally, and in general is just always in the way and gets way too much screen time. Teresa spends a lot of time denying her feelings for Ana and babbling on about Héctor and how she omg loves him, but even if she won't admit it, her heart belongs to Ana and every look in her direction, plus the massive lustful kiss she plants on her, gives it away.
When Ana becomes pregnant after her husband Alfonso (Teresa’s brother) assaults her, Teresa vows to stay by Ana’s side to help raise the baby. After some back and forth with Héctor, she finally acknowledges her feelings and moves with Ana to Santander, where they set up house in Ana’s family’s country house. Every time she returns to Madrid after this, it’s clear she’s made her decision that her happiness lies with Ana, and Héctor, while a friend, is largely an inconvenience that due to the mores and laws of the time, she’s tied to. After the women have been in Santander a year or two, she gets Héctor to sign the papers emancipating her, which while maintaining their legal marital status allows her to act independently in business and other areas without his permission.
Remember, it’s the 1950s.
Alfonso García Guerrero - Teresa’s brother. He has dreams of becoming a world famous boxer. Ana marries him in part for affection but mostly to have an excuse to be close to Teresa. Still she tries to be a good wife, and using her considerable influence and contacts helps him with getting jobs and then with his boxing career. He’s pretty and they make an attractive couple, which is good for appearances, but he’s not the sharpest crayon in the box. It’s sad to watch him struggle painfully to read aloud an article about his boxing championship win. He’s no match for Ana’s wit or intelligence, but he wants the marriage to work. He has a violent streak, however, and when he gets into alcohol and drugs, his personality changes.
In a drunken rage he hits Ana and she announces her desire for a separation. He asks for help with his addiction and she arranges for him to enter a sanatorium, promising to help him recover anyway. Teresa is furious and blames Ana, though Alfonso's mother Carmen is understanding, recognising that Alfonso has a problem that needs to be dealt with. Alfonso had originally gone for treatment willingly and at his own request, but then he breaks out of the sanitorium, goes back to his drugs, returns to the house, and rapes Ana, citing marital rights among other things. After, he cries and begs for forgiveness but Ana has had enough and rightfully kicks him out, tells him to never return, and changes the locks.
Despite the fact that Ana, traumatised, tells Teresa and Héctor about the rape, Teresa makes a plot to get them to reconcile. This is probably in part due to the view at the time about marital rape, but it’s still an insane idea and when Alfonso walks through the door, Ana wants nothing to do with it. Even Héctor thinks the idea is nuts. During the ‘meeting’ , which Teresa has arranged without Ana’s knowledge, it becomes clear that a reconciliation is not going to occur. Alfonso runs out and Teresa runs after him, falling down the stairs and losing her baby (she’s heavily pregnant at the time). Héctor blames Alfonso for the death of his child and heads off to find him and beat the unholy crap out of him. Alfonso, overcome by guilt, tears off on his motorcycle, crashes it, and dies.
Carmen Guerrero - Mother to Teresa and Alfonso. She has a soft spot for Ana and supports Ana and Teresa’s friendship, even to the point of encouraging reconciliation when they are fighting. She acts as nursemaid to Ana’s mother Marta after the attempted murder that leaves Marta paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.
She’s secretly in love with her husband’s friend Simón, but even though her husband is in prison ( for issues relating to the Civil War), she doesn’t act on it until after his death, after which she and Simón finally get together and move to Venezuela to start a new life together.
Héctor Perea Martínez - Teresa’s husband. At first he’s a police officer, then he gets fired. He works as a PI, but then goes back to the force. Whatever he’s doing for work, he’s mostly just annoying. He’s jealous of Teresa’s friendship with Ana, but doesn’t try to stop it, at least not at first. At one point he suspects Teresa is having an affair with another man, a business acquaintance of the women who's trying to arrange a takeover of the stores. He sneaks around and he sees the man entering Ana's flat. Later he returns, and since Ana has apparently utilised Madrid's worst ever locksmith when she changed the locks, he's in in less than 2 seconds flat. When he sneaks in, the man he expected isn't there, however, and instead he catches a glimpse of the two women in bed, asleep in each others' arms and clearly post flagrante.
He goes home and freaks out violently, then forbids Teresa from seeing Ana, including demanding she quit her position as assistant CEO under Ana at Rivas Stores, and she agrees (I know, what???). When Ana suffers a miscarriage scare, however, Teresa’s right back at Ana’s side. Eventually, Héctor gives up, sort of realises he’s lost the girl, and though he always carries a torch for Teresa, does grant her the emancipation she later needs and wants, and ends up being friendly to both of them.
End of Part 1.
….Coming in Part 2, personajes secondarios (minor characters). Also in progress, a more chronologically organised storyline summary.
