Line #12 Series/CunaDeLobos


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cuna_de_lobos.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Behold: Telenovelas' most infamous EyepatchOfPower.]]
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4	Literally "Den of Wolves", ''Cuna de lobos'' is a popular Mexican telenovela that ran from 1986 to 1987. It starred María Rubio as ruthless matriarch Catalina Creel, along with Gonzalo Vega and Diana Bracho as the main couple.
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6	The Larios family is the head of giant pharmaceutical company Lar-Creel. In order to insure that her son inherits the family fortune, matriarch Catalina Creel fakes an accident involving her stepson to manipulate him. One day, however, her husband Carlos tells her that he knows she is faking her blindness and is going to write her out of the will and reveal her secret. She poisons and kills him before he is able to alter the will. After a quick funeral without an autopsy, it is revealed that no one can inherit his fortune until they have a son first. Catalina's son Alejandro is married, but his wife is infertile, while stepson José Carlos is a bachelor. Catalina commits several crimes to insure that her son will receive the inheritance.
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8	In the tradition of popular telenovelas, it has been remade a few times to varying success and has been endlessly parodied. Televisa remade the novela as a limited miniseries in 2019 starring Spanish actress Creator/PazVega as the role of Catalina Creel.
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10	----
11	!!The novela contains examples of:
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13	%%* TheEighties
14	* AbusiveParents: Catalina is on the emotional abusive spectrum. She keeps guilt-tripping José Carlos ever since the accident. [[spoiler: Even more cruel since said accident never made her blind.]]
15	* AffablyEvil: Catalina keeps the facade of the GrandDame and family mother, but she is rotten to the heart and only cares for power and mostly her son.
16	* ApologeticAttacker: Alejandro and Vilma feel bad about using Leonora as a surrogacy, but they're willing to do it so Vilma could have the baby she wants. By the time the baby is born, the guilt is completely gone.
17	* BabyFactory: Poor Leonora's role in Alejandro's scheme. Alejandro needs to father an heir but his wife is sterile. Then he cons Leonora into a relationship (with a fake marriage, no less!) to get her pregnant. [[KickTheDog Then steals her baby and disappears]].
18	* BecomingTheMask: Leonora was just using José Carlos in order to get closer to the Larios family and regain her son, but she slowly starts to fall in love with him for real.
19	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Catalina, for sure.
20	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Catalina commits suicide after her last plan to get rid of Jose Carlos results in Alejandro's death. José Carlos and Leonora can now live happily and she's finally reunited with her long lost son...But then it's revealed the boy doesn't consider them his parents, having been raised by Alejandro and Vilma all his life. The last scene shows him putting on Catalina's iconic eyepatch, implying that he's planning to follow her footsteps in the future.]]
21	* CrimeAfterCrime: Catalina murders her husband, [[spoiler: because he found out she doesn't have a blind eye]]. Then the story goes on trying to murder every character that knows either secrets (or both).
22	* DoNotCallMePaul: Leonora's son [[spoiler: hates the name she choose for him, instead going with the name that Alejandro and Vilma gave him.]] Cue DownerEnding.
23	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Catalina, after she knows Alejandro is dead in accident that was supposed to kill Josè Carlos and Leonora.]]
24	* ElectrifiedBathtub: In one of the most famous scenes, Catalina gets rid of Inspector Suárez by pushing him to the pool and then throwing a lawnmower in afterwards.
25	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: For all of the atrocities she does, you can clearly tell Catalina loves Alejandro. In her own strange way, that is. It could also apply to Alejandro, who acts like a completely different person when he's with Vilma.
26	* EvilMatriarch: Catalina Creel, possibly the most famous of this type of telenovela villain.
27	* EyepatchOfPower: Catalina Creel had one of the most famous (and conspicious) in the history of telenovelas.
28	* HeKnowsTooMuch: Ultimately the reason why Catalina killed Carlos at the beginning of the story. He realized Catalina had faked her eye injury all those years and he had blamed José Carlos unjustly. But when he's about to modify his will to give him the fortune instead of Alejandro, Catalina poisons him.
29	* FakingTheDead: Bertha Moscoso does this to escape a certain death
30	* ForeignRemake: Spain made its own version in 2002, titled ''La verdad de Laura'' with the help of Televisa. In this version, the mother was paralyzed rather than blinded in one eye.
31	* {{Foreshadowing}}: A couple of episodes before Suarez' death you can see the camera occasionally focusing on a lawnmower for apparently random reasons.
32	* {{Gaslighting}}: What Catalina did to Josè Carlos (and to a lesser extent to his father) his entire life. She made him and everyone believe that Josè blinded her eye to make him appear violent and untrustworthy, so he will be passed over for the inheritance to her son's advantage.
33	* HotterAndSexier: The 2019 remake of the series had Paz Vega in the role, who was 43 at the time and a lot of emphasis was placed on the actress's attractiveness and had her dress in more provocative and revealing clothes.
34	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Catalina Creel is one. While it's true that she ends up killing herself at the end after causing Alejandro's dead by mistake, she is never caught or punished for any of her crimes and she gets the last laugh in the end, with Leonora's son planning to follow her footsteps. This is even more evident in the [[TheRemake remake]], [[TheBadGuyWins where Catalina ends up living happily with Leonora's son.]]]]
35	* MamaBear: Horribly deconstructed with Catalina. She'll gladly lie, manipulate and kill and long as her son is happy.
36	* MasterOfDisguise: Catalina mastered this using wigs and sunglasses to attack some of their victims. No one suspected her at first because no one noticed she was not using her eyepatch.
37	* MurderByMistake: [[spoiler: Catalina accidentally kills Alejandro and Vilma by provoking a plane crash that was originally meant for José Carlos and Leonora. This results in her DespairEventHorizon and commiting suicide just as the police is about to catch her.]]
38	* NeverMyFault: Catalina absolves herself of blame for driving her son Alejandro away (by which we mean, killing his father for the sake of the inheritance and killing many others so they won't spill the beans about her eyepatch and/or the truth of Leonora's baby), blaming it all on José Carlos and culminating with her ill-fated plan with the plane at the end of the series (see MurderByMistake above).
39	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler: Leonora and José Carlos are about to go on a plane that was secretly sabotaged by Catalina. But at the last minute Alejandro tells his brother he needs it to rush Vilma to an hospital. José Carlos agrees to help his brother and Alejandro and Vilma's fates are sealed.]]
40	* ObfuscatingDisability: Catalina pretended that she was blind after a supposed accident caused by José Carlos, just so her husband would give parental favoritism to her son Alejandro.
41	* PerfectPoison: The substance Catalina uses to get rid of Carlos and Gutiérrez.
42	* PillowPregnancy: Vilma uses this while Leonora is the one pregnant so they can steal her baby during childbirth.
43	* PlotTriggeringDeath: The death of Carlos Larios brings Leonora to the lives of the Larios family and most of the events that happen afterwards are closely related to it.
44	* RedRightHand: Catalina's infamously conspicious eyepatch. Particularly egregious since she only ''pretends'' to be blind of one eye as part of her evil machinations.
45	* TheRemake:
46	** Televisa made a remake in 2011 called ''Por Derecho de Sangre''. It was CutShort at 13 episodes because of its high production costs.
47	** Televisa tried their hand again in 2019 this time making a limited miniseries with 25 episodes instead of the typical 100+ of regular telenovelas. However, there was quite a bit of controversy in the Latin-American blogosphere due to casting Spanish Creator/PazVega over a Mexican actress. Regardless, any actress cast in the role would have a hard time living up the legacy of María Rubio's take on the character.
48	* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Catalina slips poison in Carlos' drink to get rid of him on the first episode.
49	%%* {{Telenovela}}: Duh.
50	* TheUnfavorite: To say José Carlos was this to Catalina is a bit of an understatement. Justified because she's his stepmother.
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Context Series / CunaDeLobos