Line #20 Series/Teresa


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/teresa_2010.jpg]]
2
3	''Teresa'' (2010-2011) is a {{telenovela}} produced and distributed by Creator/{{Televisa}} in Mexico, and distributed in the United States by Creator/{{Univision}}. The original story ([[CharacterTitle with the same name]]) was first aired in 1959 and remade in 1989 starring Creator/SalmaHayek; with one film version and one Brazilian remake.
4
5	The 2010 remake stars Creator/AngeliqueBoyer as Teresa Chávez. She's a smart, beautiful, and ambitious young woman who lives in a poor neighborhood in Mexico City. She attends a school [[ScholarshipStudent well above her parents' means]] and to avoid being judged harshly by her classmates, she tells them her parents are also wealthy but never around.
6
7	Her ambition turns into {{Greed}} and she makes up her mind to do whatever it takes to become as rich as her classmates' parents. Her goal is to [[GoldDigger marry her wealthy boyfriend Paulo]] so she can secure status and wealth. She's often at odds with Aida, who has always liked Paulo. When Paulo and Aida find out the truth about Teresa's home life, they expose and humiliate her at a party. She promises she will get even with them [[RevengeBeforeReason no matter what]].
8
9	!!This work provides examples of:
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11	* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Refugio and Armando, to Teresa. Most if not all of her high school friends were very wealthy, while [[ScholarshipStudent she wasn't]], so she would tell them her parents were always traveling or working. Later on, she even says her parents were wealthy but died a long time ago... in front of her ''actual'' mother, who she dismissed as "the help".
12	* AlphaBitch: Aida, for a better part of the series. A [[HeelFaceTurn series of traumatic events]] turned her into a generous person who was now much nicer to other people, even if they weren't of 'her class'. [[LovableAlphaBitch She didn't give up her feud with Teresa]], though.
13	* AltarTheSpeed: [[spoiler:Hernán and Esperanza's wedding.]]
14	* BabiesEverAfter:
15	** [[spoiler:Esperanza tells Hernán she's pregnant on the last episode.]]
16	** [[spoiler:Also on the last episode, Luisa reveals she's pregnant with Fernando's child.]]
17	* BecomingTheMask: At first Teresa only saw Arturo as a means who would help her get out of poverty, but she ends up developing genuine feelings for him.
18	* BestFriend: Aurora starts as this for Teresa, but like most of Teresa's relationships, it turns sour later.
19	* BittersweetEnding:
20	** The bitter: [[spoiler:Teresa's shunned and ostracized by the people that looked up to her, cared for her, and those she truly cared about; and her mother's heartbroken and not yet willing to forgive her.]]
21	** The sweet: [[spoiler:Esperanza is expecting a second child, Cutberto and Juana are about to take a weekend trip and talking about adopting children later on, Luisa is also pregnant, Oriana is expected to recover, Aida gives up her feud with Teresa and makes peace with Esperanza and Rodrigo (and considers him her brother), Mariano and Aurora are finally married, and the last scene suggests Arturo and Teresa will get back together.]]
22	* BoyfriendBlockingDad:
23	** Don Porfirio, [[spoiler:to the point of locking Paty in so she wouldn't run away with Johnny.]]
24	** Armando is very protective of Teresa. [[spoiler:He tells Arturo that if he won't value and respect his daughter, he'll take her back home with him.]]
25	* BrainyBrunette: The brunette Teresa is supposedly one of the best students in her class. And while her lawyer knowledge is something of an InformedAbility, she's definitely very good at scheming and manipulating.
26	* ByronicHeroine: Teresa is a rare telenovela example and even a deconstruction. Teresa is a young, ambitious, and sophisticated BrainyBrunette who grew up in an poor neighborhood, sometimes she was so poor that had nothing to eat for days and was ridiculed her entire life for being poor by her rich class mates. She swears to escape poverty by any means one day, and once her sister, her only MoralityPet, dies from a disease that her parents cannot afford to pay the treatment, she becomes a [[AntiVillain manipulative, cold and bitter woman]]. Her arc is mostly about money vs love, she is [[TheAce impossibly intelligent, cunning, and beautiful]], and uses her charms to manipulate people around her to climb the social ladder, she gives up Mariano, her first love, by marring, Arturo, a rich lawyer. She than genuinely falls in love with her husband, whom she married for moneys at first. But Arturo becomes penniless after losing a case, and she starts to seduce his best friend Fernando, who was dating Arturo's sister. In her destructive ways of trying to escape poverty, Teresa destroys other's people life, and remains without friends, family, love and bitterly LonelyAtTheTop.
27	* ClingyJealousGirl: Teresa, despite constantly rejecting Mariano for being poor, gets insanely jealous when he's with other women.
28	* ConsummateLiar: Teresa's go-to strategy in life is to endear herself to various people by pretending to be who she isn't, spinning one lie after another, then lying some more to try and stay in their good graces once they start catching on to her true nature. She even lies to ''herself'' on a daily basis just to avoid looking in the mirror and see what a horrible person she really is.
29	* CoolBigSis:
30	** Rosita looks up to Teresa and follows her advice of stopping at nothing to get what you want.
31	** Teresa also acts as one for Luisa early one, helping her grow confident in herself and improves her self-esteem.
32	* DaddysGirl
33	** Teresa to Armando.
34	** Aurora to Héctor. Her mother's death brought them closer. [[spoiler:It wasn't actually her death, though: it was her abandonment of them.]]
35	** No matter how horrible she might be [[SpoiledBrat to other people]], Aida adores Rubén. As crooked as he is, he truly loves Aida.
36	* DeathbedConfession: [[spoiler:Paloma reveals to Teresa, that Arturo spent the night with her just before the injuries caused by the hit-and-run killed her.]]
37	* DestructiveRomance: Any pairing that involves Teresa.
38	** Her relationship with Arturo was full of lies and manipulation. It got so bad, he [[OffTheWagon fell off the wagon]] several times.
39	** Esperanza and Rubén's affair. While she does truly love him and the audience is left to assume he loves her in his own twisted way, he never showed any remorse for [[spoiler:having lied to her about his marriage.]]
40	* DisappearedDad:
41	** It's heavily implied Esperanza and Johnny's biological father left their mother.
42	** [[spoiler:Paty's biological father left her mother as soon as she found out she was pregnant.]]
43	* DivorceIsTemporary: [[spoiler:Heavily implied in the original ending. Arturo and Teresa's divorce became final a couple of episodes before the last one, where he forgave her.]]
44	* DrowningMySorrows: Arturo resorts to drinking whenever he's depressed.
45	* GiveTheBabyAFather: Hernán and Esperanza. [[spoiler:It wasn't only to give Esperanza and Rubén's son his last name and help her raise him, though - he truly loved her. They were married in the hospital's break room [[AltarTheSpeed a few days after the birth of Rodrigo]].]]
46	* GoldDigger: The central premise of the series. Even though Teresa graduated at the top of her class and became a [[InformedAttribute fairly competent lawyer]] who could have made a name for herself, she decided to ''marry'' her way out of poverty instead.
47	* GrandeDame: Oriana is something of this and an [[IronLady Iron Lady]]. She comes from old money and is stern, but a loving mother to Fernando and cares deeply about Arturo and Luisa.
48	* HappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler:Mariano and Aurora promise to work and fight everyday for their love and relationship.]]
49	* HappilyMarried
50	** Armando and Refugio, [[spoiler:until his sudden death.]]
51	** At the start of the series, Juana's been widowed for over a year. Everytime her deceased husband is mentioned, it's clear that they had a happy marriage and she missed him very much.
52	** Mariano's father talks fondly about his wife, who died of cancer some years before the series started.
53	* HelloAttorney: Both Teresa and Arturo are ridiculously attractive lawyers, although the lawyer part is an InformedAbility and doesn't matter much in the plot.
54	* HollywoodHeartAttack: [[spoiler:Armando, after walking in on Fernando and Teresa and arguing with her about who she really is.]]
55	* HospitalHottie: Mariano, Esperanza and Aurora work in the field of medicine.
56	* HumiliationConga: Shortly after Teresa ''finally'' becomes the millionaire she always wanted to be, [[spoiler:her mother and godmother disown her over having denied her origins, all her friends realize how manipulative she really is and turn their back on her, and Arturo is disgusted when she suggests using the money from the sale of Fernando's businesses to start a new life together. She has what she's always wanted: wealth and position, but is completely alone.]]
57	* IdleRich: For a telenovela where most of the characters are among the best lawyers and businessmen, they're hardly shown doing much of the work they're rich and famous for. {{Justified}} at least for Teresa, who didn't study become a prestigious lawyer to work, but to be able to rub elbows with the richest people in the world and live a glamorous life once she was rich.
58	* IHaveNoDaughter
59	** [[spoiler: Esperanza's family temporarily disowned her when they found out Rubén was still married and not planning on getting a divorce.]]
60	** [[spoiler:Teresa told a writer interviewing her that her parents had been rich but were long-dead - in front of her godmother, who she passed off as her nanny, '''and''' her own mother. Refugio implies she could forgive Teresa in time, but Juana did not forgive Teresa.]]
61	* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer: Martín tells Mariano this [[spoiler:after breaking off his engagement to Aurora.]]
62	* ItsAllAboutMe: Teresa can be extremely selfish, and rarely considers other people's feelings before her own.
63	* IWantGrandkids: Shortly after [[spoiler:Arturo and Teresa's wedding]], her parents begin mentioning how they shouldn't wait too long to have children.
64	* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler:Martín breaks off his engagement to Aurora after realising she would never love him like she loved Mariano.]]
65	* LastRequest: "Do the right thing." [[spoiler:Armando's final words to Teresa before dying of a heart attack, after realizing she was not above seducing her husband's best friend (and best friend's fiancé, to boot) to secure a good financial position.]]
66	* LittlestCancerPatient: Pablito, Esperanza's youngest brother.
67	* LikeADaughterToMe: Teresa is this to Juana; eventually, she starts loving Aurora like her own.
68	** [[spoiler:What makes it bittersweet is that Refugio and Juana were pregnant at the same time. While Juana's pregnancy went smoothly, Refugio's was high-risk. Juana's daughter was stillborn not long before Teresa's birth, and she loved her godchild like a daughter from the first time she held her as a newborn.]]
69	* TheLostLenore: Rosita to Johnny. [[spoiler:Her death was quite sudden and shortly after starting their relationship. He was so devastated he said he would never be with anyone else again. It took him three years to start a relationship, which ended because he was still grieving Rosita's death.]]
70	* LoveDodecahedron: Oh boy.
71	** [[spoiler:Mariano and Teresa were each other's first love, until they broke up and she started dating wealthy Paulo. Aurora loved Mariano but never spoke up about it; Teresa rekindled her relationship with Mariano as soon as she found out about how her best friend felt about him. Aida and Paulo dated to spite Teresa (but developed real feelings for each other, and were engaged until his death). Teresa left Mariano for Arturo, who she married for status and wealth. When Arturo finds out Teresa and Mariano had slept together, he has a one-night stand with Paloma, the ex-fiancée who left him hours before their wedding and who dies before being able to tell Arturo Teresa planned to run off with Mariano the night before their wedding. Mariano dates Aida to try and get over Teresa; when he realises he can't, they break up. When Aurora starts dating Martín, Mariano realises he's always felt something for her, but was too late. Martín breaks off his engagement to Aurora when he realises she'll never love him the way she loves Mariano. When Arturo and Teresa's marriage starts to sour, she turns to wealthy Fernando - Arturo's best friend, and Luisa's fiancé. When Fernando breaks off his engagement to Luisa and reveals it's because he's fallen in love with Teresa, Arturo turns to Luisa's childhood friend Lucía for comfort. Teresa breaks up with Fernando, who's realised she was only after his wealth, after all.]]
72	** Here's how it ended: [[spoiler:Lucía realises Arturo won't get over Teresa and they break up. Mariano and Aurora start a relationship and get married. Fernando asks Luisa for a second chance when he finds out she's expecting his child, but she turns him down. The last scene implies Teresa and Arturo will give their relationship another chance.]]
73	* MandatoryMotherhood: [[spoiler:Vanessa revealed she never wanted to be pregnant or have children, but still had Aurora because Héctor really wanted a child.]]
74	* ManipulativeBitch: Teresa is good at manipulating people, such as when she befriended Arturo's sister Luisa, knowing Luisa being a ShipperOnDeck for her would work in her favor.
75	* MaritalRapeLicense: Barely averted[[spoiler:Arturo gets drunk and tries to rape Teresa. She manages to get away, and he comes to his senses seconds after.]]
76	* TheMasochismTango: if you're involved with Teresa, you can guarantee your relationship will fit this trope.
77	* MissingMom
78	** Mariano's mother died of cancer some years before the start of the series.
79	** Aurora's mother [[spoiler:who isn't really dead, but abandoned her husband and child when she was young.]]
80	* MillionairePlayboy: Fernando is the embodiment of this trope. [[spoiler:At least until he started a serious relationship with Luisa.]]
81	* ModestyBedsheet: The way couples are usually shown after having sex. {{Subverted}} during Teresa's and Mariano's [[TheirFirstTime first time]] where there are no covers present and Teresa is shown ToplessnessFromTheBack while sprawled on top of him, both covering each other's nudity.
82	* MorningSickness: [[spoiler:This is how Esperanza finds out she's pregnant with Rubén's child.]]
83	* MrFanservice: Mariano and Arturo have plenty of {{Shirtless Scene}}s.
84	* MsFanservice: Teresa wears many revealing clothes in her efforts to seduce her suitors.
85	* MultipleEndings: the 2010 version has three total endings and two alternate ones. [[spoiler:The first is the main ending, where Arturo forgives Teresa. the second involves Teresa leaving the mansion and getting a job at a company in another city, and ultimately trying to seduce her new boss, showing that she hasn't changed and is still willing to follow her ambitions, and the third is much like the main ending where instead of Arturo appearing to forgive Teresa, Fernando ambushes Teresa and accuses her of ruining his life before shooting and killing her.]]
86	* MySisterIsOffLimits: Arturo's initial reaction [[spoiler:to Fernando and Luisa's relationship]].
87	* NeverMyFault: One of Teresa's many, many flaws is her near total lack of self-awareness. She always pins the blame on others every time something doesn't go her way, and refuses to acknowledge the fact that most (if not all) of her mounting problems and failing relationships are direct consequences of her own despicable actions.
88	* ObliviousToLove: Mariano always thought of Aurora as Teresa's best friend and a very good friend to him. [[spoiler:It wasn't until after Aurora [[AnguishedDeclarationofLove confessed her feelings to him]] that he realised she had been in love with him since they met.]]
89	* ParentalAbandonment
90	** Paty's parents sent her to live with Don Porfirio under the pretense of enrolling her into a good school. Whenever they're mentioned, though, it's obvious they were never around much anyhow.
91	** [[spoiler:Everyone believes that Vanessa, Aurora's mother, passed away when her daughter was very young. Héctor told everyone this after Vanessa left him for another man.]]
92	* ParentalSubstitute
93	** Don Porfirio to Paty. As stern as he is, he makes it very clear she loves her very much, and she calls him "the only person who loves me".
94	** Juana to Teresa. Refugio says she feels like Teresa never truly loved her and considered Juana her mother instead.
95	** Pedro isn't Esperanza and Johnny's biological father, but they consider him a father.
96	** Oriana and her husband, having been close friends with Arturo and Luisa's parents, became parental substitutes after their deaths.
97	* ParentsWalkInAtTheWorstTime
98	** Ramón, Mariano's father, [[spoiler:walks in on him and Teresa about to have sex. While she was separated from, but still married to, Arturo.]]
99	** Armando [[spoiler: walks in on Teresa and Fernando making out and realises [[WhereDidWeGoWrong Refugio had been right about Teresa being too ambitious and manipulative.]] [[HollywoodHeartAttack It does not]] [[LastRequest]]end well.]]
100	* ParentPreferredSuitor: Mariano was originally this with Teresa's parents, but loses this status after Teresa's marriage to Arturo. he is the opposite of this with Aurora's father Hector, as he believes Mariano will never get over Teresa and hurt Aurora. he gets over this, though.
101	* PennyAmongDiamonds: Teresa's father is a mechanic and her mother washes other people's clothes for a living, and they live in a very poor neighbourhood. She was smart enough to get a full scholarship for a very expensive private high school - but she never reveals she's poor to her classmates.
102	* PleaseDontLeaveMe: [[spoiler:Teresa's reaction to her father's death.]]
103	* PromotionToParent: [[spoiler:When their parents were murdered]], Arturo had already graduated from university but Luisa was no older than ten years old.
104	* ProudBeauty: Teresa, who's extremely vain and confident in her looks, which is why she decides to marry rich.
105	* RagstoRiches
106	** Teresa's goal. She wants out from life in a very poor neighbourhood and is willing to do ''anything'' to become rich.
107	** [[spoiler:Esperanza's life was this after marrying and moving in with Hernán, a wealthy doctor. Unlike Teresa, though, she never made it her goal to marry rich.]]
108	* RecoveredAddict: Arturo. [[spoiler:His parents' assassination and Paloma leaving him hours before their wedding made him turn to alcohol. He's been sober for years by the start of the story; sadly, he falls off the wagon several times.]]
109	* RichBitch
110	** Teresa had the ''bitch'' part of it nailed down. [[spoiler:It wasn't until after she married Arturo that she became this trope.]]
111	** Aida, [[spoiler:before the death of her fiancé]], was very much this.
112	* RichestoRags:
113	** Paty wasn't a millionaire's child to begin with, but it's implied her parents were wealthy enough to send her to prep school, and she was used to a comfortable lifestyle. [[spoiler:However, when she married Johnny, she gave that up.]]
114	** [[spoiler:Most of Arturo's fortune was tied to a very important client's case. When the case was lost, so was all of his money.]]
115	* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: Mariano is the poor suitor for both Paulo and Arturo. Later [[spoiler:Arturo becomes the poor suitor to Fernando's rich suitor.]]
116	* RomanticFalseLead:
117	** [[spoiler:Martín to Aurora.]]
118	** [[spoiler:Luisa to Fernando.]]
119	* RunawayFiancee: Paloma broke off her engagement to Arturo right before the ceremony. [[spoiler:She was influenced by her father, who wanted to avoid a scandal, since Arturo's parents' were considered criminals at the time of their death.]]
120	* ScholarshipStudent: Teresa had a full scholarship during her high school years. [[spoiler:The only reason why she was able to attend Universidad del Sur, a private university, was because Arturo paid for her tuition in full.]]
121	* SecondLove
122	** Paty to Johnny.
123	** Esperanza thought Rubén would be the only man she could ever love [[spoiler:but, eventually, got over him and grew to love Hernán.]]
124	** [[spoiler:Arturo to Teresa, after realising she did love him after all.]]
125	* SexWithTheEx: When Teresa visit Mariano to confront him the day before her wedding, she catches him half-naked wearing only a ModestyTowel. After a lot of EatingTheEyeCandy and SlapSlapKiss they end up sleeping together.
126	*** Also happens with Arturo and Paloma [[spoiler:after Arturo finds out about said incident between Mariano and Teresa. Teresa finds out about this later and is so devastated that she threatens Arturo with divorce.]]
127	* ShotgunWedding: Don Porfirio forced this on Paty's parents. [[spoiler:It's revealed that he did this because Paty's biological father wanted nothing to do with her, and he didn't want Paty's mother to raise her alone and face the stigma of being a single mother.]]
128	* ShipperWithAnAgenda: Teresa, [[spoiler:as she actively tries to push her godmother Juana into a relationship with her bestie Aurora's rich father, believing he can provide for her better than Juana's lovesick neighbor Cutberto.]]
129	* SpoiledSweet
130	** Aurora, the daughter of a very wealthy doctor and Teresa's closest friend at the start of the series, is kind and incredibly generous to everyone she meets. She paid for Rosita's hospitalization and funeral, arranged Pablito's chemotherapy and became so close she sent him gifts while she lived in Paris, and he asked her to be her godmother during his First Communion.
131	** Luisa. She loved Teresa like a sister and was always more than eager to share her clothes and jewelry with her.
132	* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler:Teresa got shot defending Arturo from the grief-stricken, widowed wife of a client who chose to commit suicide instead of facing bankruptcy]]
133	*** [[spoiler:Also happens in the second alternate ending]]
134	* TeacherStudentRomance: Arturo was originally one of Teresa's teachers.
135	* TheTragicRose: Rosita, whose name means "Rose", tragically dies of a heart attack when her parents could not afford a treatment for her heart disease. Of course she passes the torch to her older sister, Teresa, who starts to wear different rose-themed items with her wardrobe. Over the years, Teresa proves to be a rose with many many thorns, thanks to her beauty and manipulative ways of using people, hurting more and more herself and others in the process.
136	* VillainProtagonist: Teresa. Even if she truly does love and care about someone, she is willing to use or hurt them to get what she wants. [[HumiliationConga It ends as you'd expect it would]].
137	* WillTheyOrWontThey
138	** After spending the entire series in love with Mariano [[spoiler:and Mariano coping with his budding feelings for her while she dated Martín,[[RelationshipUpgrade they finally got together towards the end of the series and were married on the last episode.]]]].
139	*** [[spoiler: Cutberto and Juana]]

Context Series / Teresa