The Pinzóns
Beatriz Aurora "Betty" Pinzón Solano (De Mendoza)
Click here to see her after her appearance change.
Good-natured, highly intelligent as well as educated and responsible, Betty is a great woman seriously harmed by years of being teased for her supposed "ugly" appearance. She's hired at Ecomoda as the president's secretary and quickly jumps through the ranks. She also winds up haplessly in love with her boss, leading to a lot of misfortune...
- Beautiful All Along: Betty’s poor choice of clothes came from the belief that no good dress would look good on her and the series makes sure that you know this, because as soon as she makes the most base-level changes to her appearance (such as her hairstyle), she looks fantastic.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: She commits acts she never would otherwise because of her moral compass, all because Armando backed her up when hardly anyone else would...despite his outbursts.
- Did You Just Have Sex?: Freddy comments on the glint in her eyes the morning after.
- Downfall by Sex: Beatriz's first time only came about because of a bet, and everyone found out before she did. It's evident that this is one of the things that most damaged her, ruining her already broken self-esteem and causing her to grow some more serious trust issues.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Like Armando, Beatriz endures some very dark times. She has to learn to love herself through the pain, as well as not avoid her problems. She only manages to become happy by the end of the series through her own doing.
- I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: When the story's main plot starts moving forward, she has an extremely difficult time believing it due to her past experiences. The first time he declares his love, she blames it on the alcohol. The thing is, she's completely right to be skeptical...at first. But it's not the alcohol.
- Ignored Enamoured Underling: Beatriz ends up having a huge crush on Armando Mendoza, president of a company and her boss. She idolizes him and would do most anything for him...But the guy is notorious for being blind as a bat, especially during the first act, so he often pays zero attention to the things she does for him as he legitimately can't tell that she's doing them or why she's doing them.
- Operation: Jealousy: Pretending that her best friend Nicolás is her boyfriend, she does everything possible to make sure he becomes the worst nightmare of the person she now knows was using her. Well, he actually wasn't anymore, but Betty doesn't know this at this point in the story.
- Our Love Is Different: Betty expresses this to Armando right after their love-making session number two, insisting that he knows that Armando would never do something like that to her, that he's a different man to the ones that have hurt her...
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: The first time her love-interest kisses her, she downright faints. He, frustrated, pats her on the cheeks repeteadly, hoping she wakes up.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Catalina makes sure that she knows this when she changes clothes.
- Stepford Smiler: Turns into this when she's pretending she doesn't know about the letter.
- Undying Loyalty: Towards Armando, for a good part of the first act. She's completely unconditional with him, even breaking some of her own rules of conduct out of trust and loyalty.
- Was It All a Lie?: Beatriz discovers a letter from Mario Calderón to Armando, causing her to question everything they've been through. At first she thinks it a joke, or is willing to accept it as a lie. Turns out, the letter was unfortunately real. Somewhat. At first Armando's "love" was faked, but by the time she read the letter, Armando had already fallen for her hard. Calderón...He just never really changed, hence the rather monstrous writing about her on it.
Julia Solano De Pinzón
Betty's sweet and doting mother, Julia is highly supportive and encouraging towards her daughter, altough sometimes this behavior can cause her to drive Betty straight into bad situations.
Hérmes Pinzón Galarza
Betty's stern but loving father, Hermés is an old-fashioned man whose ideas about society and child-raising have partially shaped Betty's insecurities.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Overprotective, and extremely proud of his daughter, Betty has to deal with constant embarrassment because of this two traits.
Nicolás Mora
Betty's neighbor and fiercely loyal best friend who serves as her male counterpart, similarly educated and gifted but burdened by his social station and unflattering looks. Nicolas is sort of a honorary member of the family, as both Betty and Hermés refer to him as the brother and son they never had respectively, and Julia enjoys doting him with home-made meals.
The Mendozas
Armando Mendoza Sáenz
- The Atoner: He tries fixing all his mistakes with varying degrees of success. Well, ultimately success.
- Becoming the Mask: He only dates Betty to help save his company and arguably due to a repressed jealousy for her perceived boyfriend (but only out of a possessive liking towards her). He winds up loving her more than he's loved any other woman in his life and it drives him for the rest of the story.
- Berserk Button: It doesn’t take long for his button to become anyone who says something bad about Beatriz. If you insult her you better hope you’re his best friend and can get away with it most of the time, because you’re messing with him personally. Most of his violent acts in the series have been directly related to protecting Beatriz, or at least, him thinking that he is.
- Black Sheep: Armando becomes this after learning to love more than appearances, because his best friend, girlfriend and family really don't take well to it at first...
- The Casanova: Starts out this way, alongside his best friend.
- Character Development: Armando starts out a superficial, arrogant, and egotistical man with a very short-temper and no knack for being a romantic beyond the bed. Throughout the course of the story his temper fluctuates and is ultimately diminished considerably, he gets more humble and affectionate, and is capable of loving a woman whose appearance at the time got both of them mocked.
- Deadpan Snarker: Armando is very skilled at this when he's not actually yelling at people, and he seems to relish in it - even more so when Patricia "Peliteñida" Fernández is involved.
- Death Glare: And a good chunk of them are directed towards Calderón or Patricia.
- Deconfirmed Bachelor: Weirdly enough, you can consider this having happened twice or just once: He was a huge casanova before being engaged to Marcela, but even when he does get engaged he sees marriage the same way. He never really wanted to go through with it. He was living life the same way his best friend was and he ultimately cancels a marriage he's being building up to for four years just 48 hours away from the fact. This changes when he meets a certain someone with brackets and glasses a third of her face.
- The Determinator: Armando is utterly restless in his search of Betty, and he doesn't stop trying until the very last minute. This also applies to his company for a while.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Armando, like Betty, suffers plenty, and pays for his misdeeds in ways that are much less than enviable. But he fights. He goes to great lengths to amend his mistakes with the company and with the woman he loves and he eventually gets his well-earned victory with all. While he doesn't go back to being president, that's no longer what he wants. He gets to be happy.
- Fatal Flaw: His pride. With his only goal being the presidency since he was a kid and as the only male heir to the company in the Mendozas, he grew into a deeply proud, even egotistical man who couldn't admit he was screwing with the company, causing many of the problems he faced.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: He doesn’t even realize that what he feels towards Nicolás is jealousy up until much later on - and he says it out loud after he realizes that's what lead him to hurt Nicolás.
- Heel Realization:
- I Will Find You: The living embodiment. After Beatriz leaves for the first time, he desperately tries to find out where she is, partly because they need her back and partly because he needs her back. And when she's off with her love interest, he also does everything in his power to find her, even if it means interrogating everyone around until they tell him.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After having tried for the longest time to get Betty back in every way possible, he finally decides to quit trying when he realizes that she's going to quit the presidency of Ecomoda because of his presence. Knowing that she wants nothing to do with him anymore and that the company can't afford to lose someone so valuable, he finally gives her space and intends to exile himself to another country. He also gives up the presidency of Ecomoda definitively.
- Love Epiphany: After being in denial for a long time, Armando finally accepts it to himself while Betty is in Cartagena.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He has several "What am I doing/Have I done?" moments in the series, most of them relating to him and his best friend's scheme to 'protect the company', as they put it. One of the worst happens after he learns more about Betty's romantic history and makes love with her for the second time, and he drops a variation of this line after what he did to Nicolás outside Inés' house dawns on him.
- Oblivious to Love: Armando has absolutely no idea how to be a true romantic, so it stands to reason he would be incredibly oblivious to how much Betty loved him. She starts trying to do romantic things for him that he doesn't notice/finds annoying and strange, and even when he falls in love himself it takes him a really long time to figure it out and accept it.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: After the infamous scene where Betty leaves Ecomoda, Armando hugs her, begging her not to leave. It's worth noting he continues doing it after she returns from Cartagena.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In his confrontation with Calderón, he says a lot of incriminating stuff, including "You cannot distinguish between the sacred and the garbage."
- The Rival: To Daniel, as they practically grew parallel to each other and both were raised to be executives. They became mortal enemies – especially with the presidency of Ecomoda being free reign.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: The crux of Armando's arc. He falls madly in love with the woman he was only romancing to keep his company.
- Tears of Remorse: While reading Betty's diary. He completely breaks down into tears.
- Took a Level in Idealism: Armando had stopped believing in romance. He only was going to marry Marcela for a sense of stability, and thought of it as much of a contract as his best friend did by the start of the series. Eventually, he comes to not only believe in true love but also believe that he's got a shot to take the woman he loves back and make amends for the things he's done. In a way, a reverse of Betty's own process that was happening at the same time.
- Went Crazy When They Left: When Beatriz leaves for Cartagena, Armando absolutely loses it. He can't stop drinking, hangs around in bars, becomes suicidal, does almost get killed, and is practically unable to do anything but think about her.
Roberto Mendoza
Margarita Sáenz De Mendoza
The Valencias
Marcela Valencia
Marcela is the beautiful, clever, and classy daughter of the Valencias who's woefully in love with Armando: Her boyfriend and will-be-husband. She loathes Betty from the start for her appearance and social standing, as well as for allegedly helping Armando hook up with women. Marcela is very venomous and controlling, but fiercely loyal to her parent’s legacy, and with a strict moral code to help other women in trouble and will help if she sees fit.
- Woman Scorned: What she becomes after Armando ends their relationship for good.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Says this to Armando after he officially decides to break up with her.
Daniel Valencia
María Beatriz Valencia
Julio Valencia & Susana De Valencia
Ecomoda
Mario Calderón
- The Casanova: Calderón is known for this. He’s an expert at figuring out what women want and their behavior to a sickening level.
- Break Them by Talking: Tries to pull this with Armando, and is partly successful with his parting words.
- Lack of Empathy: While he certainly doesn’t lack charisma, Calderón’s motivations are always calculated and cold, and he doesn’t even show any level of empathy for the woman he hurt as he reads her diary.
- Manipulative Bastard: He's notably good at getting Armando to distrust the woman he outright says he trusts the most in the whole world, manipulating his obsession with protecting his family’s patrimony and his unrealized jealousy to get him to agree to his plans to keep Ecomoda.
- What Does He See in Her?: He expresses this to Armando many times regarding who he’s fallen for, and he seems partly amused by it at first. Then he realizes he’s really serious about it, and it gets less funny...
Patricia Fernández
Patricia is the vain, nosy (and noisy) Armando's second secretary, who also happens to be Marcela's best friend. Patricia came from a wealthy family, and got married with a rich man. Dumb, petty and amazingly manipulative, lost all of her wealth afer her divorce, yet she continues hell bent in leading the same life-style (with hilariously disastrous consequences).
- Gold Digger: The fact that she left college just to marry a very wealthy man cannot just be a coincidence. Also, she tried to manipulate two men, Daniel and Mario, with a fake pregnancy just so she could get away with as much money as posible before being discovered (although she ultimately failed); later she attempts to steal Nicolas away from Betty while she's under the impression that he's her rich boyfriend, going as far as sleeping with him in two ocassions despite the fact that she makes no secret that she's repulsed by him.
- Princess in Rags: Lack of money doesn't stop her to keep trying to mantain the image she used to have. Including the haughty attitude, towards those she still consider 'below her', like her co-workers.
- Rich Bitch: What she used to be, before losing the 'rich' title.
Wilson Sastóque
Hugo Lombardi
Saúl Gutiérrez
El Cuartel de Las Feas/The Club of Ugly Women
Aura María
Master of the Mixed Message: Can't seem to agree on what kind of behavior she wants to see from Freddy - She pushes him aside on several occasions only to get mad when he flirts with other women, and most egregiously: She spends the night with him then says he's just one of her "friends".
Sandra Patiño
Bertha De Gonzáles
Sofía De Rodríguez
Inés "Incesita" Ramírez
