Series / Esperanza Mía

The Sexy Priest and the Naughty Nun.

Esperanza Mía is a 2015 Argentine telenovela, starring Mariano Martínez and Lali Espósito.

Julia was a girl from a small village, who witnessed a crime from a mafia. The criminals saw her and try to capture and kill her. In a desperate escape, she arrived to the local bus station, and took whatever bus was leaving at that moment (as long as it takes her away, it was fine). The bus took her to Buenos Aires. She headed to the Santa Rosa convent, headed by Concepción, an old friend of her adoptive mother. Concepción proposed her a cover-up: to join the convent, posing as a novice nun. She also used a new name, Esperanza, to complete the cover-up.

She fell in love with the priest Tomás, who sticks to his celibacy oath. But, unknown for both Esperanza and Tomás, Tomás' brother is secretly the leader of that mafia operating in that small village!

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Esperanza mía may contain examples of:

• As the Good Book Says...: Surprisingly averted. Other than common prayers, there are NO quotes of the Bible in this series filled with monks and priests.
• Author Appeal: Before joining the cast as Gilda, actress Jimena Baron had a ridiculous jealous and manipulative boyfriend that did not allow her to do anything (no acting, no dancing, no nothing). She basically had to have a monk's lifestyle, and God forbids her from ever kissing another man! (the "it's an actor, it's not a real kiss!" excuse was not accepted). She had a controversial break up with him, and joined the cast, no longer constrained by his restrictions. Her character is Ms. Fanservice, and a Lovable Sex Maniac.
  • It's even more blatant when she returned. Gilda met Esperanza again, told her everything that was going on during her absence... and she gave a long rant about her naughty boyfriend (never seen on-screen), her Offscreen Breakup, and that she will never fall in love again. Does this Remind You of Anything?
• Becoming the Mask
  • Julia takes up a secret identity as a monk, and to complete it she uses another name, "Esperanza". Eventually, the masquerade is dropped. Does that mean that they will call her "Julia" now? No. Tomás (who still did not know then that she has never been a real monk) said that some monks take up a new name to break with their past lives. She got along with it, and kept being named Esperanza.
  • Eventually, accepting that she will never be able to love Tomás, that she will never love someone else, and that she's already commited to the Church, she asked to be accepted as a real monk.
• The Bus Came Back: Gilda was a character by Jimena Baron that made a cameo for some episodes, and then left to Europe, as Jimena herself was leaving to Europe. But she changed her plans and stayed in Argentina, and so asked to have a longer participation in the telenovela.
• Conflict Ball: A small kid appears, with a letter for Tomás, claiming that he's his father. Tomás does not even know the kid's mother. All that paternity scandal could have been halted on its tracks if they simply headed to a hospital and asked for a DNA test, but everybody was very busy the whole episode discussing Tomás alleged break of the celibacy oath.
• Culture Blind: Trying to get a new job as a delivery girl, Julia presumed of being "The Messi of delivery". His chief dismissed her as being "the Messi of delivery, but with the slow speed of Riquelme". She did not got the reference.
• Didn't Think This Through: A band of criminals get into the convent (which is also a high school) at noon. They expected to steal some millions of money, and that there wouldn't be anyone in there to interfere. Their plan was screwed and they had to escape because, as anyone could have told them (even themselves if they thought a moment about it), a convent has very little money (just for the daily maintenance, and donations) and at noon it would be full of students.
• Didn't Think This Through: Esperanza hires a hotel room, in an attempt to hook up Clara and Jorge. She tricks Maximo into paying it, claiming that she's sick and she's giving him the number of the bank account of the clinic. Of course, the owner of a bank account is not a blind guess, when you enter it you are informed who are you sending money to, and then confirm the payment. So, Maximo could not have ignored that he was paying an hotel, not a clinic. But the next day, he asked about this, and Esperanza got away with it with Blatant Lies.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Tomás was appointed bishop, but refuses to be called with honorific titles. He's just "Tomás", as he has always been.
• Doomed Hometown: La Merced, the small village polluted by Maximo's factory.
• The Door Slams You: Tomás suffers this during the opening song.
• False Flag Operation: Pedro make a false alarm of a bomb in the convent, to avoid the exams. It backfired. He was almost expelled from the school for it, and when classes were resumed a pair of days later... prepare your papers, we have exam!
• God Help Us All: The monks made the sign of the cross in the opening, as Esperanza is her usual self.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Esperanza used her old monk uniform once more, to join the monks singing in a reality show. Tomás discovered it, and was not happy. He began the list: she took a sacred uniform for fun, she asks for forgiving but always makes similar antics, that she's so unpredictable, that she does not take anything seriously, that she is capricious... "WHAT?! Who did you call "capricious"?!"
• Just Eat Gilligan:
  • Why bother with this complex cover up? If Julia simply goes to the police and reveals what she witnessed, and asks for witness protection, then it's all done, and she can resume her normal non-nun life.
  • On the contrary, the series also require as well that nobody in the catholic church will ever bother to check her identity. Yes, she's a novice, fine. In which church has she been a postulant? Who ordained her into a novice, when and where? Does she even have an identity card with the name "Esperanza"? When someone asks those questions, her cover-up will be screwed.
• Leader Wannabe: Sor Genoveva wants to lead the convent when sor Concepcion retires.
• Naughty Nuns: Esperanza is seen as such by the other nuns, who are not up to her cover-up.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The archbishop is mentioned every now and then, but only by title, and not played by any actor. That's because we can have as many priests and bishops as we want, but there is a single archbishop in Buenos Aires. As of 2015, when the telenovela was shot, that Archbishop is Mario Poli.
• No Dress Code: Gilda always dresses himself this way, much to the dismay of Sor Genoveva, who must remind her that she's working in a convent, dammit!
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: A football player that was going to meet poor boys in the neighbourhood declines doing so. Esperanza shows up to the club premises and finally convinces him to do so. But Sor Genoveva is angered because of her absence the whole day, and forced her to do a general clean-up of the convent.
• Offscreen Crash: A band of criminals tried to steal money from the convent, but in the end they escaed, with Esperanza and Clara as hostages. Tomás and Jorge chased them with their car. The criminals crashed, and the monks were hospitalized.
• Passing the Torch: Concepción is elder and planning to retire, and wants Clara to be the new head of the convent.
• This Is Reality: Gilda lives in a pension, and when Esperanza ran away from the convent, she stayed the night with her. Of course, real pensions in Argentina do not allow this, but the narrative required so. But, the next day... the landlord wants his money!
• Right Behind Me: Esperanza started to mention all the things that she did not like about Sor Genoveva, and... yes, she shows up behind her.
• Room Full of Crazy: Nicolás has a wall filled of photos of Esperanza, to reinforce his point each time he gloats about his obbsession with her to his brother.
• Sexy Priest: Tomás. He attracts the attentions of both Esperanza and his former girlfriend, who is now engaged with his brother.
• There Is Only One Bed: Tomás and his former girlfriend Eva are forced into this. She is glad, but Tomás goes to the couch, and wants to return as soon as possible. He was also upset with the maitre, who thought that he was having an affair.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Tomás allowed Lola and Gato to stay at Máximo's house, as they don't have anywhere else to go. Máximo does not want them, and often complains on his house having been turned into a hotel.
• Video Wills: Julia's mother recorded one before her death, with proof of the pollution caused by the factory in La Merced, how it killed her, and how the businessman there simply ignored it. Julia, changing her name to Esperanza, kept it as her most beloved possession.
• Viewers Are Morons: Chilevision aired the series in Chile, but dubbed by local actors. They said that the original series is filled of Argentine local words and references, and the jokes may be hard to understand by non-Argentine audiences. Chileans think that the series was Screwed by the Network, and that Chilevision completely underestimated the hability to understand a good joke beyond the local references.
• Villain Song: Eva has her own theme song
• What the Hell, Hero?
  • Several people point to Esperanza that she's not behaving like it would be expected from a nun. Of course, because she's not a nun, but can't tell.
  • Sor Genoveva insulted Esperanza saying that nobody likes her, not even her biological mother, who run away. Everybody (even the monks that usually support her) made it clear that it was too much aggresive.
  • Clara had an accident, and her life was in danger. Sor Genoveva was too worried about Clara to film a cook lesson for her youtube channel, but Fortunato insisted: what about your Christian feelings, what about the people that follows that page and give fame to the convent? Genoveva did not understand the concept, but did as instructed. But then she asked him: what about your Christian feelings for the fate of Clara? He simply said that his eventual death was part of God's plan for the Convent, so that it is run by them, and not Clara.
  • When Esperanza decided to be a monk for real, nobody supported her. Tomás and Clara think that she's doing this to escape from her feelings, and that she does not truly want it. Gilda thinks that Esperanza will now abandon her. Genoveva thinks that she's not worthy and should not be in the convent. Máximo thinks that it is a plot from Tomás to take Esperanza from him.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: When Nicolas escaped from prison, he did not attempt a new complex plan. He just took a gun he found, and fired to Tomás with it.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Esperanza tried to leave the convent and return to La Merced, but everybody hates her now, because the factory has been closed because of her and her crusade.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Lola has escaped from home. They finally find her in a hospital, under intensive care, after being stomped by a train, and was identified by her school papers. Everybody waited the long hours of the operation, she was finally well... hey, wait a moment! That's not Lola! That's just a thief punk that stole her things! And so, the search continues...