Los Roldán was a highly successful Spanish language telenovela (or soap opera), produced from 2004 to 2005 by Argentina's Telefe. The drama, which is also described by many as a comedy, actually ended up winning an award in 2004 as Argentina's Comedy of the Year. It also was successful in Mexico, Central and South America, as well as the United States, where Hispanic viewers saw it through DirecTV's satellite dishes. RCN Colombian network recently bought the soap opera, making a Colombian version called Los Reyes, while the Mexican version of Los Roldán is Los Sánchez, produced by TV Azteca. In 2008, Ant1 Cyprus, produced the series in a Cypriot version called H Zoi Ine Orea (Life is Wonderful).
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Tito Roldán was a humble local supermarket driver in Argentina's rural area, when, one day, an elderly woman showed up where he was fishing, apparently trying to commit suicide. She had been diagnosed with a deadly disease; although the word cancer was never mentioned in the soap opera, there were many indications that this is what she had.
The woman, Mercedes Lozada, owned a large company and a mansion. Tito Roldán saved her life, gave her a moment to talk, rest and regain her inner peace, and she rewarded him by giving him her former job as president of her company, and also, her mansion. Mercedes then moved to Paris, returning to Buenos Aires, to check on her company and her family and friends frequently.
When Roldán, his former girlfriend Yoli, and his close family (except his mother and one of his sisters) moved to the mansion, located in one of Buenos Aires' richest areas, they garnered the hate of many of their neighbors, particularly the Uriarte family, composed of Emilio Uriarte, his wife Chichita Banegas, and their son Facundo Uriarte. Part of the hate was generated because Emilio worked for the company headed by Mercedes Lozada and he wanted to be the company's president; when Tito Roldán basically appeared out of nowhere and became president, this infuriated Emilio. Adding to everything was the fact that both Laisa Roldán (Tito"s transexual sister) and Chichita Banegas were both television stars who considered themselves divas and were made to compete at the same time slot by their respective television channels.
To complicate things further, each member of the Uriarte family fell in love with a different member of the Roldán family, and their love was returned by their romantic interests. Emilio Uriarte, ignoring that Laiza Roldán used to be a man, fell in love with her; Laiza called him "mi hombre malo" ("my bad guy"). Chichita Banegas fell in love with Tito's son. Both Emilio and Chichita began adulterous relationships, which led them to talk about divorce, and about the possibility of a legal battle over their daughter's, a dog, custody. Since Facundo was over-age, there would be no battles over his custody. But, Facundo fell in love with a Roldán too, Tito's daughter Hilda, eventually marrying her.
While Yoli keeps her hope that Tito might still feel some love for her, another woman, Cecilia, arrived in Tito's life. Cecilia was a secretary at the company that Tito led, and Cecilia and Tito began romancing. Cecilia was thought at first by the rest of the Roldán family to be a golddigger; however, as it turned out, her feelings towards Tito were real.
At about the same time, Tito's mother returned from the countryside with her daughter. Since Laiza, who used to be Raúl Roldán, had her sex change operation after arriving at Buenos Aires, both she and Tito feared an emotional shock by their mother, so Laiza refused to tell her mother that she was, in fact, her daughter, posing instead as a friend of the Roldáns. Her mother knew Laiza was Raúl all along; she just pretended not to know, leading everyone else in her family to many situations where they thought that she had Alzheimer's disease. It should be noted that Laiza Roldán was played by a real life transsexual actor, Florencia De La V. Laiza's sister also knew who Laiza was in her past; but she expressed displeasure at her sister's choice of changing sex. Nevertheless, she also fell in love with Uriarte. who felt a little attracted to her, but whose love for Laiza proved stronger.
Yoli was a 40-year-old woman who was sterile; therefore, one of her biggest regrets was that she could not have children. Sometimes she thought that this fact would diminish her chances of Tito falling in love with her again. Meanwhile, Tito and Cecilia planned their wedding, which was later abruptly halted when Tito accidentally called Cecilia "Yoli" when he was making his marriage vows.
Cecilia then separated from Tito, ignoring that she had become pregnant with his baby.
Emilio Uriarte, by his part, was preparing a fraudulent plan to take over as president of Tito's company, helped by his friend Jean Paul, a lawyer. Emilio was trilingual, being able to speak fluid English and French, apart from his first language, Spanish.
Just as Cecilia confessed to Tito that she was about to give birth to their baby, Tito discovered the real reason why Mercedes went to his old town to commit suicide: She had been forced by her parents, when she was young, to leave a newborn baby there. The moment Tito saved her, she felt that Tito was her son. DNA tests proved her mother's intuition to be correct; Tito Roldán was, as a matter of a fact, Mercedes' son, and he had been adopted. Tito was shocked by the news, and his natural mother decided not to let him know that she was terminally ill, at least not for the moment being, anyway.
As a side story, the Ugalde's maid, Dulcinea, was became pregnant by her soon to be husband, and she had twin babies. Dulcinea did not like Emilio Uriarte, but she and Uriarte's wife Chichita loved each other like sisters.
Eventually, Tito learned about his natural mother's disease. As a present for her, and because he had met Palito Ortega before the filming of one of his company's television commercials, he showed her that he had forgiven her by committing Ortega to sing a special concert which was only attended by Tito and Mercedes. The concert took place at a ship dock, and Tito called Mercedes mother for the first time.
Meanwhile, Yoli and Tito reconciled and restarted their romantic relationship. Yoli. however, did not want to get married to Tito because she knew that Cecilia was waiting to have Tito's child. Mercedes, who used to fly constantly between Paris and Buenos Aires, was told by her doctors that it was best for her to stay in Buenos Aires if she wanted to live longer, so she stayed in Argentina. Worried about the damage she was about to cause her beloved Tito, Cecilia decided to have the baby and let the Roldáns have the custody of the baby. She moved to Uruguay after having the baby, but flew every weekend back to Buenos Aires to see her child (in real life, a flight between Montevideo and Buenos Aires takes between 45 minutes and, at most, an hour and 30 minutes). Tito and Yoli then married, with Yoli making her dream of becoming a mother a reality by caring for Cecilia's baby during the weekdays. Mercedes moved back to the Roldán mansion, and, as a result, both of Tito's mothers, his natural one and his adoptive one, lived under the same roof for the first time. They enjoyed a good friendship for the rest of Mercedes' life.
Chichita, who, by the way, was French, stayed with Tito's son. On the other hand, Emilio and his lawyer, Jean Paul, were jailed after being found guilty of fraud, but, since they were rich, they enjoyed privileges that most inmates cannot, such as their own private lavatories, private television sets and catering, clean, designer clothes, and other things. Even after Emilio found that Laiza used to be a man, he realized Laiza was his real love, and the two ended up together.
Because "Laiza Roldán" was a famous television personality, she had the opportunity to meet many celebrities in person, and, sometimes, take them home to meet her family.
This is a list of real life famous personalities that appeared in "Los Roldán", acting as themselves: