Maria Roberts

Maria Roberts (née Vasquez) is a fictional character on the long running ABC soap One Life to Live. Maria was portrayed by BarBara Luna from 1986 to the character's death in 1988. Melissa Archer AKA Natalie Buchanan took over the role during a 2008 story line that took Natalie and Jared Banks back in time. Maria is the mother of popular long running character Cordeo "Cord" Roberts.

Character History

When they were both teenagers, Maria Vasquez became pregnant with Clint Buchanan's child. Clint's father Asa found out about it before she could tell him though. Because Maria was of Mexican heritage, Asa looked down on her and refused to allow her to marry Clint (as Clint would have done, had he known the truth). Asa pressured Maria into abandoning Clint without ever telling him about the baby. Maria married the sturdy, reliable ranch hand Al Roberts instead, and gave birth to a boy named Cordero "Cord" Roberts. The Roberts family lived in El Paso, Texas. Al was a good husband and father, even though he knew Cord was not truly his son. Cord grew up believing that Al was his father. Maria however nursed a bitter grudge against Asa and spent her life pining for Clint.

In 1986, when Cord expressed an interest in photography, Maria sent Clint a telegram asking him to provide Cord a job at the Llanview Banner. Tina was in the midst of a bitter feud with Clint at the time. She intercepted the request and snooped about in El Paso, hoping to get some dirt on him. Cord met and quickly fell for Tina Clayton, and followed her back to Llanview. Tina reciprocated his interest, but had no intention of marrying a dirt-poor cowboy like Cord...until she discovered that he was Clint's biological son, and potential heir to the Buchanan mega-billions! After learning that, she wasted no time marrying him. Maria, who pegged Tina as a gold-digging tramp from their first meeting, became bitter enemies with her.

Al Roberts died of cancer very soon after Cord wed Tina. With no-one keeping her in El Paso, Maria relocated to Llanview to be near her son. By then, she had grown strong enough to hold her own against Asa's threats. Eventually she confessed to both Clint and Cord that they were father and son, and Clint welcomed Cord into the Buchanan family. Maria wheedled her way into both Clint and Viki's confidences, pretending to be just an 'old friend' to Clint. But she secretly conspired to break up their marriage. Maria had two overhwhelming desires - to win Clint's love once again, and to break up Tina and Cord. Maria brought Tom Dennison to Llanview, hoping Viki would leave Clint for him. That failed to happen. Later, Maria discovered before anyone else that Allison Perkins had kidnapped Viki's newborn baby Jessica. Maria secretly helped Allison return the baby, but arranged circumstances to make it look as if Viki had become Niki Smith again and kidnapped her own baby. Her shenanigans were ultimately discovered, and Clint railed against her for her evil deeds. Going completely off the deep end, Maria attempted to poison Viki, and frame Tina for the crime, only to become tainted by the fatal poison herself and die.

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