| Rosa Salvaje | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Beatriz Sheridan |
| Produced by | Valentín Pimstein |
| Music by | José Antonio 'Potro' Farías |
| Country | Mexico |
| Language | Spanish |
| Original channel | Televisa |
| Release date | 1987 |
| Preceded by | La Indomable |
| Followed by | El Extraño Retorno de Diana Salazar |
Rosa salvaje ("Wild Rose" or "Wild Rosa") is a Mexican telenovela that was broadcast in 1987. It starred the popular Mexican actress Verónica Castro, who played the main character, "Rosa", co-starring with Guillermo Capetillo as her love interest and Laura Zapata as the villain of the story.
This telenovela was a huge success in Mexico, Latin America, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Russia, China and the United States and provided the template for numerous other Latin American soap operas in terms of story, plot twists and characters for years to come.
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Rosa Garcia (Verónica Castro), is a naive, uneducated, tomboyish young woman, who is extremely beautiful and kind-hearted. She lives in an impoverished neighborhood of Mexico City with her Godmother Tomasa (Magda Guzmán), whom she calls "Manina". When Rosa was a few days old, Tomasa fled with the infant to save her from her grandfather, who wanted to kill the baby to hide the fact that his daughter, Paulette, had given birth to an illegitimate child. While Rosa is aware that her mother is a wealthy, upper-class woman, she has never met her. The uncouth and barely literate Rosa spends her days hanging out with the neighborhood boys playing marbles and soccer, and sometimes getting into physical fights because of her hot temper, even though she is now a young woman who has passed the age for such things.
Ricardo Linares (Guillermo Capetillo) is a bachelor from a wealthy family, and twin brother of Rogelio (also played by Capetillo). The young and handsome Ricardo lives with his siblings in the family mansion while attending graduate school. His older half-sisters, Cándida and Dulcina (played by Liliana Abud and Laura Zapata), provide him with a monthly allowance, but Ricardo suspects that they are keeping the truth from him and Rogelio: that their father’s will stated that the family fortune be divided equally among the four siblings. Dulcina is determined that her brother Ricardo marry Leonela Villareal (Edith González/ Felicia Mercado), a wealthy socialite, with the idea that Ricardo will be able to maintain his social and financial status with Leonela’s fortune. In this way, the sisters will be able to cut their brother off financially.
One day, the hungry and ragged Rosa, aided by her friends, climbs the fence into the yard of the Linares mansion to steal the plums from one of their trees. She is caught by Dulcina Linares and the head housekeeper, Leopoldina (Renata Flores), who threaten to call the police. Rosa is rescued by Ricardo, who befriends the impoverished Rosa and begins helping her financially. Rosa soon falls in love with Ricardo. Ricardo, tired of his sisters' pestering and determined to show them that he will marry whomever he pleases, asks Rosa to marry him. Rosa accepts and they are married right away. Ricardo likes Rosa and is attracted to her, but is not in love with her; he is so focused on upsetting his sisters that he does not stop to consider the emotional consequences of the marriage for Rosa. Dulcina, Cándida, and Leonela, aided by Leopoldina, decide to do whatever they can to break up the marriage by plotting one intrigue after another. They finally succeed a few months into the marriage, when they reveal to Rosa that Ricardo married her only to bother his family. Rosa's heart is broken and she leaves. By this time, Ricardo really has fallen in love with Rosa and begs her to return to him, but she refuses to believe him.
Rosa now tries to move on with her life and find gainful employment despite her lack of education. Out of pride, Rosa refuses to accept alimony from Ricardo, calling it "an ex-wife's salary," which she sees as an insult. At one of her jobs, she meets and befriends Ernesto, a kind young man who falls very much in love with her. Rosa, unfortunately, cannot return his love, as she has never stopped loving Ricardo.
Meanwhile, there is trouble in the Linares family. Cándida has become pregnant as a result of a secret affair with the family's business manager, Federico Robles, who has also been wooing Dulcina in order to get his hands on the Linares family fortune. When the enraged and jealous Dulcina learns of Cándida's pregnancy, she pushes Cándida down the stairs, causing her to miscarry. A short time later, Cándida begins hallucinating that her baby is in her room, not knowing that her delusions are all staged by Dulcina, who is scheming with Federico to get Cándida put in a mental institution so that the two can marry without any interference from her sister. Cándida's horrific experiences have made her realize how terribly she behaved toward Rosa, and she asks Rosa to forgive her.
At one point, Rosa and Ricardo reconcile briefly, but due to the continued intrigues of Ricardo's family, break up again and this time their divorce is finalized.
Soon after, a major twist occurs: Rosa is reunited with her long-lost mother, Paulette. Rosa now becomes extremely wealthy. Towards the end, it is also revealed that Rosa is expecting Ricardo's child (as a result of their brief reconciliation). After finding out the news, Dulcina receives another shock: the Linares family is bankrupt. Her husband, Federico (earlier murdered by Dulcina when she learned of his infidelity), had robbed the Linares family blind and left everything to his first (and in reality, only legitimate) wife. Rosa wants to purchase the Linares estate. Dulcina is unaware that Rosa is simply buying the Linares Mansion in order to give it back to Ricardo and his family because she had never stopped loving him.
Outraged, Dulcina sends out Leonela to run Rosa down with her car. As Leonela drives off from the crime scene after hitting Rosa, she speeds away and swerves to miss another car which causes her car to get stuck on the train tracks. A train quickly approaches and Leonela is unable to get out of her car. She gets hit by the train and dies when her car explodes. Meanwhile, back at the house, Dulcina loses her mind completely after hearing about Leonela's demise. She decides to set the house on fire rather than have Rosa get it. She pours gasoline all over the house, but then the housekeeper Leopoldina, finally realizing what the crazed woman has in store for them, tells her that she doesn't want to die, but Dulcina doesn't care. In a final effort to get out, Leopoldina runs to the kitchen and gets a bottle of acid kept under the kitchen sink. She throws it in Dulcina's face, who while blinded, shoots Leopoldina to death. The police knock down the door and take her away. Dulcina is sentenced to an asylum for the criminally insane. Cándida, who is now well, visits her sister in order to forgive her, but the psychotic Dulcina, her face horribly disfigured by the lighter fluid, screams at the terrified Cándida to get out of her cell.
After the whole ordeal, the pregnant Rosa and Ricardo are rejoined in marriage and they've got his twin brother Rogelio, who is now married to Rosa's best friend, Linda, and sister Cándida standing by their side.
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