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Los Roldan
Topics: Argentine telenovelas
Los Roldan was a highly successful Spanish language telenovela (or soap opera), which was produced, from 2004 to 2005, by Argentina's Telefe. The show, which is described by many as a comedy as well, actually ended up winning an award as Argentina's comedy of the year in 2004, and was successful in Mexico, Central and South America, and 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 Roldan" is "Los Sanchez", produced by TV Azteca.
Synopsis
"Tito Roldan" 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 was named "Mercedes Lozada", who owned a large company and a mansion. "Tito Roldan" 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 Roldan, 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, compiled by "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 Roldan" basically appeared out of nowhere and became president, this infuriated "Emilio". Adding to everything was the fact that both "Laisa Roldan" {"Tito"'s transexual sister) and "Chichita Banegas" were both television stars who considered themselves diva's 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 Roldan family, and their love was returned by their romantic interests. "Emilio Uriarte", ignoring that "Laiza Roldan" 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 Roldan 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 "Roldan" family, to be a golddigger; however, as it turned out, her feelings towards "Tito" were real.
At about the same moment, "Tito"'s mother returned from the countryside with her daughter. Since "Laiza", who used to be "Raul Roldan", had her sex change operation after arriving at Buenos Aires, both she and "Tito" feared an emotional shock by their mother's part, so "Laiza" refused to tell her mother that she was, in fact, her daughter, posing instead as a friend of the "Roldans". Her mother knew "Laiza" was "Raul" 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 shall be observed that "Laiza Roldan" was played by a real life transexual 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 largest regrets was that she couldn't 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 tri-lingual, 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 Roldan" 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 impregnated 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 attented 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 awaiting 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 "Roldans" have the baby's custody. She moved to Uruguay after having the baby, but flew every weekend back to Buenos Aures to see her child . "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 "Roldan" 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 jailmates can't, 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.
Actors and characters
Miguel Angel Rodriguez-Tito Roldan
Claribel Medina, Puerto Rican actress-Yoli Roldan
Florencia De La V-Raul|Laisa Roldan
Lola Berthet-Hilda Roldan
Facundo Espinosa-Leo Roldan
Jimena Baron-Maria Roldan
Facundo Aguilar-Maxi Roldan
Gabriel Goity-Emilio Uriarte
Andrea Bonelli-Chichita Banegas
Tomas Fonzi-Facundo Uriarte
Araceli Gonzalez-Florencia
Barbara Lombardo-Pilar Mancini
China Zorrilla-Mercedes Lozada
Andrea Frigerio-Cecilia
Sofia Gala-Sofia Estevez
Luciano Castro-Omar
Jean Pierre Noher-Juan Pablo (Jean-Paul) Mancini
Mariana Prommel-Dulciena
Gaston Ricaud-Guido
Ingrid Grudke-Andrea Raponi
Coco Silly-Cacho Peletti
Martin Campilongo-Jorge
Luciana Salazar-Flavia
Ivan Gonzalez-Paco
Juan Palomino-Alfredo
Carolina Papaleo-Gabriela Cribeli
Julieta Ortega-Luciana
Silvina Luna-Sol
Maria Eugenia Rito-Yanina
Maria Rosa Fugazot-Rosa
Arturo Bonin-Patricio Arizmendi
Sandra Smith-Carmen
Emanuel Ortega-Diego
Horacio Cabak-Mike
Dalma Maradona-Laurita
Enrique Liporace-Varela
Leandro Castello-Santiago
Cecilia Rossetto-Maria Esther
Mariano Torre-Guido
Appearing as themselves
Because "Laiza Roldan" 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 Roldan", acting as themselves:
Julio Iglesias
Paulina Rubio
Gaston Pauls
Raul Taibo
Mariano Martinez
Marcelo Tinelli
Charly Garcia
Martin Pavlovsky
Cacho Castana
Claudia Fontan
Juanita Viale del Carril
Maximiliano Ghione
Ana Maria Picchio
Monica Gonzaga
Claudia Albertario
Michel Brown
Palito Ortega
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Los Roldan
