The Journey Towards Restoring an Epic Love Story

As I continue to watch my telenovela, 100 Dias para Enamorarnos, I find myself a lot more involved in the story itself because the storyline has developed at an exceptionally quick pace. I now feel as though I'm right there with the characters, undergoing every heartbreak and enduring that everlasting resentment I know the characters feel in their respective relationships. I last left off with the part where Constanza and Plutarco, the two lawyers and protagonists in the telenovela, agreed to separate for 100 days as an experiment to see if their love for each other was genuine enough to carry on. We now get a glimpse of what everyday life entails of for this family of four, which have the kids in denial and complete disbelief. The audience is already aware of this big news before it is communicated to the children, but I think that the audience is even more keen on how the kids react to the news. It was interesting to see this dynamic in action. The older brother was infuriated and went on about how his parents say they want the best for their children, yet don't prove it. The younger brother, in contrast, was obviously saddened but you could tell he was hopeful that it would all work out in the end. This is a good example of how a difference in maturity level can contribute to a theme of innocence and goodness we see reflected through the little boy. 

Meanwhile, Remedios (Constanza's friend) has also just gone through a difficult breakup. The fact that the same sort of relationship drama is happening to these best friends presents the perfect opportunity for the writing team to complicate the plot, as the two are able to gossip about their ex's and can conspire to seek revenge in the same ways. Although their situations are quite similar, they initially went through an argument that almost tore their friendship apart. They reached such a low point where they ridiculed each other for small things such as living with her father as a grown adult (in Remedios' case). As happens in most telenovela's, their friendship was restored after they realized how ridiculous it was to place so much of their energy into something such impotent scenarios. So when Remedios told her daughter Alexandra about the breakup with Alexandra's dad, she was shocked to see how well her daughter received this life changing news. I notice a role reversal here because Alexandra (the daughter) is the one comforting her own mother about the whole situation, telling her that divorce is a very common and normal thing in American households. When reflecting on this, it makes sense that Alexandra views divorce as being normal because she has grown up in the United States, whereas her mother is used to the stricter hispanic view on this. Latin American countries generally have lower divorce rates than what you tend to see in the modern day US. I think a big part of this has to do with religious beliefs and the fact that an overwhelming amount of hispanics follow the Christian faith (a lot are Catholic), which doesn't really encourage or favor divorce.  

Another cultural factor I noticed is how the relationship drama between Constanza and Plutarco has rolled over to their professional lives. When Plutarco met with a client in the office to discuss that couple's paper work for divorce, he started asking if they were ready to leave everything they had together, if they had considered how this would impact their children, and even asked if they had considered going to counseling. From an outside perspective, these provocative questions relate a lot more to his situation than they did to the clients. The clients were very firm and clear on what they wanted, and you could tell that Plutarco was still obsessed with the idea of saving his own marriage. I feel like in the US, this would not be shown, because people tend to keep their professional work life separate from issues going on in their personal life. 

There have been a few scenes so far that show Plutarco going through old pictures of him and Constanza as a couple with slow music that is intended to make the viewers also want the couple to reconcile. They make the audience sympathetic towards the situation through the music choice and Plutarco's facial expressions while thinking about their happy memories together. I think that Plutarco is the one that shows a greater passion and interest in keeping their romantic flame alive. The story introduces many side stories and love triangles involving Gloria, Jimena, Remedios, and Emiliano (among a few others) that try to complicate their own relationship. In fact, they show Plutarco himself being interested in other women, but I still predict that he will end up with Constanza. After all, how are they supposed to suddenly throw away twenty years of commitment to each other? Every epic telenovela takes you through a rollercoaster of emotions, and 100 Dias para Enamorarnos is certainly no exception.