Series / La rosa de Guadalupe

La rosa de Guadalupe ("The Rose of Guadalupe") is a Mexican, Catholic-themed anthology drama series produced by Carlos Mercado Orduña for Televisa. It premiered in 2008 and has been in broadcast since then.

The titular Guadalupe refers to Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Mexican title for the Virgin Mary. She's considered one of the most important symbols that represent Mexico, and the one that best represents mestizaje: the combination of Virgin Mary, brought to Mexico by Spanish Catholics, and Tonantzin, who represents Mother Earth in Aztec Mythology and Nahua religion (Tonantzin, in Nahua, means mommy).

Each episode presents a self-contained story, and its formula is pretty much the same every episode:

• The protagonist is facing a difficult situation.
• A friend, parent, or family member becomes aware of the protagonist's problem, and offers their help. They're often a devout Catholic and either have a small shrine dedicated to the Lady of Guadalupe, or a small statue or image of her.
• When the conflict reaches its Darkest Hour, they will pray wholeheartedly to the Lady of Guadalupe in hopes that she can help them solve the protagonist's problem. As this happens, a white rose will mysteriously appear in front of any image of the Virgin, which means she's heard their prayers.
• The protagonist will find the white rose.
• Cue a series of events that lead to their problem being solved. We know this has happened because a light breeze blows on the protagonist's face, as an Ethereal Choir plays in the background.
• The protagonist or a side character learns An Aesop which they narrate to the audience, and the white rose vanishes just as it came.

There is some Truth in Television: Over 80% of Mexicans are Catholic, and the Lady of Guadalupe is an important icon in Mexico. Her basilica in Mexico City is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world, and third most visited sacred site. Mexican historians and writers have said Mexicans are Guadalupan before they're Catholic.

Obviously, there are no white roses that appear out of nowhere when people pray to her, but it's common to offer her white roses.

The show has been met mostly with negative reception by viewers and critics alike: usually because of its lack of proper acting, writing and directing as well as its cliché-filled storylines, not to mention some episodes have an awful lot of mistakes regarding certain social groups. Most Catholics specially dislike the way it portrays the Virgin of Guadalupe, claiming the series does not do her any justice and treats her as if she were a product brand. Nevertheless, like many other of its kind, the novela is thoroughly enjoyed by lonely stay-at-home wives and drama aficionados.

The popularity of the show pulled TV Azteca to release a counterpart series, A Cada Quien Su Santo (There is a Saint for Each One), with the twist that every episode, the devotion for a specific saint helped the good guys to save the day. However, it only last 5 seasons between 2009 and 2014.

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La rosa De Guadalupe contains examples of the following tropes:

• Abusive Offspring: Cesar from "El síndrome del emperador" treats his mother poorly and forces her to gather with all his whims.
• Abusive Parents: A common element in telenovelas, this one is no exception. A good deal of episodes are about rude, negligent parents who treat their children like crap. However, in most cases, they eventually realize their mistakes and undergo under a Heel–Face Turn.
  • In "Llamar la Atención", we have Melissa's controlling, abusive neglectful mother. Not only doesn't care what Melissa thinks or needs, if she is not as talented and successful as her tennis prodigy of a sister, Miroslava, but also never really cared about her for the same reason and for being dull in comparison of Miroslava.
  • Sarita's parents started out as simple Fantasy Forbidding Parents, but then after learning of her pregnancy, they start to call her names and physically assault her, even going as far as to kick her out of her home.
• Aerith and Bob: On one hand, you have standard Hispanic names like José, Pedro, Luis or Miguel, and on the other, you have names that are either from other languages (Ian, Liam, George) or outright taken from unusual sources like mythological characters (Andromeda).
• Age-Inappropriate Dress: In "La niña modelo", when Nicole shows the pictures of her recent photoshoots to her classmates, they all notice she is wearing bikinis and skimpy costumes and react accordingly.
• All Just a Dream: In "La única princesa" (The Only Princess) when Melisa confessed to her parents that she killed her baby sister, her mother (obviously) despairs, only to reveal it was just a nightmare and she is still pregnant.
• Alpha Bitch: A recurring type of antagonist. Lucrecia from the episode "A los Chavos También" ("Guys too") is a good example, as well as her mother.
• An Aesop: There's always one every episode, which is narrated to the audience by the protagonist as the episode ends.
• Arc Words: "Busca el Sol" ("Look for the Sun") in the episode of the same name.
• Armored Closet Gay: In "Dos destinos", Vicente, one of Horacio's bullies is revealed as this. The former is also revealed to bully the latter because he has unrequited feelings for Horacio, repressed by the sexist and homophobic upbringing by his father and brother.
• Attempted Rape:
  • In "Cosplay, Salvemos al Mundo", Perla is nearly assaulted by Germán, a male bully who finds her Namiko Moon cosplay attractive and develops an unhealthy obsession on her because of it. He then takes advantage of Perla walking out of school alone to sexually assault her to satisfy his obsession, but fortunately her cousin Fermín shows up and Germán finally gives up after the former's orders.
  • In "Abrazo de Oso" ("Bear Hug"), Graciela was in the receiving end of this from Fabián until Cristian shows up. However, Fabián pulls out a boxcutter and stabs him in the stomach just to force him to watch the scene. However, this made Cristian more determined to stop him and thus gathered enough strength to stand up and pull Fabián off her, beating the bastard's head against a wall. However, Cristian collapses to the floor due to having his liver pierced.
• Beyond Redemption:
  • In "También a los chavos", Ismael tries to convince Lucrecia to renounce her misandristic, violent ways by going to therapy with him, despite his mother assuring him she is already a lost cause, but no matter how many times he tries to convince her, Lucrecia refuses to take a no for an answer to her continued abuse towards men, namely Ismael. Even after her father got hospitalized and her mother got arrested for her abuse, she refuses to take therapy. This convinces Ismael that not only won't Lucrecia listen to reason, but will also change for the worse, if at all. He decides to break up with her.
  • Beni's mother from Claro que Te Amo (Of Course I Love You) just keeps digging herself as a shitty parody of a mother, starting the episode by abandoning her 5-year-old son in her mother's house just because her new boyfriend won't allow the kid to move in with them. She also makes the kid think it's his fault that he's been abandoned. Years pass and after her once-wealthy husband loses his money, she (along with their three children) move back with her mother. Beni is (understandably) pissed off that his grandma allows her and her family to stay even though she abandoned him in the first place. After Beni leaves to live on his own she keeps trashtalking the guy, calling him a rogue and a drug addict just because he has tattoos. But the moment she becomes a true monster is when she kicks her own mom out after she develops Alzheimers. Fortunately for her, Beni takes his grandma in, but she later dies, and absolutely no one feels sad when Beni kicks his mom and her family out since his grandma left the house to him in her will.
  • In the episode "Imagina mi cara", the main character Antonio is bullied relentlessly by his classmate Carola, to the point where his teacher doesn't believe him since Carola couldn't possibly be bullying him but somehow he would. While it can be understood Carola believes this is okay due to her own mother abusing her husband, she goes too far when she pushes him off the staircase when she hears he attempted to avoid school by hurting himself. All with a manic grin on her face. When Carola is caught abusing Antonio, the school principal not only expels her, but tells her parents (including her entitled mother) that she will forward the information to the other districts, as well as able to process information to get Carola psychiatric help. While Carola does show some regret of her behavior when finally caught (with her tone implying she thought it was only okay due to her own mother doing the same), she escelated the bullying to the point of being physical, as pointed out by her principal, and as a result, rightfully is punished.
  • In "Siempre Alertas", Karina is often abused and neglected by her boyfriend Marcos, who is in love with, and often agrees with him when he says it is always her fault he gets angry with her, even resorting to constantly write apology letters to him in exchange for his forgiveness for constantly upsetting her. His best friend Javier and godmother oppose to their relationship because of how badly Marcos treats Karina. When her neighbor glanced a Karina while Marcos took her home, he automatically accuses her of being an easy girl and making a fool out of him. He refuses to listen to any explanation nor accept her apologies. When she throws a tantrum on his house in an attempt to fix things with him, he decides to break up with her, especially when she assumes he likes another girl when consider dumping her thus slapping her. Afterwards, Karina breaks down and insists on fixing things with him, but her godmother warns her about the consequences of living a living hell with him even if they become a married couple. That's when Karina faces reality. Realizing that Marcos is beyond reasoning and that Javier and her godmother were right about him, Karina decides to move on, only to mysteriously disappear When she gets home.
  • Violeta, from "El Laberinto de un hombre", often abuses her husband, Matias and defames him in social media, accussing him of abusing her. Matias desesperately tries to get her stop her abuse, but she refuses, because she snaps every single time. Even when he published the real version of the story. Since Violeta will not listen to reason, Matias decides she is a lost cause and cuts her from his life, only to lose an eye, which led to her arrest.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • América from "Una Buena Estrella" is initially this, but then Took a Level in Kindness towards the end of the episode.
  • Daniel from "La luz te va a salvar" is charming and unassuming at first, but it's a facade for his real motives. He works for a sex trafficking ring who lures unsuspecting girls to kidnap them and lock them up for the auction of their virginities.
  • Fabián from "Abrazo de Oso". He is charming and conventionally attractive on top of it unlike the heavyset Cristian. However, Fabián is a rapist, as shown in a flashback to Fernando's party, where he molested Jessie before trying to do the same to Graciela before Cristian showed up.
• Big Bad: Most if not all episodes have at least one antagonistic character that is usually the cause of the protagonist's suffering.
• Big Fun: Cristian from "Abrazo de Oso" is this.
• Bittersweet Ending: The chapter Busca el Sol ends this way. Ian is ultimately able to blurt out the truth of what happened to him and his friends the day the sicarios kidnapped them to his dad. His father promptly calls the police, who successfully locate the hideout of the thieves and arrest them. Unfortunately, this also results in Ian's friends, who had performed a Face–Heel Turn a moment before, ending with tragic fates. Callixto is fatally wounded by a shot from a policeman's gun and dies from blood loss after he tried to protect the sicarii, and Andromeda is taken away from her mom to a reformatory.
• Blackmail: In "La niña que veía mariposas", Susana decides to steal Maggie's tablet to blackmail her into doing what she and her Girl Posse said.
• Blinded by the Light: For a series that's notorious for appearing white roses out of nowhere, this is one of the times when it outright goes into fantasy territory.
  • "La luz te va a salvar" (The Light Will Save You): a teen girl named Luz is kidnapped by her boyfriend into a sex-trafficking ring. When Luz starts praying to the Virgin, she sends her signature white rose to her family and vanishes from her portrait. Then a woman dressed in a way reminiscent of the Virgin appears in a warehouse in Azcapotzalco where several girls (including Luz) are held for auction. She comforts them and then offers Luz her green coat when she is locked in there. When Luz is about to be raped by her bidder, she unwittingly emits a strong light that ends up blinding and burning the man.
  La Virgen: Te llamas Luz, y la luz te va a salvar (You're named Luz, and the light will save you).
  • "Las rosas" (The Roses): a couple of teens, a girl named Rosa and a boy named Rosario are kidnapped by their teacher Patricio, and put into a sex-trafficking ring in Azcapotzalco. Then the Virgin appears to the distraught couple in the warehouse they're locked in and comforts them before the pimp orders Rosario and Rosa to dress up as Romeo and Juliet, respectively. When the pimp hands them over to the bidders, the Virgin appears once more to blind the traffickers to save the couple from their horrid fate.
• Bland-Name Product: Often overlaps with Fictional Social Network. Examples include (but not limited to) Social Book and Facelook and Globo or Gloob.
• Boom in the Hand: The chapter "Estallido de amor" has the protagonist Gisela getting her hand blown up by a cheap smartphone, clearly referencing the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 scandal, only this time the phone explodes because it's a cheap knockoff.
  • The episode "El Estallido del Corazón" features its protagonist Leonel getting his hand blown up by a paloma.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: As of 2013, the story will end with the protagonist (or a major supporting character) glancing at you and the audience as he (or she) tells the moral of the story.
• Bully Turned Buddy: Carolina from "Historia de una Bebida Punk con Fresa" (Story of a Preppy Punk Cocktail). She's a prep girl who torments goth girl Luvia. However they bond due to both girls coming from broken homes and being targetted by the same rapist. After graduating, Carolina mellows out considerably, gradually becoming Luvia's closest friend and becoming a surrogate aunt to her kids. After Carolina dies from cancer, Luvia heavily mourns her and adopts Carolina's kids.
• Camp Straight:
  • In the episode "Dos destinos", a guy named Horacio has effeminate mannerisms, but he has a relationship with a girl named Alondra.
  • In the episode "Juego de Niños" from season one, a boy named Daniel is bullied for listening to Lady Gaga and generally being effeminate, but he gets in a relationship with his best friend Josie in the end.
• Can't Take Criticism:
  • In "El laberinto del hombre", Matias often calls out Violeta for her constantly resorting to violence against him, but she flies into a rage every single time.
• Captain Ersatz:
  • "Namiko Moon, envoy of the Genesis" and "Hiroshi-San, gladiator of the Horoscope" from the infamous episode "Cosplay, Salvemos al Mundo" (Cosplay, Let's Save The World) are both very blatant expies of Sailor Moon and Goku respectively, with a bit of Miku Hatsune and Saint Seiya thrown in for good measure.
  • The protagonists of the episode "Amor Distinto" (Different Love) have been accused of looking like live-action versions of the two main characters from In a Heartbeat.
• Captain Obvious: It seems almost no one (specially the episode's MC) knows how to think, and usually narrate what they're doing at the moment.
• Chocolate Baby: "Una Gran Historia de Amor" (A Great Love Story) features this.
• Chuunibyou: Perla from “Cosplay, Salvemos al Mundo”, Is a rare example as well as the only one in a Mexican show. She believes she is one of three goddesses who came down to Earth and never stops rambling about demons, villains and catastrophes.
• Computer Virus: In "Virus del Policía", Joel and his friends stumble upon a ransomware virus passing as a warning from the Policía Federal Cibernética (Federal Cybernetic Police) while watching porn. Being inexperienced teenagers, they mistake it for the real thing, prompting Joel to use his dad's credit car to pay the debt, not realizing it's a scam.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Julio from "El Caballero contra la sombra del dragón" (The Knight Against the Dragon's Shadow) has a strong entitlement complex towards Lidia to the point he even thinks of her father as a rival.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Ivette from the episode "Flor de Loto". She was kidnapped by a human trafficking organization to use her as a sexual slave until they were caught by policemen and she got rescued and returned safely to her family. The memories of the whole thing still haunt her.
• Deus ex Machina: What the novela gets its name from. When the characters are in their Darkest Hour, one of them will pray to the Virgin of Guadalupe asking for help. The virgin will then make a mysterious white rose appear in front of any image of her, as a sign that the petition has been heard. At the end, after everything goes back to normal, the rose vanishes just as it came.
• Deal with the Devil: In the episode "Un Momento de Vida", Rosaura, being the huge Belieber she is, posts on her social network account that she will give her virginity away in exchange for a Justin Bieber concert ticket. It backfires horribly: not only does the ticket given to her turn out to be fake, but Rosaura also ends up losing her virginity for real and anguishes for a while until the gynecologist tells her that luckily, she didn't get pregnant.
• Domestic Abuse
  • Lucrecia from Tambien a los chavos appears to be very snooty towards Ismael, often resorting to violence for not meeting her petty expectations, even for insignificant reasons, and hardly has any faith on him. When Ismael's mother confronts her for her abuse (twice), Lucrecia instantly accusses Ismael of ratting her out to his own mother and begins to physically harass him.
  • Ana María, from "Siempre en el Corazón", suffers of this in hands of her ex-husband José, who treats her and, even following their divorce, their children like crap for not meeting his expectations. It is later revealed that he never really gave a shit about his family, even going far to kick them out of their house just for confronting him about his affair with and hairdresser once they find out.
  • Karina from "Siempre Alertas" is often a victim of this in the hands of her self-centered, abusive boyfriend, Marcos, whom she blindly is in love with. Whenever she accidentally upsets him, even for the smallest mistakes, whenever she tries to get his attention, Marcus begins to scream at her and doesn't want anything to do with her, and hardly had any faith in her. When a man in Karina's neighborhood stared at her while the couple were walking home, he instantly accussed her of being an easy girl and flirting with other men while she was still dating him. Even both her best friend and godmother think he is not even worth to date Karina.
  • Sergio in “La voluntad de Yesenia” has a history of fattening up his romantic partners in order to destroy their self confidence and make them easier for him to control and keep to himself. He constantly brings around fattening foods and resorts to lying that his job made him take it home when Yesenia starts trying to push back. He also doesn’t respect Yesenia’s desire to lose the weight she’s gained as when she makes the effort to work out for the first time, he sweet talks her into eating a donut and manipulates her back into gorging herself regularly. Yesenia later learns that his ex-wife also became fat due to Sergio’s manipulations, and a blow-up at a party when Sergio becomes jealous of another man speaking to Yesenia is what finally convinces Yesenia to leave him. Sergio then proves how unhinged he is when he pulls a gun on her and then points it at himself once he learns she’s leaving.
  • Marlene from "Cuando llora papá" cares way more about money and her whims than about her husband and stepson and takes her anger about money problems them on both Ramiro and Pablo. Even going as far to tie up the latter later in the episode until his grandmother comes to the rescue.
  • Violeta from "El laberinto de un hombre" is an ill-tempered, abusive wife towards Matias, and often blames others but herself for her violent outburts, playing the victim after every argument and pubicly defaming him through social media. Even going as far as to blow his eye off.
• Driven to Suicide: The episode "Volar un papalote" (To Fly A Kite) has the infamous scene of Robertito throwing himself off of the school's balcony over bullying and neglect from his parents. Unfortunately, the way the scene was being played led to it becoming a meme.
• Drugs Are Bad: The episode "LaMona" features a girl named Ingrid wanting to go to perreo parties, and ends up inhaling the eponymous drug (in this case, thinner) by goading from her cousin Quena. After weeks of routinely inhaling mona, Ingrid ends up suffering a stroke at one of these parties. Luckily, she survives, but she is confined to a wheelchair because of it.
• Entitled Bastard: Julio from "El caballero contra la sombra del dragón" sees Lidia as his property. His entitlement sense is all summed up in this line.
  Julio: Yo sólo estaba respondiendo porque un tarado quería pedalear mi bicicleta. (I was just responding because a moron wanted to ride my bike.)
• Entitled to Have You: Claudio from "Renacer" believes Alessandra belongs to him, no one else. But as time goes on, his sanity starts to deteriorate and even goes far as to scar her face when he discover she returned to her old job.
• Every Episode Ending: Almost all episodes end with the affected character(s) receiving a wind on the face, explaining the moral to the audience which ends with the episode's name, and the white rose given by the Virgin vanishes.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Lorena from "La novia del narco" (The Narc's Girlfriend) pretends that she's dating a dangerous narc in only to get good grades, money and free food. When she tries to pull this again in order to not pay food at a taco stall, turns out the stall owner knows the narc for real and his goons come to take Lorena away. She's never seen again.
• Emo Teen: The episode "Soy Emo" revolved around this subculture.
• "Fawlty Towers" Plot: The episode "Ser o no ser" (To Be Or Not To Be) also known as "El niño millonario" (Millionaire Boy) by critics, centers on a boy named Lucas, who comes from a struggling poor family and is ashamed of it. Because of this, he flirts with wealthy girls to buy him stuff, lies about his house and his social status.
  • On top of it, he even steals from his mother Minerva's money box to buy expensive things for his conquests. Minerva thinks it's her nephews who do that, and Lucas had the gall to take advantage of that suspicion when they came over to his house.
  • Eventually, the truth is revealed when the girls he swept off their feet all gather in the same spot where he flirts with a girl named Valeria, which ends in them all slapping and breaking up with him for lying. When he comes back home, his whole family gathered in his mother's house to hold him accountable for stealing his mother's money, and being insulted by rich people.
• Gender-Blender Name: Rosario from "Las rosas", who is a boy.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Whether the girl is too young, or is financially unstable, or the father wants nothing to do with her, the girl somehow always "sees the light" and never aborts the baby. One episode even had a talking fetus.^note They could not interact with the mother, but they could tell the audience their feelings.
  • Subverted in the episode Mamá no Está (Mom is Not Here) where Mireya ends up pregnant with her friend's baby, he then convinces her to eat herbs which later cause an abortion. No one demonizes or insults Mireya after that (Though it might be because everyone thinks it was a miscarriage).
• Good Is Not Soft: The Virgin is not afraid of using very harsh ways in order to solve the episode's problem. People being injured to the point of being hospitalized, Driven to Suicide, or a loved one dying are but some of such methods.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Melisa from "La única princesa" is implied to have jealousy toward her baby sister Melanie, to the point of trying to smother her with a pillow in her cradle. Thankfully, it's a dream.
• Hate Sink: The series is full of characters that are so unpleasant and lacking of any virtue that you wish to hate them.
  • Violeta, from "El laberinto de un hombre", is one of the biggest in the entire franchise. Everything about her is meant to inspire revulsion from her grating voice to her childish personality to compulsive lying to horrible abuse of her husband.
  • Tere from "Cuando te estrujan el corazón". She is a terrible "aunt" towards Diego, who she abuses when she has the chance, steals the money he saved to buy a new soccer ball from him, blames him for thing that either aren't his fault or have little control of. And worst of all, she never really care about him because he is her husband, Rene's illegitimate son.
• I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Played for Laughs in the Episode Lola, the eponymous main character gets her boobs done after a lot of A-Cup Angst and then every male classmate who used to bully her because of that, starts to flirt with her, and even a random guy asks her to take a picture of her for a magazine.
  Celia: Even those two [guys] can become your personal slaves if you want it.
• Ironic Echo: In the episode "Te va a salir el Payaso" (Clown's gonna get you), a guy named Erwin and his buddies disguise themselves as clowns to scare people and seek thrills while telling their victims that "¡Te va a salir el payaso!" (The clown's gonna get you!). At the end of the episode, when Erwin and his friends are cornered by a furious mob at a store, one of the youngsters tries to scare the crowd with a fake gun. Then, one of the mob members reveals he has a very real gun and menacingly says "¡Ahora sí les va a salir el Payaso!" (Now the clown is gonna get YOU!) before fatally shooting the boy who was trying to scare them.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ivana in Sin Filtros spends the first half of the episode as the Alpha Bitch making fun of the Main Character, Belinda, while they feud over who will have the best birthday party. But the moment she's told Belinda was kidnapped she does anything she can to help her come back home, even putting herself in harm's way to find the kidnappers. In the end, she offers Belinda to make the birthday parties together and they become friends.
• Karma Houdini: Not unlike good ol' Jack Chick, this show strongly believes that even the most wicked persons can be redeemed and be able to see the light if they are faithful devotees of The Lady of Guadalupe. Of course, the most awful sinners deserve punishment, and therefore the opposite of this trope happens.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: In "También a los chavos", when Lucrecia and her mom Teresa visit the hospital where her dad is held, the latter's brother-in-law shows up with two cops to have the latter arrested for attempted murder.
  • Carola in "Imagina mi cara". After spending the entire episode bullying Antonio to the point of physically hurting him (kicking him down the stairs with a smug evil grin mind you!), the principal tells her parents that she is not only expelled from the school, but the information will be sent to the district so they know about her actions if she's moved to a school in the area and also will be forced to see a psychiatrist for her behavior. Suffice to say, Carola (and her mother) are left shaken and broken while her father (who was abused by Carola's mother) seems to take the initiative to stand up for himself.
• Kick the Dog: In "La niña modelo", Susana gives Nicole the white rose for her to keep, but when Ariana finds out the rose is from Susana, she takes it from Nicole and throws it in the trash. Fortunately for Nicole, the rose reappears in her room so she can put it the Virgin's altar.
• Laser-Guided Karma: As mentioned above, the worst of the worst sinners will always receive a well-deserved punishment for their heinousness, albeit this isn't always the case.
• Lighter and Softer: The series is noticeably tamer than its spiritual predecessor, Mujer, Casos de la Vida Real. While both tackle similar themes, Mujer was infamous for being more serious and hopeless and often had Downer Endings whereas in La Rosa, no matter how grim things get, episodes will almost always have a happy ending (albeit with some Bittersweet Ending exceptions).
• Little Miss Con Artist: In "Fraude Cibernético", Elisa's best friend, Cristina, is implied to be one. The latter influenced the former into conning people to get a new phone.
• Logging onto the Fourth Wall: Some people have attempted to visit the websites that appear in the show's episodes, most notably the miranchoalegre.com (a FarmVille parody) website from the episode of the same name.
• Love Makes You Dumb:
  • Carina from "Amigas por siempre", is madly in love with her manipulative, abusive boyfriend, Abelardo that she refuses to see how much of a two-faced, douchebag he actually is, despite her best friend, Yuridia tells her, to the point of dismissing her and hardly had any faith in her. When Abelardo kisses Yuridia and spouted lies that she likes him, in a ploy of drifting the two friends apart, Carina instantly accused her the latter of trying to steal the former from her, while failing to notice that Yuridia was grabbed by him and ended their friendship, and no longer believes a word she says, believing it to be lies. The truth does get through her eventually after Yuridia shows her a video she just recorded of Abelardo cheating on her with another classmate.
  • Yesenia from “La voluntad de Yesenia” rushes into a relationship with her new boyfriend Sergio with one of the main lessons of the episode being that you shouldn’t do that with someone you just met. She’s so smitten that it takes a long time for her to realize Sergio is fattening her up so he can make her self conscious and dependent on him.
  • Dalilah from "Silencio complice" is smitten with her boyfriend, Brandon, who is very abusive towards her. Despite this, she insist to love him, believing their are just quarreling. Her mother and friends try to get through to her and realize that Brandon is not who she thinks he is. The problem is Dalilah is too stubborn to listen to reason.
• Made Out to Be a Jerkass: In the chapter "Sufrir no es un destino", Amalia constantly gets molested by her mother's boyfriend, Genaro, and she gets in the defensive, but her mother believes her she is being disrespectful towards him. To make things worse, Amalia hits him in the head with a beer bottle, when he tried to rape her, while he was drunk, while her mother was asleep. When she woke up, the mother accuses Amalia of trying to kill Genaro, refusing to listen to her explanation, believing it to be lies. Even threatening to send her to jail if he succumbs to his injury and dies, which led Amalia to run away from home.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Luz from "La luz te va a salvar", who emitted blinding, burning light when a man tried to rape her after the Virgin appeared and offered her green coat to her.
  • Rosa and Rosario from "Las rosas", when the Virgin appears to save them both from being raped by blinding their captors with a garden of roses she put in front of her.
• Mistaken for Gay:
  • Horacio from "Dos Destinos" (Two Destinies), who due to his effeminate mannerisms, is bullied by his classmates and scolded gravely by his mother, thinking he's gay.
  • Elisa from "Algo Raro Tiene Elisa" (There's Something Wrong with Elisa), who hates men, rejects Pedro's affections and prefers to hang with girls; making everyone assume she's a lesbian. Turns out her hatred towards men is because she was raped in the past.
• Monster Clown: In the episode "Te va a Salir el Payaso", a youngster named Erwin and his friends dress up as creepy clowns to scare people in order to seek thrills.
  • Played more straight in the episode Los Fantasmas de Sofía (Sofía's Ghosts) where the titular Sofía is being tormented by a creepy clown who is just a hallucination created by her schizophrenic mind
• Never My Fault:
  • In "Mejor que yo", Alvaro, Ruben's controlling abusive father, never acknowledges it's his actions that led his son, Ruben to rebel against him. He refused to take a no for an answer to his countinued abuse of his family, namely Ruben. When he got called out for this, Alvaro resorts to use his wife and son as sandbags.
  • Violeta from "El laberinto del hombre" never acknowledges it's her actions that led Matias to rebel and lift charges against her. She refused to take a no for an answer to her continued abuse of her husband. When Matias calls her out for it, Violeta resorts to use him as a sandbag and drags his name to the mud, sending a post saying he abuses her instead in social media. She also blames him for not being able to leave home, when she was the one who gaslighted him into not leaving by threatening to commit suicide.
• Nice Girl: Maggie from "La niña que veía mariposas", bordering in Wide-Eyed Idealist.
• No Sympathy: There are some rather jarring examples in this series, and not even from the wrong-doers the victims have grudges against, either; in several episodes, the victim's situation would not have gone from bad to worse if everyone else involved, including the victim's loved ones and friends, weren't so quick to assume the worst about the victim. Some especially egregious examples include:
  • The victim, from "Ver pasar las nubes" ("Watch the clouds pass"), was practicing for a Dance Contest with her classmates and recorded a video of it. Her father and grandmother's first assumption is that she was dancing like a slit, and scream at her for that without giving her a chance to explain, they even lock her in her own home for life.
  • The victim, from "Siempre Alertas" is stared by a neighbor of hers who is constantly staring at her. Every time he passes through her. Her abusive boyfriend's first assumption is that she is an easy girl who flirts with other men and screams at her for it without giving her a chance to explain. Her mother is not exempt from this. The victim is in a depressed state because her boyfriend dumps her whenever she upsets him. Her first assumption is that she is being dramatic and begins to scream at her about that. (Rather than being concerned that she is miserable and crying.)
  • The victim from "Las Zapatillas de cristal no existen" ("Glass slippers don't exist"), got in a sexual relationship with her crush, who already had a girlfriend, which resulted in her being pregnant, which also resulted in being rejected by said crush. Upon finding this out, Her parents' first assumption is that she is a slut and scream at her for that. (Rather than being concerned that she is miserable and crying.)
  • The victim from "Me das un abrazo", was filming an announcement video for a school play about AIDS, in the video, he portrays an AIDS patient. His classmates' first assumption is that he has AIDS and would infect anyone if he comes close to them, and they, even his parents, begin to scream and turn their backs on him for that without giving him a chance to explain his side of the story.
  • The victim from "Modelo de Amor" suffers from bullying at school by her Sadist Teacher and suffers abuse by her maternal grandmother and father, which is one of the reasons why she is unable to focus at school, she even screws up at behaving. Her father and teacher's first assumption is that she is a brainless moron and misbehaved, and they begin to constantly scream at her about that without giving her a chance to explain.
  • The victim from "Cero Negativa' suffers from an illness after receiving a blood transfusion following an accident she suffered, while running away from a harasser. When her classmates found out about her illness, their first assumption is that she would infect any of them, and turn their backs on her for that. The only one who doesn't, besides her parents, is the boy who is in love with her.
• The Oldest Profession: In "Ser o no ser", Lucas' grandmother thinks he is prostituting himself for goods when she and her daughter Minerva notice them.
• On the Next: At the end of each episode, a preview of the next episode and the name of this episode are shown.
• One-Person Birthday Party: In "Miss Chiquitita", Esmeralda's birthday party ends up becoming this after turning away all of her friends with her attitude brought about by her mom's strict treatment of her to prepare her for the title pageant.
• Out of Character Is Serious Business: In "Nadar como pez en el agua", Adrián's family, his girlfriend, and his teachers note his strange behavior because he developed gynecomastia.
  • In "La niña que veía mariposas", Maggie starts failing her exams from the moment Susana decides to blackmail her with her tablet.
• Red Herring: In "A Merced de la Vida" (At Life's Mercy), an elementary school girl named Iris gets pregnant and she doesn't want to say who the father is. The teacher assumes she was raped by her abusive brother Memo and he gets sent to jail where he's subjected to horribly abuse and prison rape. In the ends turns out the father was Iris's best friend and she was trying to protect him, but the damage to Memo is already done.
• Pædo Hunt: In "La niña modelo", Ariana and her ex-husband end up implicated in a case of child pornography around Nicole when notice of her modeling in age-inappropriate apparel in the Internet was known by her school.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In "La niña que veía mariposas", Maggie's alter ego, "Princesa Arcoíris" looks like her but with loose hair, colorful extensions, and no glasses and wearing a costume according to the theme of the party held at the skating rink she goes to. It doesn't occur to Billy that she and Maggie look the same.
• Parental Neglect: In "Llamar la Atención", Melissa's parents, especially the mother, care way more about their tennis player daughter than about their elder daughter, and they always favor Miroslava over Melissa, thinking the latter to be drawing attention.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Many of the series' antagonists are repeatedly shown as being tremendously bigoted, homophobic, racist, prone to body-shaming and overall having a very antiquated way of thinking.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Violeta from "El laberinto de un hombre". Despite having an actual child of her own, she is ironically the childish one of the family, and it's played in a terrifying way as her tantrums escalate to physical violence on Matias.
• Ripped from the Headlines:
  • In late 2010/early 2011, Kalimba (a popular Mexican singer and performer) faced charges for, allegedly, raping two minors. Not long after, there was an episode based vaguely on his case.
  • The episode "El Corsario" is based on the murder of Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales, known as "El Pirata de Culiacán", a teenager who was notorious for videos of himself on drugs and/or alcohol in social media despite being underage at the time. He was killed after badmouthing a druglord known as "El Mencho".
  • Many episodes are based on then-current events, trends and online memes.
• Sadist Show: What else can you call a series that seemingly enjoys portraying today's youth as very stupid, overly naive, superficial, unpleasant, and in constant need of being saved by divine intervention?
• Sadist Teacher:
  • In the episode "El Maestro Malo", the eponymous teacher Gastón is a sadistic Jerkass who gleefully humiliates protagonist Lalito for stuttering and another one for struggling with math. He even gets the other kids to bully those students for the heck of it.
  • Sarahí from "Aprendiendo a Educar" has a particular dislike toward Ana and enjoys tormenting her pretty much all the time. She will also happily punish her students even for the most insignificant mistakes.
• Sexier Alter Ego: Downplayed for obvious reasons in "La niña que veía mariposas" with Maggie's skate rink alter ego "Princesa Arcoíris" with loose hair with colorful extensions, pink costume, and lack of glasses.
• Show Within a Show: Con fuego en la piel from the episode "Fraude Cibernético".
  • In the episode Sin Filtros (No Filters) we get a mention of La Flor de Maria (Mary's Flower/The Flower of Mary), the In-Universe Rosa de Guadalupe.
• Sibling Murder: Melisa kills her baby sister Melanie in "La única princesa", though luckily it turns out it was a nightmare of her mother. After she had her baby for real, it's shown as if Melisa will do it for real, only to reveal she took Melanie to her room.
• Slut-Shaming: Most girls, who either were victims of rape or got pregnant with their child after having sex with their partner without protecting themselves first, are often victims of this, their peers began to demonize them for those incidents, and don't want anything to do with them.
  • In "Abrazo de Oso", Jessica turns down Cristian's request to denounce Fabián as a rapist for fear of this trope.
• Speech Impediment: Lalito from "El maestro malo", who gets bullied by his classmates for stuttering. It doesn't help his teacher, Gastón, gleefully eggs them on.
• Stage Mom:
  • Gina from "Miss Chiquitita" exhibits the traits of one. She is a failed beauty queen who pushes her 8-year-old daughter Esmeralda into beauty pageants to live her failed dream. It doesn't help Esmeralda actually started to like it, which made it easier for Gina to manipulate her.
  • Ariana from "La niña modelo" is also a failed model who pushes her 8-year-old daughter Nicole into modeling, but unlike the first one above, she takes it one step further by having Nicole model skimpy outfits and bikinis for a photographer named Evert Santana, who is also a former flame of hers. She ends up landing herself in hot water when the police convicts her and her ex-husband for child pornography involving Nicole.
• Stealth Parody:
  • The first half of the episode Sin papás en casa (No parents at home) is a blatant parody of Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" videoclip with a lost virgin statue subplot to fill the rest of the episode.
  • The episode Traición y Destino (Betrayal and Fate) is a ripoff of The Lion King, and it's filled with Stylistic Suck.
• Strictly Formula: As detailed above. Every episode follows the basic formula of: the protagonist has a problem; friend/parent/family member finds out about that problem; the problem gets worse; they pray to the Lady of Guadalupe that the problem gets resolved, thus spawning a white rose; protagonist finds the white rose; a series of events solves their problem; protagonist explains the Aesop they learned that episode via an And Knowing Is Half the Battle sequence, and the white rose disappears.
• Tap on the Head: Deconstructed in "También a los chavos", Teresa smacks her husband on the head with a frying pan with such force she cracked his skull open. He ends up hooked to life support due to the impact rendering him unable to breathe. Cándida then tells her son Ismael that he should break up with Lucrecia or he'll suffer the same fate as the man.
• Temporary Bulk Change: “La voluntad de Yesenia” sees Yesenia gain weight over the course of about a year, with her actress putting on three progressively bigger fat suits. By the end of the episode she seems to have lost the weight, which takes place apparently quite some time after the main plot ends.
• The Internet Is for Porn: In the episode "Virus del Policía" (Police Virus) Joel and his friends use homework as an excuse to watch porn together in his room.
• The Theme Park Version: Many of the themes touched on the show are done in a very superficial way. The Cosplay episode being just one example.
• Title Drop: Expect the characters (usually the MC) to say the name of the episode out loud at least 5 times.
• Too Dumb to Live: In "El Primer Cigarro", Esther's grandmother has been smoking for most of her life, and her daughter and granddaughter follow her example. When Esther's mother starts to getting sick due to her constant smoking, she made her decision to stop smoking, but she remains stubborn about smoking, despite her already deteriorating health. To makes things worse, she succumbs to her condition and dies.
• Totally Radical: Thanks to the terrible writing, expect the kids or teenagers to use outdated slang, with some Gratuitous English mixed in for good measure. Some words and sentences include:
  • ¡Está del uno!
  • ¡No te me achicopales!
  • ¡Me lates un buen!
  • ¡A huevo!
  • Domingo 7
  • Pipirisnais.
  • Teto (a)
  • ¿Quieres ser mi chavo(a)?
• Toxic Friend Influence: Cristina from "Fraude Cibernético" influenced Elisa to pass as "Anabel Domensains", a character from a Show Within a Show named "Con Fuego en La Piel" and con unsuspecting people out of their money.
• Vigilante Man: Dulce from "Dulce como su nombre", a young woman who works undercover as a stripper to bring rapists to justice because she's a rape victim herself.
• Vorpal Pillow: Melisa from "La única princesa" killed her baby sister Melanie this way. Thankfully, it was actually a dream by her still-pregnant mother.
• Weight Woe: In “La voluntad de Yesenia”, Yesenia’s boyfriend is a controlling prick who fattens up his romantic partners so they lose their confidence and become dependent on him. Yesenia slowly grows fatter as he keeps bringing around fattening foods that he gradually whittles away her resistance to, and even when she starts making an effort to lose the weight, he keeps shoving food in her mouth leading to her becoming addicted to eating. Months pass and she becomes distressed when she gains likely 40-50 lbs, can no longer fit in her nice clothes, and is told by the doctor she will be unable to have children due to… reasons relating to her weight gain.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: In Tu Imagen en mi Espejo we get introduced to a young gangster named Kurt, which doesn't come as an odd name at all... until we find out his sister is named Nirvana.
  Kurt's Mom: Your names are Nirvana and Kurt because your dad was a rockstar wannabe who idolized Kurt Cobain, singer and lead guitar in the band Nirvana.
• Wicked Stepmother: In "La niña modelo", Ariana tries to make Susana, her ex-husband's new wife, out to be hateful towards Nicole to keep her under her thumb. Despite it works, thankfully it doesn't last long (much to Ariana's chagrin).
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Maggie from "La niña que veía mariposas", she believes there is good in everyone, even wanting to help her Love Interest Billy.
• Winds Of Change: In every episode, an Ethereal Choir will play and a light breeze will blow on the protagonist's face as the problem they've been facing is miraculously solved.
• Would Hurt a Child: The episode "La única princesa" plays up to this trope after the infamous scene where Melisa smothers her baby sister with a pillow.

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