July 20, 2025 • 25 mins
In this episode, our Executive Editor Maria Garcia reflects on the legacy of Soraya Montenegro, her favorite telenovela villain of all time. Maria explores what Soraya’s legacy reveals about being labeled an evil woman, and even, human evolution.
Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dear listener, Before we begin today's show, we have some
news to share. Starting this week, the podcast version of
Latino USA is going to be distributed by the Makurdura
Network at iHeartMedia. That is the biggest Latino vertical in
the podcast industry with over two hundred and fifty million
monthly listeners. So doing this is an opportunity for our
(00:23):
stories to reach more listeners than ever at a critical
time in our country's history. It also makes us more
resilient as an independent news nonprofit. What happens for you,
dear listener, is we maintain one hundred percent of our
editorial independence and will be an amazing company which shows
we love. Like Radio Mulante, will remain in public media.
(00:45):
PRX will continue to distribute Latino USA weekly to public
radio stations all over the US and Canada. Now this
is important, dear listener, because moving forward, you will hear
more ads in our podcasts, but we are going to
rely on your support as a list That's really where
the vast majority of our funding still comes from from
you and other nonprofit sources. So if you want to
(01:09):
support us and get the benefit of listening to these episodes,
ad free it's easy. Join futuro plus. Go to Fuduromedia
group dot org slash join plus. That way you get
all our content. You support fooduo media, you don't get
any ads. Easy, thank you and as always yes.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Sometimes people ask me if I watched the Disney Channel
or that's so Raven or Hannah Montana growing up, and
my face goes blank, Babe, I grew up on Bi
met in Bacto and one of the most age inappropriate
cultural teachers. You can imagine the Mexican telenovela Okay, I
(02:20):
ate them up, cuddled next to my mom, who my
whole life has been saying that she doesn't like novelas okay,
but is somehow always devotedly tuning into one in the evenings.
(02:41):
I could transport to these moments now, the blue light
of our boxy wood paneled Panasonic TV illuminating our narrow
trailer in the outskirts of El Paso, Texas, me cozy
on a burgundy velvet light couch with a pink floral pattern.
In th novellas like Corrasson S, a steamy novella set
(03:12):
in Mexican colonial times with a character named Juan del Diablo.
It come out the summer I turned eight years old.
The opening theme is literally a man's hands unfastening a
woman's corset, then a side shot of a woman's cleavage
pressing up against a man's chest, followed by a closing
shot of a man's shirtless on top of a woman
(03:34):
running her nails across his back muscles.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Salva.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Now, I'm like, why did my parents let me watch
this at eight years old? But they did for better
or worse, And honestly, I think it was for better
because even before I started to study storytelling as a career,
I think that a novellas gave me an important education
(04:01):
mad Through Mari Mad, for example, I learned the importance
of character evolution in a story who Can Forget when
Talia transforms from a humble coastal girl to a stunning
bougie baddie. And through a novella like Ruby, I learned
(04:25):
that every good story needs to have something at stake,
something to strive toward. And perhaps the most lasting lesson
I took from novelas is that in a story, altruism, benevolence,
human goodness shines so much more if it's rubbing against darkness, evil,
(04:50):
a mega villain, because to be real, it was villains
who made the story, not the Nina went as the
good girl protagonists and cardigans and suffering facial expressions. It
was the villains and their stilettos, their big nineties shoulder pads,
their beautifully coifed hair that made me want to watch
(05:18):
cast and for me, the pinnacle of villainy, the timeless
queen of malice. The most stylish antagonist of a story
remains so Raya Montenegro Mio, the evildoer in the massively
(05:51):
popular NOVELA Mariela Delvaro. Soraya Montenegro is so seared in
our memory as Latino so iconic that thirty years after
Mariela Delvarrio's release, Soraya remains one of the most enduring
and relevant characters in the collective Latino imagination.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
No noa mesallong.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And today an homage to the villain who raised us,
Soraya Montenegro.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
From Fuduromidia and RX It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria Coosa. Today,
our executive editor Maria Garcia tells us about the enduring
legacy of the most iconic dele NOVELA villain and why
her legacy tells us a thing or two about what
it takes and what it means to be labeled an
(06:54):
evil woman. Let's get to the novela drama with our
very own Maria Garcia.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Okay, before we get into queen villain Soraya Montenegro's role
and why it mattered so much, you have to understand
what a hit the novella she starred in was. Soraya
was the villain for the hugely popular NOVELA Mariela Delvarrio,
a story about a humble girl from the streets who
wins the heart of a wealthy heart throb. The beautiful
(07:26):
girl is played by none other than nineties novella royalty.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Dalia Soria.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Cantona Aaba Marmon.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
When the NOVELA Mariela Delvarrio came out in nineteen ninety five,
it was the third in a trilogy of telenovelas that
have solidified Dalia as the ultimate protagonist the novellas. In
all of these novelas, Talia played a similar rags to
riches humble girl gets wealthy and they hate her for
it d of storyline. The first NOVELA had been Maria
(08:03):
Mercedes in nineteen ninety two, Maria mercem Familia Mea, and
then Marie mar in nineteen ninety four. Dalia plays a
poor beach girl with a coastal accent. Here Mari mad
Singing Si, and now in nineteen ninety five, Marie La
(08:27):
del Barrio was supposed to be the culmination of the trilogy.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
The Crown Jewel yam Maria La del Barrios.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And the directors, two women, Beatrice Sheridan and Marta Luna,
were looking for a villain that could match Talia's presence
on screen, someone who could serve evil and serve looks.
Enter a nineteen year old actress named Itati Canol.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Joe Ira Nai Naikoz tas Itati.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
In an interview decades later, she says she was no
one in the industry compared to Talia. Idati had only
had minor roles and a couple novellas before Marie La Delvarrio.
She was pretty new to the scene and she was young,
showing up to scenes often straight from the nightclubs. You
(09:32):
would embody the character of Soraya Montenegro, a beautiful, wealthy
and erratic woman in the novella, Soriya is in love
with a man named Luis Fernando, but soon Luis Fernando
seems to be really interested in Maria La Delvarrio, a
hustler from the streets who comes to work for him
(09:52):
as a maid. Maria Soraya im idiately despises Maria for
being beautiful, for being poor, and for catching Louis Fernando's eye.
Her insults against Maria just roll off the tongue, and
from there a lot happens. Soraya eventually manipulates Louis Fernando
(10:17):
into marrying her by sleeping with him when he's really
drunk and then faking a pregnancy. But when Louis Fernando
won't stop thinking of Maria, Soria tries black magic on Maria.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
In a rage.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
One day, Soraya falls off a tall window when she's
trying to kill someone else, and then she dies, but surprise,
it was a fake death and she's actually recovering in
(11:09):
Houston plotting revenge on Maria. But she needs money, so
she seduces another wealthy man to marry her and takes
all his money after his death and tortures his surviving
daughter with poisonous spiders. Yeah, and after years, Sodyah goes
(11:30):
back to Mexico to get revenge on Maria. Then, in
the midst of all her evil plotting, Soriyah finds out
plot twist her real mother is actually her maid, and
in a rage, Sorayah pushes her mother, accidentally killing her.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Coming up, Maria tells us about one of the most iconic,
dramatic and hilarious scenes in delenovela history, plus what delenovela
villains reveal about human evolution and yes science, staying with us, Hey,
(12:28):
we're back with our executive editor, Maria Garcia, and she's
telling us about de Lenovela villains.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Mariela Delvarrio comes to a culmination and what has become
not just the Lenovela canon, but Latino cultural treasures. The
(13:00):
scene in which Soraya Stay with Me finds out her
step daughter is in love with Soraya's new romantic obsession,
who happens to be Maria La Del's long lost son.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Gasps evil step mother.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Soraya lunges at her stepdaughter, Alicia, who happens to be
disabled in a wheelchair. Soraya knocks down her step daughter
(13:54):
wheelchair and all, and then beats up her nanny, who yells.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Soraya is possessed by the devil, so yes.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Stabs Nandito, who then famously limps on the opposite side
of the injury. The scene is still venerated as one
of the most iconic moments of Mexican entertainment. Ever, it
has spawned a countless memes, including one with a still
shot of Itti's face that she's crying and yelling, with
the title Cries in Spanish. The scene has also been
(14:30):
parodied by the cast of Orange is the New Black.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Oh my God, we should do.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Please, Please, We're gonna do it, Please, says the day
(14:56):
she filmed the scene, she came to set straight from
a night out dancing both the drunk and hungover, her
hair a mess, wearing her clubbing.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Outfit crude mass. That was it, but you never know
looking at the scene.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
In fact, in every scene, Soraya's makeup, her looks, and
I'm saying that as in looks l e w k
s are immaculate. She was these beautiful timeless long dresses,
mini skirts with classic blazers, her lips perfectly lined with
such a nineties mad brownish burgundy color and her eyeshadow
(15:40):
flawlessly smoked. On TikTok, there are a ton of videos
dedicated to her style, sorry villain's minds being Hida's fashionistasja
bolic Custombay I started as spelling novel.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Old Money, Mexico.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
In the scene where she comes back from the dead,
she's wearing this unforgettable long black dress with a deep
V plunge at her chest and a gold belt buckle
accentuating her waist. To this day, I think her and
Selena are my most influential style icons. When I was
(16:30):
writing this story, I had to reminisce with my mom
my novela companion. I told her how much I loved
Sodaia's costume design a s My mom says, that's the
exciting part. Who wants an obvious, ugly villain. We want
(16:54):
glamour babe. And yes, I think Sodya's beauty and her
exquisite style were a big part of her allure. But
I also think there's something deeper there. For one, Sodya
was smarto Soraya, like other good villains, made your mind work,
(17:16):
my mom says, made you wonder, what's this switch up to? Now,
but even more so, why is she up to this?
There's a scene where Soria's inner voice takes over and
she's horribly cruel to herself, calling herself an.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Idiot, a cretan.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's clear someone along the way made her believe she
was worthless unless she was desired by a man. And
then the contempt she feels for herself when she finds
out her mother is the maid up. That feels like
(18:17):
it's making a truer statement about classism in Mexico than.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Maria's caricaturish altruism.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
In other words, Soraya brought the depth to the story,
girlfriend made the plot without her antagonism.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
What's left kitchen?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
What's the point of a story with only good girls?
Speaker 4 (18:39):
My mom says, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Hey, we're back, and our executive editor, Marie Garcia has
the rest of this story.
Speaker 5 (19:08):
There is the Principia a permamal is.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
La mal from the origins of humanity, there has always
been the good and the bad, my mom says, Perhaps
to some people this has religious connotations, and there are
Catholic undertones, and Novella's foreshore like hello, A bunch of
the good girl protagonists including all three in Talia series
(19:37):
are named Maria or a variation of the name, seemingly
a nod to the virgin Mary. But for me, this
necessary relationship between good and evil, between hunter and prey
is also rooted in who we are as a species.
In science, one of the single biggest factors in human
(20:01):
was perhaps the emergence of predation. Nothing boosted biological evolution
quite like the emergence of predators, because predators force adaptation.
In fact, one theory of evolution posits that humans learn
to socialize and cooperate with one another as a defense
(20:22):
mechanism to getting caught by predators, and the pressure of
being eaten by a predator also served as an impetus
for cognitive development. Predators force us to come together and
get smarter. Look, I'm not trying to assign morality to
the natural world. The predators are just trying to survive themselves.
(20:44):
And I kind of think Soraya was too. There's something
deeply unhealed in her. All she wants is to be desired, chosen,
loved by a man. So when her husband scorns her,
laughs at her when she and Maria right over him,
Soraya expresses a sort of primal survival mechanism, must squash
(21:06):
my opponent to get ahead. Soria had also grown up
thinking she had no mother, and she developed an armor.
She exhibited emotions that the good girls didn't express, us
poignantly lad.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Da Illino a yesay, doubt, anger, indignation, And in that way,
thele novella villains, as caricaturish as they were painted, were
somehow more human than some of the novella protagonists, who
(21:46):
honestly sometimes got on my nerves because of how they
were flattened to pure goodness. Six then knows.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
My Mom says.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
The protagonists were often written to be too dumb, too trusting, too.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
Submissive, Uumi says, siempreor mostenios Spirto's nostrengthuis.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Stripped away from their intuition and their agency, like when
Mariola Delvarrio conveniently loses her memory twice and lets Soraya
kidnap her. If the villains were the hysterical woman gone
evil trope, the protagonists were sometimes feminine to the point
of being clueless. Both of them were on the different
end of the same binary, and in this limited binary,
(22:43):
Soraya was allowed just a bit more depth. Yes, Soraya
was clearly ill. She had morphed into a predator, violently
eviscerating anyone who got in the way of her ultimate goal,
trying to prove she can be chosen by a man
and thus worthy. What preyed on her to make her
(23:09):
believe her value is dependent only on the approval of
a man. She was hunted by the piercing messaging of
an ill society that she had no value unless it
was bestowed on her by a man. Soray Am Montenegro
was prey to the patriarchy.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
This episode was written and produced by Maria Garcia, with
production help by Nur Saudi and editing by Marlon Bishop.
It was mixed by Stephanie Lebau. Fact checking for this
episode by Roxanna guire Fernanda Echavari is our managing editor.
The Latino USA team also includes Julia Caruso, Jessica Ellis,
(24:29):
Victori Estrera, Renaldo Lanos Junior, Andrea Lopez Gruzslo, Luis Luna Jr.
Mar Marquez, Julieta Martinelli, Marta Martinez, Monica Morales, Garcia, Jjkrubin,
and Nancy Trujillo. Bennilee Ramirez and I are co executive
producers and I'm your host Martino Possa. Latino USA is
part of Iheart's Michael Tuda podcast Network. Executive producers are iHeart,
(24:54):
Leo Gomez and Arlene Santana. Join us again next time
and in the meantime, see you on all of our
so social media and don't forget dear listener, It's so easy.
Join Futuro Plus you listen ad free. Hello. Also bonus
episodes oooh and special virtual events. Come on now. You'll
be supporting the kind of journalism that matters now more
(25:16):
than ever. You ask, Yes, Joe.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation,
working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide,
the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Skyline Foundation.
Dear listener, Before we begin today's show, we have some
news to share. Starting this week, the podcast version of
Latino USA is going to be distributed by the Makurdura
Network at iHeartMedia. That is the biggest Latino vertical in
the podcast industry with over two hundred and fifty million
monthly listeners. So doing this is an opportunity for our
(00:23):
stories to reach more listeners than ever at a critical
time in our country's history. It also makes us more
resilient as an independent news nonprofit. What happens for you,
dear listener, is we maintain one hundred percent of our
editorial independence and will be an amazing company which shows
we love. Like Radio Mulante, will remain in public media.
(00:45):
PRX will continue to distribute Latino USA weekly to public
radio stations all over the US and Canada. Now this
is important, dear listener, because moving forward, you will hear
more ads in our podcasts, but we are going to
rely on your support as a list That's really where
the vast majority of our funding still comes from from
you and other nonprofit sources. So if you want to
(01:09):
support us and get the benefit of listening to these episodes,
ad free it's easy. Join futuro plus. Go to Fuduromedia
group dot org slash join plus. That way you get
all our content. You support fooduo media, you don't get
any ads. Easy, thank you and as always yes.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Sometimes people ask me if I watched the Disney Channel
or that's so Raven or Hannah Montana growing up, and
my face goes blank, Babe, I grew up on Bi
met in Bacto and one of the most age inappropriate
cultural teachers. You can imagine the Mexican telenovela Okay, I
(02:20):
ate them up, cuddled next to my mom, who my
whole life has been saying that she doesn't like novelas okay,
but is somehow always devotedly tuning into one in the evenings.
(02:41):
I could transport to these moments now, the blue light
of our boxy wood paneled Panasonic TV illuminating our narrow
trailer in the outskirts of El Paso, Texas, me cozy
on a burgundy velvet light couch with a pink floral pattern.
In th novellas like Corrasson S, a steamy novella set
(03:12):
in Mexican colonial times with a character named Juan del Diablo.
It come out the summer I turned eight years old.
The opening theme is literally a man's hands unfastening a
woman's corset, then a side shot of a woman's cleavage
pressing up against a man's chest, followed by a closing
shot of a man's shirtless on top of a woman
(03:34):
running her nails across his back muscles.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Salva.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Now, I'm like, why did my parents let me watch
this at eight years old? But they did for better
or worse, And honestly, I think it was for better
because even before I started to study storytelling as a career,
I think that a novellas gave me an important education
(04:01):
mad Through Mari Mad, for example, I learned the importance
of character evolution in a story who Can Forget when
Talia transforms from a humble coastal girl to a stunning
bougie baddie. And through a novella like Ruby, I learned
(04:25):
that every good story needs to have something at stake,
something to strive toward. And perhaps the most lasting lesson
I took from novelas is that in a story, altruism, benevolence,
human goodness shines so much more if it's rubbing against darkness, evil,
(04:50):
a mega villain, because to be real, it was villains
who made the story, not the Nina went as the
good girl protagonists and cardigans and suffering facial expressions. It
was the villains and their stilettos, their big nineties shoulder pads,
their beautifully coifed hair that made me want to watch
(05:18):
cast and for me, the pinnacle of villainy, the timeless
queen of malice. The most stylish antagonist of a story
remains so Raya Montenegro Mio, the evildoer in the massively
(05:51):
popular NOVELA Mariela Delvaro. Soraya Montenegro is so seared in
our memory as Latino so iconic that thirty years after
Mariela Delvarrio's release, Soraya remains one of the most enduring
and relevant characters in the collective Latino imagination.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
No noa mesallong.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And today an homage to the villain who raised us,
Soraya Montenegro.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
From Fuduromidia and RX It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria Coosa. Today,
our executive editor Maria Garcia tells us about the enduring
legacy of the most iconic dele NOVELA villain and why
her legacy tells us a thing or two about what
it takes and what it means to be labeled an
(06:54):
evil woman. Let's get to the novela drama with our
very own Maria Garcia.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Okay, before we get into queen villain Soraya Montenegro's role
and why it mattered so much, you have to understand
what a hit the novella she starred in was. Soraya
was the villain for the hugely popular NOVELA Mariela Delvarrio,
a story about a humble girl from the streets who
wins the heart of a wealthy heart throb. The beautiful
(07:26):
girl is played by none other than nineties novella royalty.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Dalia Soria.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Cantona Aaba Marmon.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
When the NOVELA Mariela Delvarrio came out in nineteen ninety five,
it was the third in a trilogy of telenovelas that
have solidified Dalia as the ultimate protagonist the novellas. In
all of these novelas, Talia played a similar rags to
riches humble girl gets wealthy and they hate her for
it d of storyline. The first NOVELA had been Maria
(08:03):
Mercedes in nineteen ninety two, Maria mercem Familia Mea, and
then Marie mar in nineteen ninety four. Dalia plays a
poor beach girl with a coastal accent. Here Mari mad
Singing Si, and now in nineteen ninety five, Marie La
(08:27):
del Barrio was supposed to be the culmination of the trilogy.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
The Crown Jewel yam Maria La del Barrios.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And the directors, two women, Beatrice Sheridan and Marta Luna,
were looking for a villain that could match Talia's presence
on screen, someone who could serve evil and serve looks.
Enter a nineteen year old actress named Itati Canol.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Joe Ira Nai Naikoz tas Itati.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
In an interview decades later, she says she was no
one in the industry compared to Talia. Idati had only
had minor roles and a couple novellas before Marie La Delvarrio.
She was pretty new to the scene and she was young,
showing up to scenes often straight from the nightclubs. You
(09:32):
would embody the character of Soraya Montenegro, a beautiful, wealthy
and erratic woman in the novella, Soriya is in love
with a man named Luis Fernando, but soon Luis Fernando
seems to be really interested in Maria La Delvarrio, a
hustler from the streets who comes to work for him
(09:52):
as a maid. Maria Soraya im idiately despises Maria for
being beautiful, for being poor, and for catching Louis Fernando's eye.
Her insults against Maria just roll off the tongue, and
from there a lot happens. Soraya eventually manipulates Louis Fernando
(10:17):
into marrying her by sleeping with him when he's really
drunk and then faking a pregnancy. But when Louis Fernando
won't stop thinking of Maria, Soria tries black magic on Maria.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
In a rage.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
One day, Soraya falls off a tall window when she's
trying to kill someone else, and then she dies, but surprise,
it was a fake death and she's actually recovering in
(11:09):
Houston plotting revenge on Maria. But she needs money, so
she seduces another wealthy man to marry her and takes
all his money after his death and tortures his surviving
daughter with poisonous spiders. Yeah, and after years, Sodyah goes
(11:30):
back to Mexico to get revenge on Maria. Then, in
the midst of all her evil plotting, Soriyah finds out
plot twist her real mother is actually her maid, and
in a rage, Sorayah pushes her mother, accidentally killing her.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Coming up, Maria tells us about one of the most iconic,
dramatic and hilarious scenes in delenovela history, plus what delenovela
villains reveal about human evolution and yes science, staying with us, Hey,
(12:28):
we're back with our executive editor, Maria Garcia, and she's
telling us about de Lenovela villains.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Mariela Delvarrio comes to a culmination and what has become
not just the Lenovela canon, but Latino cultural treasures. The
(13:00):
scene in which Soraya Stay with Me finds out her
step daughter is in love with Soraya's new romantic obsession,
who happens to be Maria La Del's long lost son.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Gasps evil step mother.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Soraya lunges at her stepdaughter, Alicia, who happens to be
disabled in a wheelchair. Soraya knocks down her step daughter
(13:54):
wheelchair and all, and then beats up her nanny, who yells.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Soraya is possessed by the devil, so yes.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Stabs Nandito, who then famously limps on the opposite side
of the injury. The scene is still venerated as one
of the most iconic moments of Mexican entertainment. Ever, it
has spawned a countless memes, including one with a still
shot of Itti's face that she's crying and yelling, with
the title Cries in Spanish. The scene has also been
(14:30):
parodied by the cast of Orange is the New Black.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Oh my God, we should do.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Please, Please, We're gonna do it, Please, says the day
(14:56):
she filmed the scene, she came to set straight from
a night out dancing both the drunk and hungover, her
hair a mess, wearing her clubbing.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Outfit crude mass. That was it, but you never know
looking at the scene.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
In fact, in every scene, Soraya's makeup, her looks, and
I'm saying that as in looks l e w k
s are immaculate. She was these beautiful timeless long dresses,
mini skirts with classic blazers, her lips perfectly lined with
such a nineties mad brownish burgundy color and her eyeshadow
(15:40):
flawlessly smoked. On TikTok, there are a ton of videos
dedicated to her style, sorry villain's minds being Hida's fashionistasja
bolic Custombay I started as spelling novel.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Old Money, Mexico.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
In the scene where she comes back from the dead,
she's wearing this unforgettable long black dress with a deep
V plunge at her chest and a gold belt buckle
accentuating her waist. To this day, I think her and
Selena are my most influential style icons. When I was
(16:30):
writing this story, I had to reminisce with my mom
my novela companion. I told her how much I loved
Sodaia's costume design a s My mom says, that's the
exciting part. Who wants an obvious, ugly villain. We want
(16:54):
glamour babe. And yes, I think Sodya's beauty and her
exquisite style were a big part of her allure. But
I also think there's something deeper there. For one, Sodya
was smarto Soraya, like other good villains, made your mind work,
(17:16):
my mom says, made you wonder, what's this switch up to? Now,
but even more so, why is she up to this?
There's a scene where Soria's inner voice takes over and
she's horribly cruel to herself, calling herself an.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Idiot, a cretan.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's clear someone along the way made her believe she
was worthless unless she was desired by a man. And
then the contempt she feels for herself when she finds
out her mother is the maid up. That feels like
(18:17):
it's making a truer statement about classism in Mexico than.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Maria's caricaturish altruism.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
In other words, Soraya brought the depth to the story,
girlfriend made the plot without her antagonism.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
What's left kitchen?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
What's the point of a story with only good girls?
Speaker 4 (18:39):
My mom says, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Hey, we're back, and our executive editor, Marie Garcia has
the rest of this story.
Speaker 5 (19:08):
There is the Principia a permamal is.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
La mal from the origins of humanity, there has always
been the good and the bad, my mom says, Perhaps
to some people this has religious connotations, and there are
Catholic undertones, and Novella's foreshore like hello, A bunch of
the good girl protagonists including all three in Talia series
(19:37):
are named Maria or a variation of the name, seemingly
a nod to the virgin Mary. But for me, this
necessary relationship between good and evil, between hunter and prey
is also rooted in who we are as a species.
In science, one of the single biggest factors in human
(20:01):
was perhaps the emergence of predation. Nothing boosted biological evolution
quite like the emergence of predators, because predators force adaptation.
In fact, one theory of evolution posits that humans learn
to socialize and cooperate with one another as a defense
(20:22):
mechanism to getting caught by predators, and the pressure of
being eaten by a predator also served as an impetus
for cognitive development. Predators force us to come together and
get smarter. Look, I'm not trying to assign morality to
the natural world. The predators are just trying to survive themselves.
(20:44):
And I kind of think Soraya was too. There's something
deeply unhealed in her. All she wants is to be desired, chosen,
loved by a man. So when her husband scorns her,
laughs at her when she and Maria right over him,
Soraya expresses a sort of primal survival mechanism, must squash
(21:06):
my opponent to get ahead. Soria had also grown up
thinking she had no mother, and she developed an armor.
She exhibited emotions that the good girls didn't express, us
poignantly lad.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Da Illino a yesay, doubt, anger, indignation, And in that way,
thele novella villains, as caricaturish as they were painted, were
somehow more human than some of the novella protagonists, who
(21:46):
honestly sometimes got on my nerves because of how they
were flattened to pure goodness. Six then knows.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
My Mom says.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
The protagonists were often written to be too dumb, too trusting, too.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
Submissive, Uumi says, siempreor mostenios Spirto's nostrengthuis.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Stripped away from their intuition and their agency, like when
Mariola Delvarrio conveniently loses her memory twice and lets Soraya
kidnap her. If the villains were the hysterical woman gone
evil trope, the protagonists were sometimes feminine to the point
of being clueless. Both of them were on the different
end of the same binary, and in this limited binary,
(22:43):
Soraya was allowed just a bit more depth. Yes, Soraya
was clearly ill. She had morphed into a predator, violently
eviscerating anyone who got in the way of her ultimate goal,
trying to prove she can be chosen by a man
and thus worthy. What preyed on her to make her
(23:09):
believe her value is dependent only on the approval of
a man. She was hunted by the piercing messaging of
an ill society that she had no value unless it
was bestowed on her by a man. Soray Am Montenegro
was prey to the patriarchy.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
This episode was written and produced by Maria Garcia, with
production help by Nur Saudi and editing by Marlon Bishop.
It was mixed by Stephanie Lebau. Fact checking for this
episode by Roxanna guire Fernanda Echavari is our managing editor.
The Latino USA team also includes Julia Caruso, Jessica Ellis,
(24:29):
Victori Estrera, Renaldo Lanos Junior, Andrea Lopez Gruzslo, Luis Luna Jr.
Mar Marquez, Julieta Martinelli, Marta Martinez, Monica Morales, Garcia, Jjkrubin,
and Nancy Trujillo. Bennilee Ramirez and I are co executive
producers and I'm your host Martino Possa. Latino USA is
part of Iheart's Michael Tuda podcast Network. Executive producers are iHeart,
(24:54):
Leo Gomez and Arlene Santana. Join us again next time
and in the meantime, see you on all of our
so social media and don't forget dear listener, It's so easy.
Join Futuro Plus you listen ad free. Hello. Also bonus
episodes oooh and special virtual events. Come on now. You'll
be supporting the kind of journalism that matters now more
(25:16):
than ever. You ask, Yes, Joe.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation,
working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide,
the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Skyline Foundation.
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