La hija del mariachi is a Colombian telenovela from RCN, written by Mónica Agudelo, that debuted in 2006 and ran to nearly 150 episodes. It is built on the oldest engine in the form, a man with a secret and a woman who trusts him, and it works because the music around that engine is real.
Emiliano and Rosario
Emiliano is a wealthy Mexican businessman ripped off by his friends and partners, wanted by the police of two countries and by a criminal organization. He hides in Bogotá, where a mariachi singer named Rosario takes him in without knowing any of it. Under a new name and a new personality he joins her mariachi band, finds in her the love of his life, and spends the series afraid that his secret will tear the two of them apart.
Carolina Ramírez plays Rosario del Pilar Guerrero Santana, and she is the show. The role needs a singer who can act and an actor who can sing, and Ramírez is both. Mark Tacher plays Emiliano, and the two have the kind of chemistry a telenovela lives or dies on.
The Band
The mariachi setting is not decoration. The band, with Gregorio Pernía as Manuel Rodríguez, “El Coloso de Jalisco,” and Luis Eduardo Arango as Sigifredo Santacruz, “El Sentimental de Chapultepec,” gives the show a working world, and the musical numbers are staged with genuine affection for ranchera. When the plot slows, the songs carry it.
The Family
Alejandra Borrero plays Rosario’s mother Raquel, and the Guerrero household is the series’ second stage, where the pressures of money and respectability press on a daughter who sings for a living. Diana Ángel, Estefanía Borge, Nicolás Montero and Silvia de Dios round out a cast of rivals, doctors and schemers, each with a claim on one of the leads.
Why It Works
The secret is a good one because it is not a lie about love. Emiliano is honest with Rosario about everything except who he was, and the show is careful that her trust is never made foolish. She believes him because he is telling her the truth about the only thing that matters to her. That is a better basis for a telenovela than most of the form’s deceptions.
Where It Falls Short
It is long. The rivals multiply, the tests of love repeat, and the middle stretch of the series marks time in the way long telenovelas do. The criminal plot that drives Emiliano’s flight is thinner than the romance, and its resolution arrives more because the run is ending than because it has built to anything.
The Verdict
La hija del mariachi is a warm, well-sung telenovela with a lead performance that outclasses its plot. It also aired on Telemundo, which is how many viewers outside Colombia found it, and it is easy to see why they stayed.
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