El secreto de Puente Viejo
El secreto de puente viejo is a Spanish telenovela produced by Boomerang TV for Antena 3. The series was premiered on February 23, 2011. On February 2, 2015 the series reached 1,000 episodes, and on January 26, 2017 the series reached 1,500 episodes., it is the second longest-running series in the history of Spanish television in Spain in terms of number of episodes, after Amar en tiempos revueltos.
The series' True Finale is officially aired on July 15th 2020, where, Roberta decides to break up with his boyfriend Alberìco after he, during a discussion, tells her that she is an error and that her birth and adoption were a mistake. Alberìco, then, decides to commit suicide with the rope of his headphones, failing miserably. At the end of the episode we can see a new Roberta reuniting with her long-lost love Alex.
Plot
The Beginning
The story begins with Pepa, a poor and illiterate but intelligent adolescent orphaned girl with great knowledge in herb medicine and obstetrics who had been lusted and impregnated by her landlord Carlos Càstro giving birth to a son and then thrown out of the house and tricked to believe that her child was stillborn. She finds a shelter in Raimundo Ulloa 's inn where she befriends his daughter Emilia and is hired to be an obstetrician for Francisca Montenegro, a wealthy landlady's pregnant daughter-in-law Angustias who's mentally unstable. Both Angustias and Francisca begin hating Pepa when Francisca's son Tristan falls in love with the latter. Pepa holds the blame for Angustias' baby's death while actually, the real culprit is Angustias herself. Eventually, the truth is revealed and the latter is sent to a mental institution where she commits suicide. Later, Pepa finds out that Tristan's adopted son Martin is her long-lost son, taken away by Carlos who was Tristan's adopted brother, who later died in afire with all his household. However, he is revealed to have survived and returns, kidnapping his son.
The villagers find out that Carlos is dead but do not find the child and consider him also dead. Pepa finds her real mother, a wealthy landlady who was forced to give her illegitimate newborn child away, as she was also underaged, and her father is Francisca's deceased husband. It is also revealed that Raimundo and Francisca were lovers and Tristan is their son, so he's not Pepa's brother. After many trials, Pepa and Tristan finally get married and their daughter Aurora is born. Unfortunately, Pepa suffers from harsh pregnancy and dies in childbirth. When she learns that Tristan has been kidnapped while travelling, Pepa goes searching for him. Tristan manages to escape the goons and meets Pepa in the mountains near Puente Viejo. There, Pepa delivers with the help of Tristan but is very weak and unable to get up. After a tearful farewell, Tristan takes the newborn to the village.
16 years later
Maria, raised in her godmother Francisca's home, has grown up to be a noble lady from the upper class who becomes a love interest of Fernando, Pepa's step-brother's son and soon they get engaged. Meanwhile, Tristan is depressed after Pepa's demise, and does not communicate with anybody, except for his father Raimundo, his sister Emilia, his niece Maria, his brother-in-law Alfonso and his maidservant Rosario. He did not want to look after Aurora, as she reminded him of Pepa and sent her to a boarding school in Switzerland when she was 6 years old. Candela, a lonely confectioner who escaped her cruel husband, enters Tristan's life, making him happy again and they fall in love. It is revealed that Gonzalo is Pepa's long-lost son Martin and he reunites with his family. However, he finds out about Fernando's cruel and violent colours and together with Maria's adoptive aunt and maidservant of the Montenegros Mariana tries to stop his wedding with Maria but fails. Fernando, who's madly jealous, molests his wife before and after marriage and Martin is determined to save her. Tristan finds out that Francisca killed Pepa by getting her poisoned during pregnancy and disowns his mother. Meanwhile, Aurora returns after graduating boarding school and Candela helps Tristan making up with his daughter. It turns out the girl is not Aurora, but her friend Jacinta who got mad and stole the real Aurora's life, sending her to India. Aurora manages to return and with the help of Martin and Maria exposes Jacinta who flees. Tristan reunites with his children but his happy living ever after is turned into a tragic end when Jacinta returns and murders him on his wedding with Candela. Before his wedding, Tristan decides to forgive Francisca and reconcile with his mother, but she refuses, contributing for her unbearable pain of losing her son. After the unsuccessful attempted murder of Candela, Jacinta flees again and poisons Puente Viejo's water supplies, causing a mortal epidemics. Martin and Aurora manage to get the antidote and save the village but Jacinta ends up committing suicide in a furious rage after realising her deeds. It is revealed that after Tristan left dying Pepa in the mountains taking newborn Aurora to the village, Pepa woke up, delivered Aurora's fraternal twin Bosco and was dragged by somebody after losing cautious again. Tristan never found her corpse. It is also never revealed what really happened to her. She gave the second baby to a random woman passing by.After Fernando's numerous unsuccessful attempts of killing Martin, who is expecting a child with Maria, he injures himself badly end ends up in a wheelchair. Martin and Maria look after him until his recovering in exchange for a divorce. Fernando does not keep his word but eventually, all his crimes are caught and he is sent to jail. However, Francisca turns against Maria when she finds out about the latter's pregnancy and plans of getting rid of her goddaughter and taking the child from her. Having given priesthood up, Martin marries Maria. After Francisca's unsuccessful plot to murder Martin, Maria gets furious and tries to kill her godmother to put an end of her evilness and cruel deeds but is stopped by Martin. To protect their daughter Esperanca, Martin and Maria enact their death with the help of their relatives and escape abroad. They live happily ever after in Cuba with Esperanca.
3-rd Stage
Francisca takes Bosco under her patronage after he saves her life and eventually his origins are revealed due to three moles on his back, possessed by Pepa and all her descendants. Bosco and Ines, Candela's niece who works as a maid in Montenegro Mansion, fall in love but Francisca gets Bosco married to a woman from the upper class named Amalia. However, Ines falls pregnant with Bosco's child. Amalia, who is childless, also fakes pregnancy and when Ines gives birth, she steals the latter's child telling her it died after birth and presenting it as her own. Eventually, the truth is revealed and Ines reunites with her son and with Bosco. Amalia dies in an accident and Bosco and Ines get married. Unfortunately, Ines falls ill from diabetes and dies. Bosco is heartbroken but promises himself not to repeat his father's mistake. He hires a nanny for his son Beltran, Berta and soon they fall in love. But Berta turns out to be mental and attempts to kill Francisca when the latter tries to expose Berta's psychological state to Bosco. While protecting herself from Berta, Francisca inadvertently shoots Bosco and he dies. Bosco's last wish is for Beltran to be raised by Aurora. At 1-st, Francisca refuses to hand the baby over but then she decides not to repeat her mistake with Tristan and lets her love for Bosco triumph over her ego and hatred for Aurora.4-th Stage
Sol's brother Severo Santacruz and his best friend Carmelo Leal arrive at Puente Viejo to avenge Francisca who had destroyed Severo's family. Severo and Carmelo find Sol in Madrid, employed as a prostitute and take her to Puente Viejo. At 1-st, Sol is scared and rebellious but soon manages to adapt to her new life, finding new friends in the village. Doctor Lucas Moliner falls in love with Sol but their love has to go through some trials as it turns out Sol is married to her former employer Eliseo. After some twists and turns, Eliseo and Sol are divorced and she marries Lucas. Severo gives his revenge towards Francisca up, settles down in the village and marries Candela with whom he acquires a son named after his loyal friend Carmelo. Sol falls pregnant before Candela but loses her unborn child due to a food poisoning and is left infertile. She and Lucas save the life of a very ill baby, abandoned by his biological father and subsequently adopt him. But later, Sol is killed by Severyano, leaving her husband heartbroken. Lucas leaves Puente Viejo with his son.5-th Stage
The protagonists of this stage are Hernando and Camila. After Bosco's death, Aurora sells her home mansion to the Mella Family. But hardly soon arrived at the village, the Mellas tragically die in a fire accidentally caused by the family's children. Beatriz, the mute daughter of the family is the only survival. Hernando dos Casas, a wealthy but distanced landlord arrives at the village to be the girl's custodian. Soon after that, his wife Camila whom he has never seen, as they had married in different countries, arrives from Cuba. Camila's character is her husband's complete opposite: she's kind and caring and soon wins her adopted daughter's heart over while Hernando provokes only fear in the girl despite his efforts of befriending her. Camila even manages to help Beatriz regain her voice. Elìas Mato, a chemist working for Hernando, falls in love with Camila and tries to separate her from her husband but eventually, the spouses grow closer to each other. As love between them arises, they have to overcome the misunderstandings created by Elias between them and learn how to trust each other. It is later revealed that Hernando is not the person he seems to be.He looks cold and heartless from the outside but is warm-hearted and caring from the inside. A tragedy had struck his life in the past that changed his manner: he had lost his family in a fire. However, 1 of his children survived: Beatriz, who had partly lost her memory and also her voice. She is scared from Hernando as he reminds her of the person who had set the fire. As Hernando had known somebody was plotting against him, he had send his daughter to live with the Mellas, who were family friends of his, to protect her. As Camila finds out the truth, she proves Hernando's innocence in front of Beatriz and eventually the three of them live together like a real family. Later, the family faces new struggles as Beatriz is involved in a love triangle with Matias, Emilia's adopted son and Ismael, her father's new business partner. Matias, who loves Beatriz, is unreasonably jealous of Ismael who turns out to be Beatriz' long-lost brother Damiàn, who was taught to have died in the fire. But it is also revealed that Damian is evil and is the actual culprit for the fire and also for his mother's death. Damian repents for his past mistakes and asks his father for forgiveness. Hernando agrees, on condition Damian undergoes a psychotherapy. Damian seems to recover but his truly wicked intentions are revealed when he pushes Camila, who never trusted and so, investigated him, into a well. Camila, who's pregnant, survives but loses the child. Soon, Damian dies in an accident. Hernando does not succeed in saving his son and is heartbroken. Hernando and Camila's love is tested again when Camila's friend Lucìa tries to stand between the 2 but it is strong enough to resist. The couple's happiness returns when Camila gets pregnant again. Hernando receives a job offer and moves to Czechoslovakia with his family.
6-th Stage
In this stage, the protagonists of the soap opera are Julieta and Saul. Saul and his brother Prudencio save Francisca from Cristòbal Garrigues, 1 of Francisca's husband's many illegitimate children who stole her property and tortured her, and so become her favourites. Julieta arrives at Puente Viejo with her grandmother Consuelo and daughter Ana.Parallel story arcs
Along with the main plot, there are some other stories evolving around the story of the main characters. The series also portrays the lives of the secondary characters, most often related to the main personages or at least close to them. Here are the most important secondary characters' stories:It turns out that the central love story in the show is not Pepa and Tristan's but actually Raimundo and Francisca's. They were deeply in love, but when Raimundo's parents threatened to ruin Francisca's live if she married their son, Raimundo had no other option but to leave Francisca, telling her he never loved her. Pregnant and heartbroken Francisca was married to Salvador Castro, an evil man, infamous for his ruthlessness who also later had a few illegitimate children including Pepa. Thus, Francisca underwent major personality changes, turning into a cold and insensible woman. Raimundo and Francisca establish a simultaneously love-and-hate relationship which ends, after many years, twists and turns, with the 2 of them finally getting together.
Emilia is Raimundo's adopted daughter and Pepa's best friend. She also has her story. Emilia falls pregnant by a Don Juan named Severyano, a seasonal blue-collar worker in the village who escapes after robbing a wealthy widow's property. Alfonso, another worker, who is Tristan's maidservant Rosario's son, falls in love with Emilia, marries her and accepts her child. Years later, Emilia and Alfonso adopt a troubled teenaged boy named Matìas, whose father and brothers force him to steal. Later Maria returns to save her mother from the emotional blackmail of Severyano who wants her family's property. Severyano shoots with a gun to scare the village's residents off and prevent them from interfering his plans, leading to Sol's unfortunate demise. He even threatens to murder his own daughter but is killed by the police. Despite Emilia and Alfonso's request for Maria's family to return to Spain, she refuses, not wanting to take risks by revealing Francisca the truth behind their disappearance. Later, Emilia gets pregnant with Alfonso's child but after a terrible accident which almost takes her and Alfonso's lives, the 2 decide Puente Viejo is a too dangerous place for their child to grow and leave for Paris.
Matias and Beatriz fall in love but he leaves her to prevent her from getting involved with his biological family's criminal lifestyle. He starts dating a girl named Marcela to distract himself from Beatriz and make her forget him. Eventually, Matias' brothers are sent to jail but he is unable to reunite with Beatriz as he marries pregnant Marcela. Extremely jealous Beatriz constantly interferes Matias and Marcela's relationship, including making Matias cheating his wife, but he eventually realises his mistakes and begins wholeheartedly loving Marcela. They become the proud parents of a baby girl named Camelia. When her family move to Czechoslovakia, Beatriz promises herself to return and take Matias away from Marcela.
Soledad is Francisca and Salvador's only common child and Pepa and Tristan's half-sister. She's proud, refined and kind-hearted lady from the upper class but suffers a lot because of her love for Juan, son of Francisca's and then Tristan's maid Rosario and Alfonso's younger brother, who often gets into trouble. Soledad and Juan get married but soon divorce after Juan unintentionally causes Soledad's miscarriage, leaving her childless. Both of them try to move on, Juan by hiring a call girl named Enriqueta, who falls in love with him, and Soledad by getting engaged to Pepa's step-brother Olmo. Olmo leaves Soledad when he finds out she is unable to have children, but then comes back when he learns that he has a son, Fernando, from his former school teacher with whom he had had an affair. Soledad refuses to accept Olmo and reunites with Juan whom she has always loved. They decide to move to Paris and start their life together again but Olmo and Enriqueta team up to stop them. When Soledad and Juan leave, Enriqueta comes across them and shoots at Soledad, but Juan sacrifices his life to save his beloved. Enriqueta flees, leaving Soledad heartbroken. However, the latter prefers retiring to a monastery than staying with Olmo. Years later, after several attempts of committing suicide, she returns home. Soledad is extremely depressed and to help her overcome her sadness, her servant and best friend, Mariana and the village's priest Padre Anselmo decide to bring Soledad's happy memories of piano lessons by hiring a teacher. However, she has no interest, as her only wish is going to Paris where she would be happy with Juan and end her life there. The teacher helps her fulfill her wish. Later, Soledad returns from Paris. Changed. She's no longer the miserable person, with no desire for life, but a cheerful, vivacious and carefree woman who lives the way she wants. In Paris, she met Enriqueta, now begging on the streets, who revealed her everything about Olmo's true colours, including their alliance and how Juan's murder was part of his plan. This was not Olmo's solely crime, he also killed his own adoptive and Pepa's real mother for the sake of his inheritance and is responsible for Fernando's mother's death. Soledad goes back to Puente Viejo for 1 reason: punishing Olmo and stopping him from committing more crimes. With the help of Olmo's assassin, she exposes Olmo and sends him to jail. After that, she leaves to continue her life. When Fernando comes to know that his father stands behind his mother's death, he disowns him. He even tries to get his father killed in jail. Olmo survives but loses his memory and turns into a modest, hard-working blue-collar worker. Soon, he gains his memory back but terrified of what he has done and fearing he would do such things again, commits suicide. Soledad marries Terence, an American gentleman with dark complexion but falls in love with Simòn, a blue-collar worker who looks just like Juan. Despite Soledad's affords to forget Simon and stay with her husband, Terence lets her free. She moves to Australia with Simon and they live happily ever after.
Mariana is Rosario's only daughter, a maidservant of the Montenegros, another friend of Pepa's and Soledad's best friend. She's hard-working, kind and always anxious about her brothers. Mariana is miserable in love as she loses 2 beloved ones. The 1-st is Paquito, her mother's godson who arrives at Puente Viejo to support Rosario's family after her youngest son's departure. Paquito gets unwillingly involved with drug traffickers disguised as pharmacists and loses his life. The 2-nd is Antonio, who arrives at the village to avenge his brother's death, who was killed by Mariana's brothers to protect their sister from rape. Antonio falls in love with Mariana. She loves him back, but when discovers his initial intensions, murders him in an act of self-defence and is jailed. Years later, Mariana returns to Francisca's mansion to work as a maid as she believes her sentence is not enough punishment for her crime. Eventually, she finds love again and marries photographer Nicolàs Ortuño, with whom she acquires a daughter named Juana. Unfortunately, the family's happy life is ruined when Mariana is murdered under mysterious circumstances.
Pepa's children also have their parallel story arcs, as well as the characters of the 1-st generation. Strong-minded and independent Aurora's tragic love story is also portrayed in the show. She falls in love with and engages to Conrado, a stubborn, yet kind-hearted geologist who's later brutally killed by his ex-fiancèe while defending Aurora. After his demise, Aurora moves to Paris to pursue higher studies. She only returns to Puente Viejo after Bosco and Ines' death to take Beltran to be raised by Martin and Maria in Cuba.
The series also shows some comedy moments, portraying the life of Pedro Mirañar, Puente Viejo's mayor and his family. His wife Dolores is a self-confident and chatty woman, prone to gossiping who later temporarily takes her husband's position. Their son Hipòlito is a cheerful and vivacious young man with his head in the clouds who experiences difficulties in choosing occupation or hobbies he wants to get busy with, creating, along with his parents, a lot of entertaining situations. He saves Quintina, a circus employee who suffers from congenital blindness and they fall in love. Hipolito and his family help Quintina recover her vision by paying for her surgery. Quintina marries Hipolito, joining the comic squad of the show but later leaves her husband to be with a circus employer. Dolores and Pedro hire a tailor named Gracia to befriend Hipolito and distract him from his grief. The 2 initially dislike each other, only to fall in love. After the news of Quintina's death arrives, they get married. Dolores and Pedro's marriage falls apart after the latter heads off for Russia to join the communists and leaves his spouse for a crush on a local woman. Dolores finds comfort in the company of Tiburcio, a muscular and masculine circus employee. News about Pedro's death arrives from Russia, along with his urn. Dolores and Tiburcio get married.