In EcoModa, Betty gains real friends in the other secretaries, who are like her, are ridiculed most of the time because of their looks. She accepts all the tasks that are given to her without any complains that Armando becomes so dependent of her. She provides him with brilliant suggestions and covers up his clandestine affairs from Marcela. There she does her job and dreams about her boss, Armando.Īs the story goes, Betty gains Armandos trust and confidence. She is stashed in a small and dark closet which becomes her office. She applies in EcoModa as a secretary of the new president, Armando and she gets the job. Armando is engaged to Marcela Valencia (daughter of one of the owners of EcoModa).īeatriz Pinzon, a intelligent girl who graduated with a degree in Economics and masters degree in Finance, couldnt get a job that fits her qualifications because people could not see past her looks. Don Roberto Mendoza, retires and passes the presidency to his son Armando Mendoza. The story begins in EcoModa, a very successful clothing line in Colombia. This is also a love story between Armando and Betty. The second is comedy, which I really like, and third I am intrigued by the mix of comedy and drama.? ?The first is investigating, which is due to my background as a journalist. ?There are three characteristics that define my work,? says Gait?n. He had already been writing comedies, which not only allowed him to earn a living, but in the process, to create a form of high-quality television that was akin to feature films. ?I can say that in Colombia there are no ugly women, except for those married to poor husbands,? he quips.Įven before creating Betty, Gait?n had already made a name for himself on the small screen when he wrote Caf? con aroma de mujer, which was the first Colombian telenovela to gain international notoriety and success. It was then that Gait?n started to explore the world of these secretaries, who were basically outcasts, and they became the focal point of Yo soy Betty, la fea?in particular at a time when society was so obsessed with cosmetic surgery. I was always intrigued by that group of secretaries and how they gazed at the other women with a certain fascination, and even with ferociousness.? The other is more conventional and ordinary?the world of secretaries and messengers. ?The station consists of two different worlds the first is the home of the stars, of divas, beautiful actresses, presenters, models and the most handsome men,? he says. ?We had no reason to believe this would be a hit, rather, we wondered whether it would work at all,? says Gait?n.Īs Gait?n explains, he got the idea for Betty while he was working at RCN. In addition, contrary to traditional novelas, the first kiss took place only midway through the novela, and not at the beginning, and the male lead was wicked and immoral. ?We made Betty with trepidation and without great ambitions, because it contained a number of unconventional elements for a novela.? In fact, this was the first telenovela in which the female lead was not a beautiful woman. ?No one ever thought that Betty would be such a hit, because from the beginning we thought of it as an experiment,? says Gait?n. He created Yo soy Betty, la fea for the Colombian broadcaster RCN. No one has been more surprised by the success Betty has enjoyed around the world than the creator of the original telenovela, Fernando Gait?n. The daily interactions of the characters involve all the little indignities of social, economic, racial, and educational and gender inequalities. Along comes Yo Soy Betty La Fea, with a female lead who definitely must be said to look ugly.Īpart from the look of the female lead character, Yo Soy Betty La Fea is also peppered with other doses of realism. They are diverting, but less than totally satisfying. In the end, these other telenovelas are just fantasies. That is nice, except not many people in real life looks like Thalia. For one thing, people are used to seeing telenovela characters played by stars such as Thalia. Outside of Colombia, the popularity of Yo Soy Betty La Fea has been speculated to due to a number of reasons. In this context, Betty comes through as a symbol of the uncorrupted innocence of Colombia.
Violence is perpetrated by various armed groups against each other and, quite often, against the citizenry. Corruption is endemic among elected officials. Colombia is a country in which cocaine has played and still plays a major role in national development.
Yo Soy Betty La Fea was produced by the new Colombian network RCN.