Plot
Teresa Chavez is a young woman dominated by her greed. Her parents have made great sacrifices to give her a good, decent life, but Teresa only cares about becoming rich.
Teresa is a beautiful and intelligent young woman, desperately seeking to leave the grinding poverty of the neighborhood where she lives. Despite being beautiful and having support and love from her parents, she lives a miserable and resentful life, blaming poverty for her sister's death. After Rosa dies from a heart disease, Teresa vows that she will never be poor again, making plans to escape the life of poverty surrounding her, using her beauty as a way to make it to the top. She is in love with Mariano, a man who lives in the same neighborhood with her and is studying to become a doctor in order to meet Teresa's expectations and fulfill all her dreams. But Teresa is impatient.
While studying at an exclusive school on scholarship Teresa meets Paulo, a wealthy young man and very popular among all students. Teresa, seeing him as a way to get rich fast, breaks up with Mariano and uses her beauty to charm Paulo. They go out throughout high school, but, upon discovering she is poor, he immediately broke up with her. Genoveva, Paulo's mother also disapproves of Paulo ever seeing Teresa again.
Paulo and Aida, Teresa's jealous classmate, humiliate Teresa, publicly displaying her poverty and her lies, so Teresa decides to take revenge and swears to never be trampled on again. "Entre ser y no ser, yo soy (Between being and not being, I am)" becomes Teresa's motto and the motto becomes the basis for the telenovela. Teresa befriends her teacher Arturo de la Barrera, a respected lawyer who offers to pay for her education. Teresa decides to make Arturo fall in love with her. However, seeing that her friend Aurora is in love Mariano, she's filled with jealousy and decides to get back together with him. Luisa, Arturo's sister, at first distrusts Teresa, until her "sweetness" convinces her that Teresa is just a humble but kind girl.
As Teresa worked for Arturo as an assistant, he unintentionally fell in love with her. Luisa discovered this and convinced Arturo to confess his feelings to her. Teresa filled Arturo with hope while dating Mariano. She eventually broke up with Mariano and told him that she was going to marry Arturo. This destroyed Mariano's hope, and he found solace in Aida's arms after Paulo died of a drug overdose. At first, Mariano couldn't get Teresa out of his head because he constantly begged Teresa to leave Arturo, but her ambition was her guide. Arturo and Teresa travel to Cancun, and this opens Mariano's eyes, seeing the real Teresa. Teresa eventually marries Arturo. Before that, Teresa meets Fernando, Luisa's multimillionaire fiancé. Despite her efforts and her constantly thinking of Mariano, Teresa eventually falls in love with Arturo while they are on their belated honeymoon.
Time passes and Teresa is accidentally shot by Sainz's wife, which leaves her paralyzed. She slowly recovers, and Arturo finds out that Teresa and Mariano made love the day before Arturo's marriage with Teresa, and that she only married him for his money. Arturo is then thrown into an economic crisis, and doubting the love of Teresa, decides to test her love and takes her to live in the same neighbourhood that she originated from. Tired of the economic crisis, Teresa seeks to improve their status and socio-economic position by seducing Fernando, Luisa's fiancé and Arturo's best friend. Mariano then tells Luisa about Teresa's attempt to conquer Fernando's heart, and he openly admits that he's in love with Teresa. Heartbroken due to their betrayal, Luisa slowly overcomes her pain and accepts Fernando's decision without any resentment. At this time, Teresa is now in love with Arturo, but at the same time, she believes that he should recover his status. Lucia, Luisa's best friend, likes Arturo, which not only proves Teresa's true love for him, but causes her to be extremely jealous of Lucia.
As the story develops, Teresa successfully seduces Fernando, and convinces him to leave Luisa and to sign over half of his fortune to her. During an interview for their wedding, Teresa turns against her family, stating that she comes from the same socio-economic background as Fernando, and that her parents were dead and Juana, her godmother, was merely her nanny. Finally seeing Teresa's true colors, Juana and Refugio, Teresa's mother, are left heartbroken. Later, during Juana's birthday party, Teresa tries to justify the rejection saying she felt it was necessary for the interview. All of her friends and family turn against Teresa, criticizing her for preferring money over love. Although Teresa is left alone, she attempts to get back Arturo's love for her and forgiveness as she feels that he's her true love. When Arturo is involved in a car accident, Teresa searches for him and he is immediately transported to a nearby hospital. As he slowly recovers, he rejects her for not loving him earlier. Teresa donates all of Fernando's money to Paloma's foundation for children after Fernando rejected receiving the stolen fortune. As Teresa tries to correct her mistakes, Refugio denies her daughter as she feels that it's too early to forgive Teresa and can't be sure if her daughter's change is sincere, leaving Teresa all alone. Back at her house, realizing and accepting that she's been left alone with no loved ones around her, she goes to her room and hugs the bear that Arturo gave her as a gift. Arturo then appears, and he picks her up from the ground, hugs her and later, they both kiss. She learned what love really is while Arturo forgave her, giving her another chance.
Alternative Ending: There was an alternative ending that was broadcasted during the Popular Mexican show Hoy, this ending had a heartbroken Teresa, finally realizing and accepting that she's all alone now, with none of her loved ones wanting anything to do with her, leaving Arturo's house to begin a new life. 6 months later we see her working at a company as an assistant, where she is approached by a man, who we learn is her new boss, asking her to meet him at his office. As she makes her way, Teresa unbuttons her blouse before smiling seductively to the camera and saying her famous phrase, implying that she's back to her old manipulative ways.
Read more about this topic: Teresa (2010 Telenovela)
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