Dulce Amor

Dulce Amor (in english: Sweet Love) is a Mexican telenovela produced by Canal Extra, aired in the same network between October 26, 2009 and October 15, 2010, with a total of 255 episodes. Although it is a Mexican production, Georgia Moraes, the creator of this work, is Brazilian, and the original script for this telenovela was created in 1997.
Unlike previous soap operas on Canal Extra, this one was focused more on a teenage audience, and addressed common issues that linked high school with other problems of adolescence.
== Plot ==
The telenovela addresses the lives of several characters at the same time, as is the case of Guadalupe, a 17-year-old girl who lives in a troubled relationship with her boyfriend, Jesus, and also suffers from her mother's alcoholism, in addition to suffering from the trauma of having witnessed her father's death. It also deals with the life of Arturo, an 18-year-old student who suffers from mental problems, he lives alone with his mother who works as a maid in the house of one of the school's teachers, Felix, and is helped by him, his mother however ends up dying victimized by a heart attack and Félix decide to become completely responsible for the young man.
Other subjects that the soap opera addresses are linked to: depression, suicide, addiction, criminality, school violence and bullying. Other characters that also marked the plot were the girl Esperanza, a depressed girl who tends to commit suicide several times, Marco, who is a victim of physical aggressions inside the school and end up completely losing his senses, planning an attack in the place of study, Flor, a girl addicted to illicit drugs that causes danger to everyone around, and Roberto, treated as a villain in the soap opera, he dropped out of school and became a robber, being part of a criminal faction, he also has a sick love for Esperanza, who is in love with Alejandro, and ignoring the bandit, Esperanza and her love are at the mercy of what Roberto is capable of doing.
== Conception ==
The original script of Dulce Amor was already conceived long before 2009, Georgia Moraes, creator of this soap opera, created the serial that would give rise to the plot in 1997, even when she was creating soap operas in Brazil, her country of origin. Georgia had a great reputation among broadcasting executives in Brazil, as her works tended to have large audiences, and on that occasion, the executives of Rede Paguá had appointed Georgia as the author responsible for the next soap opera on the channel, the script she wrote was the even though it would give rise to Dulce Amor later, however this was rejected by the broadcaster. 12 years later, in 2009, when Georgia was already writing soap operas for Canal Extra in Mexico, she was again quoted to create the plot of the telenovela that would start to be shown from October of that year, she then decided to propose the same script that she had written in 1997, the channel's executives at first thought that the plot would not be successful, but they gave the script a chance. Between July and October 2009, the plots of the first 40 episodes of Dulce Amor were written, the scenes began to be recorded in August 2009, and in September, an ostensive marketing campaign for the production began.
== Cast ==
*Teresa Villacrés as Guadalupe Barrueco
*Thiago Covarrubias as Jesus Leguizamo
*Sara Sofía Tasis as Yvone Barrueco (Guadalupe's mother)
*Ernesto Puig as Arturo Montes
*Maya Ordóñez as Jazmín Montes (Arturo's mother, dies at episode 138)
*Juan Sebastián Encarnación as Felix Berganza (Jesús father and Arturo stepfather, from episode 151)
*Catalina Zorita as Esperanza Lain
*Justin Covarrubias as Marco Capmany
*Nico Carballo as Alejandro Covarrubias (Esperanza's boyfriend, dies at episode 253 together with Roberto)
*Ian Abasto as Roberto Guillén (dies at episode 253, in an attempt to kidnap Alejandro who conceives an automobile accident)
*Iris Alcabú as Flor Vera
*Selena Ros as Iris Berganza (Felix wife, Jesús mother)
*Emily Sancho as Nazaret Lain (Esperanza's mother)
*Abram Navarro as Iván Lain (Esperanza's father)
*Abel Fernandino as Fernando Capmany (Marco father)
*Inmaculada Ferrant as Liza Capmany (Marco mother)
*Luísa Franco as Celeste Vera (Flor aunt and responsible)
*Gastón Rubio as Julio Vera (Flor uncle and responsible)
*Gabriel Dengra as Alfredo Covarrubias (Alejandro father)
*Serena Agramonte as Elena Fraga
*Gonzalo Reyes as Macos de la Cavallería (School principal)
*Javier Botín as Carlos del Pozo (School librarian)
== Exhibition ==
Dulce Amor was originally aired between October 26, 2009 and October 15, 2010, totalizing 255 episodes, a record that has not yet been surpassed, having been Canal Extra's longest running telenovela since it established the telenovela sector, in 1999. Due to some issues addressed in the soap opera, it had to be shown a little later than usual, some chapters were even shown at 10 pm, and not at 8 pm, as established by the broadcaster. On February 7, 2010, the Dirección General de Radio, Televisión y Cinematografía changed the indicative rating of Dulce Amor from B-15 to C, increasing the indicative age from 15 to 18 years, having been the only Mexican telenovela to have this classification.
=== International exhibition ===
Dulce Amor was exported to countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Panama, Canada, United States, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Germany and Russia.
=== In other media ===
It was released on streaming in 2020, having been one of the first Mexican telenovelas released for streaming.
== Reception ==
=== Audience ===
The telenovela recorded in its first two months an average of 32 rating points, considered average compared to its predecessor, from January 2010, the plot began to see the audience being increased ranging between 39 and 42 points. In the period known as "belly", when the plot does not make significant advances, the plot continued to register more than 40 audience points. In its final phase, the telenovela reached its best indexes, when it reached 60 audience points in its last weeks, in its last episode it reached an unbelievable 71.5 audience points. The telenovela had a general audience average of 49 points, surpassing its predecessor and also the expectations of Canal Extra executives.
=== Critical response ===
The soap opera was generally well reviewed, having competed for the International Emmy Awards for Best Telenovela at the 38th International Emmy Awards (2010).