Camila, the Traditional Maiden Protagonist of Pasión

I wanted to discuss the character of Camila in the current telenovela I'm watching and how I view her potential so far. Pasión (2007) is a romance telenovela starring Susana González as Camila Darién, Sebastián Rulli as Santiago Márquez, Fernando Colunga as Ricardo de Salamanca and Juan Ferrara as Jorge Mancera y Ruiz. The drama stems around a woman named Camila, who is the daughter of Don Justo and Ofelia as well as the lover of the blacksmith Santiago. After four long years being kept prisoner by the British, Santiago escapes his captors
and returns to his home in the town of San Fernando. Delighted to see him again after such a long time, his family celebrates his arrival that night where Santiago announces his desire to marry Camila. However, problems soon arise for the couple in their endeavor to get married…

Within the first few episodes so far, Camila is initially presented as a hard-working, faithful woman. With her introduction, we see the kind of work she does managing estate expenses and the amount of respect that her family has for her. With Santiago’s arrival, a major point that his family makes to him is that Camila has been incredibly faithful to Santiago and has not pursued any other relations with another man in the city. In this way, she represents a lot of the qualities of a Cinderella in that she is very pure in her relationship and is an incredibly beautiful and kind woman. She never stopped believing that Santiago would return and we see a great amount of romantic chemistry between her character and Santiago (shoutout to the acting by Susana González and Sebastián Rulli, their relationship is incredibly believable!). I can tell that the show doesn't necessarily take many steps to alter existing representations of her type of character, ultimately making her more traditional.  

The telenovela plays on its time period; set in the 1700s in Mexico, Camilla and her family are incredibly religious with numerous connections with their town leaders in the faith. Jorge Mancera y Ruiz is the lord of San Fernando and is presented as the primary antagonist thus far. He is an incredibly sexist and aggressive man who abuses his power as lord to sabotage the relationship of Camila and Santiago. Jorge gives the couple his permission to marry and their family is incredibly excited for them. However, at a party on the night before they are supposed to be wed, Jorge and his lackeys crash the party equipped with horses, armor, and swords. Jorge claims that he has a right to spend a night of intimacy with Camila due to his powers of lordship. Of course, Santiago is infuriated by this ridiculous claim and attempts to fight Jorge and his men before being severely wounded in a strike to the head. To prevent further conflict, Camila agrees to go with Jorge and fulfill his wishes. Ultimately, Camila narrowly avoids being raped by Jorge and manages to escape back home, where Santiago is in grave condition.

I think the first thing that stands out about Camila to me is her bravery. She’s a character that the audience can immediately respect and like, with her relationship with Santiago being one almost out of a fairytale. The way that the audience consumes this telenovela is the same with many other traditional love story telenovelas. She’s a woman that has waited four long years for her lover to return, and when she finally gets the most important thing in her life back it’s immediately taken away once again in the tragedy at the party. She has the courage to give herself and her purity up for the one that she loves because she knows that more tragedy will ensue if she does not give into Jorge’s demands. This does not stop her later from continuously arguing with Jorge and getting physical with him until ultimately being stopped by a slap to the face. She does not take the situation lightly and almost attempts to stab Jorge in his room with a dagger that she finds on his table. I honestly wish that she has attempted to do so because I feel that her character would have a less “frail” quality to it. However, in keeping her character “pure” and mainly traditional, she does not escalate the situation but does prevent Jorge from touching her, which succeeds as he just gets drunk and passes out without any real sexual contact. But her bravery to escape the palace ultimately shines through after taking Jorge’s key and escaping in the morning when workers open a gate to an exit. I really hope that this side of Camila is explored more! I hope that she is able to be a strong-willed woman with the bravery to put herself in danger more often.

I’m surprised more at the premise of the show as well. Obviously the pirate character Ricardo de Salamanca will eventually show up and duel with Santiago over Camila’s affection. But how in the world does this happen? Camila is an incredibly faithful character to Santiago, so something will probably be established that separates the two’s relationship again (maybe his injuries make him unable to do anything for a while?). No matter what happens I’m excited for the plot that comes next!