thanks to Patrick F. from Miami, FL
"Amigas y Rivales" was an excellent teen soap opera of Univision's 2001 - 2002 season with high ratings and an original from Emilio Larrosa's productions. Before "Amigas y Rivales" aired on July 2001 here in the USA, a lot of previews of this novela was beign shown and the commercial was saying from the same tradition of previous teen girls soap operas such as "Muchachitas" and "Sonadoras" so I thought that "Amigas y Rivales" was mostly going to be a remake of "Muchachitas" but I was wrong, "Amigas y Rivales" turned out to be an original teen girls soap opera because in past teen soap opera's most of the times the actors play the role of High School students but not in this one because the girls were 21 years old in a private university studying their career, second the main villain of this soap opera wasn't a man like in "Muchachitas" and "Sonadoras" but in this was a woman who was one of the "Amigas" (Ludwika Paleta) stepmother "Roxana" played by the Romanian actress Joana Benedek and she was a great villain cause she killed a lot of people including her friend "Angela" (Suzana Gonzalez). Finally "Muchachitas" and "Sonadoras" also never discussed AIDS but it was great that one of the girls did the role "Ofelia" an AIDS victim played by Puerto rican actress Adamari Lopez since she did an outstanding playing the role of an AIDS victim. Another topic that also came up to in this novela was crossing the border which other teen novelas never discussed and the role of "Nayeli" played Angelica Vale was great and also explained the poverty of Mexico and how some women who has to support a family and grew up poor and doesn't know anything takes the risk of working as a prostitute like "Georgina" played by Mayrin Villanueva who was hired by Roxana and Sebastian to seduce "El Feo" to break up the marriage between "Ulises and Ofelia" only to get money to pay for her mother's medicines. Finally the ending was excellent because it had a lot action defeating "Roxana" by the end when all of "Amigas" got together and saved "Jimena" from "Roxana" pouring sulfiric acid on her face and the acid instead got on Roxana's face and she ended up in an mental hospital which I thought she was going to end up dead but she didn't. When "Amigas y Rivales" ended on May 2002 it had a high rating on Univision for being an original teen girls soap opera that it wasn't a copy or remake of "Muchachitas". One thing for sure by the ending it was seven amigas which it was added up by "Tamara" (Manuela Imaz), "Georgina" (Mayrin Villanueva), "Paula" (Nailea Norvind). To me this will be an unforgetable soap opera because it will remind when I was in the Tenth grade in High School in the 2001 - 2002 school year and represented the teens of 2002. However this novela reminded me a lot of "Muchachitas" because of the tradition of four girls and it was being aired on July 1991 and ended on May 1992 when I was in Kindergarten and represented the 1991 - 1992 school year. So this novela "Amigas y Rivales" brings me a lot of memories when I was 15 (2001) and 16 (2002). "Amigas y Rivales" is #1 Teen Soap of the early 2000s decade.
Amigas y Rivales
