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Like any telenovela, ‘La esclava blanca’ has a good dose of love, revenge and betrayal. However, there is an element that differentiates it: the context in which the story takes place: the last years of slavery in Colombia.
Slaves crammed into a story scene.
In that sense, it seems worthy to praise that the writers have been releasing information on the subject in the chapters, so that curious people like me, we went to the Internet to impregnate ourselves with everything related to slavery in the country. I like that they have remained very faithful to the historical reality, with the Freedom of Wives Act of 1821 as one of the axes of the telenovela (although without mentioning the reform of 1839 that was a step back from what was approved in 1821) , as well as having made various winks to real people, champions of the struggle for the abolition of slavery, such as José Manuel Restrepo, Domingo Briceño and Ildefonso Menéndez. Although the writers have remained very faithful to the historical framework, I am surprised that the slaves of the soap opera know how to read and write, something that I doubt that the slaves of the 19th century knew how to do.
For the rest, the writers have been able to reflect, among other things, how slaves were treated as merchandise (they were bought and sold as if they were potatoes and were not worth anything in the eyes of justice), the conditions in which they worked (from sun to sun and only for a plate of food and roof, in an overcrowded or barracks), how they managed to become freedmen through the manumission (or what is the same, buy their own freedom to its owner), the severe punishments those who were confronted for disobeying or doing something that the master did not like, or the union that finally made the Black Cause triumph and for abolition to be achieved in 1852. Surely today, all this of slavery would seem unthinkable, but not We can forget that it existed, for better or for worse, and on that basis we must take into account more than ever that everyone, regardless of our skin color, we are equal in terms of rights. We are all people. It is very sad also that slavery continues to exist today, although in other ways (think of trafficking in women, for example).
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Returning to the soap opera, as I said, with slavery as background we find a story full of all those ingredients of the genre. As far as love is concerned, the story of Victoria and Miguel takes the cake. A very well written story, with incredible moments between them and with that fear present at all times to be discovered by Nicolás or any of the hacienda.
I also enjoyed very much the love story of Trinidad and Remedios, also very romantic, despite the constant changes of opinion of Trinidad, who did not decide to love Remedios freely, due, among other things, to his skin color and your social difference Another very beautiful story is that of Milagros y Julián, the foreman, a very tender story, although at the beginning it starts as a Milagros trick so that Julián is confused and thus help in the plans of the Black Cause.
The evil focuses on Nicolás and his friends, a small group of racists and exploiters that little by little is disintegrating thanks to the struggle of the blacks. The story has many scenes that make the hair stand on end, but those of the black hunts organized by these gentlemen are brutal. See how then they are betraying each other, and ending badly, when their exploits begin to be discovered, it is a pleasure.
At the level of argument, I think it has been a success to print the character of Eugenia a bisexuality that shows openly, something unusual (although it would exist) at the time, intimate with both men and women and even making a trio. I am also happy that Eugenia kisses Bunme in several scenes and that they have not censored those kisses, something that other producers would do without hesitation. The genre is opening its mind … It has also been a success the mixture of contrasts between the generations to which the different characters and their ways of thinking belong. The clearest example is the disputes permanently held by Adela and Isabelita regarding religion, the independence of women, or when dressing. We are in the mid-nineteenth century and came to change the Americas, something that the soap opera can perfectly show through the plots that relate to these two characters.
Cristina García played Isabelita.
The story develops at a magnificent pace and with a very curious plot formula … While the people of El Edén (Victoria, Miguel, Nicolás, Adela …) are protagonists at all times, the secondary and their plots are ‘alternating’ to throughout the telenovela, gaining weight during a certain number of chapters, putting itself almost at the level of the protagonists, to continue being secondary once those chapters pass. It happens first with Andrés López and his son, then with Felipe Restrepo and his sister, later with Francisco and Ana, then with Morales and, finally, with Eugenia and Fidel.
That magnificent rhythm carries with it a great agility in the plots from chapter one, ending in an exciting final straight: the last ten chapters are brutal. Throughout history also die many characters, some unfairly, but it is what there is.
The outcome is adjusted to that fast pace, with good triumphing over evil. Tie almost all the ends because the writers forget two very important things. The first, discovering that Nicolas Parreno participated in the slave hunts that were about to be free. It is true that other crimes are discovered and he pays for them, but not those, for me, even more important than for the ones that condemn him. It is also true that it was very difficult, as they raised the issue, that Nicolás paid to organize and be part of these hunts.
The second one, give a better ending to Gabriel, a character who ends up in a way he does not deserve, as if the scriptwriters had forgotten everything he did in favor of abolition, that he is the son of Commander Fidel and that he I could have designed for him a much fairer ending.
