Yo soy Betty, la fea

Fernando Gaitan wrote this Colombian novela, YO SOY BETTY LA FEA (I am Betty the Ugly). It stars leading actors, Ana Maria Orozco as Betty the Ugly, Jorge Enrique Abello as Armando Mendoza, her love interest, and a fine cast.

The story is about Betty, an intelligent but unattractive woman, who is unable to find a job mainly because of her looks. She finally finds a lower level position as a secretary to the president of a fashion company.

During her time at the fashion company, Betty works her way from the position as a secretary to an assistant. Later, she becomes the secret owner of the company. In the mean time, Betty is teased and taunted by other staff members. She makes friends with a group of office workers called the Cartel de Feas (The Ugly Women's Group). Gradually, with the help of a friend, Betty's self-confidence and physical appearance improves.

When the company is in serious trouble, Betty is able to rescue the business from failure. Betty helps the company staff and she also falls in love with the young handsome president, Armando, who never notices her. Eventually Betty's smart mind, good heart, character and loyalty catch Armando's attention. Despite Betty's homely appearance, he eventually falls in love with her. However, Armando's affection may come too late for Betty. His previous insensitive actions badly hurt her. Will Betty become successful in her love and professional life? That's for the viewers to find out!

Over 80 million viewers from Colombia and 21 other countries, including the U.S., have enjoyed this ethical story about how courage, inner beauty and brainpower can conquer others' perception of physical looks. BETTY LA FEA is told in such a witty, comical, and sometimes serious manner that you'll find yourself vigorously supporting the heroine, laughing, crying, and shouting at the television screen when you watch it.

We are in Israel like novelas. we have a channel that only play novels -Better and worse like "la usurpadora". when betty came no one thoutht that it could succeed here, and it came instead of "Los Buscars De Siempre" which was a great novela so it was a big shoes to get into and the fact that it's colombians didn't help too. But - all the israel's people like it! We like Betty, Armando and Berta, like the music, Hugo and all. We laugh every episode many times. I say it's the best novela in the world.

I must confess. I despise soap-operas. I hate their characters, and their plots and over all, I hate the fact that there is only one and one retarded story which have told in a zillion different ways usually ending with the same moronic flair. I hate that stuff. If Mexican or Venezuelan, I hate it even more. It came as a surprise to me then, when I found myself actually enjoying one episode of this Colombian soap-opera. I have seen it a couple of times and although I am not "hooked" per se, I find it charming and witty. But why is it good? Well, that's easy, it's not because it is a good novella, it's because it is a comedy disguised as a novella.

OK, as a rule telenovelas are fun to watch, at least for a few minutes, because they are always so bad! There is only one plot from which all telenovelas spring and the acting is almost always completely overblown. Betty La Fea, in contrast, is actually a good novela, which is a rare thing. Most of the actors are pretty good and, above all, Ana Maria Orozco does a brilliant job playing Betty. This is a funny show and I would definitely recommend it. I watch it daily to keep up with the Spanish I learned while living in Peru and I have even managed to hook my roommates on the show, though none of them speak or understand Spanish.

This is the latin american soap-opera fenomeno. The ratings for this soap-opera in every country has been over the 42.0 every where, and the closing chapter (in those countries where it has finished) has rated over the 50.0. Politicians, newspeople and the guy in the street, they all got together to watch this truly fabulous TV-program, and forget everydays worries, to laugh with the adventures of Betty and their colleagues. This is not a traditional soap opera, in which you need to be beautiful to have success. In this one, the viewer identifies himself with Betty and all the girls in the "Cuartel de las feas" (The ugliest ones headquarter), in their challenge to probe the world that beauty has nothing to do with success and love.