5 iconic telenovela women that 90s Ghanaians can never forget

TV culture in Ghana really took off in the 90s and carried on into the early 2000s, and for many homes the evening telenovela was the one programme nobody was allowed to miss.

Homework had to be finished before it started, the whole family gathered in front of one television, and the next morning everyone at school or at work had something to say about the episode.

Years later, these are the women from those shows that Ghanaians still talk about.

1. Esmeralda (Esmeralda, 1997)

When TV3 brought Esmeralda to Ghanaian screens, it swept through the country in the early 2000s. Leticia Calderón played Esmeralda, the daughter of the wealthy Rodolfo Peñarreal, who wanted a son so badly that when his wife gave birth to a girl everyone believed was stillborn, the midwife Dominga and the family’s nanny swapped her for a baby boy whose mother had died in childbirth. The girl turned out to be alive and blind, and she grew up in poverty while the boy, José Armando, played by Fernando Colunga, grew up in her place in the Peñarreal mansion. The two fell in love without knowing the truth about their births, and the lies, jealousy, and family pride that followed kept viewers glued to their screens every evening.

2. Paola and Paulina Bracho (La Usurpadora, 1998)

TV3 also gave us La Usurpadora, where Gabriela Spanic played twin sisters who had been separated at birth and could not have been more different from each other.

When the rich and unfaithful Paola met the sweet, poor Paulina by chance, she asked her to take her place in the Bracho mansion for a year so she could go off with her lover, and when Paulina refused because her mother was dying, Paola framed her for stealing a bracelet and threatened to send her to jail.

Paulina gave in, and while pretending to be Paola, she fixed almost everything her sister had broken, helping the family’s grandmother overcome her drinking, saving the family business and falling in love with Paola’s husband, Carlos Daniel, played by Fernando Colunga, whom Ghanaians had already met as José Armando in Esmeralda.

Paola came back pretending to be paralysed to win back her old life, but her schemes caught up with her, and before she died she was forgiven by the sister and husband she had wronged, leaving Paulina free to marry Carlos Daniel. The show was broadcast in more than 125 countries, and many Ghanaians still remember how one actress made them love and hate her at the same time.

3. Rosalinda (Rosalinda, 1999)

Thalía’s Rosalinda was another TV3 favourite. She sold flowers at a fancy restaurant, where she fell in love with Fernando José, a wealthy pianist played by Fernando Carrillo, and the two married and had a daughter, Erika.

Her happiness fell apart when Fernando José found out that her mother, Soledad, had spent 20 years in prison for a murder she did not commit, and he walked out on her. His scheming stepmother, Valeria, then kidnapped Erika, and Rosalinda was committed to a mental hospital.

After a fire at the hospital, everyone believed she was dead, but she survived with no memory of her past and became a singer called Paloma Dorantes.

It took one of Fernando José’s concerts and a car accident to bring her memory back, and Ghanaian viewers stayed glued to their screens until she finally won back her daughter and her husband.

4. Juana Pérez (Juana la Virgen, 2002)

Daniela Alvarado played Juana Pérez, a bright 17-year-old with a scholarship to study journalism in the United States, whose life turned upside down when a mistake during a routine hospital checkup left her pregnant through artificial insemination.

The father turned out to be Mauricio de la Vega, the wealthy owner of a fashion magazine whose stored sample was meant for his wife, Carlota.

The scandal forced Juana out of school and into a job at Mauricio’s magazine, where the two fell in love while Carlota did everything in her power to keep them apart.

The story was so gripping that the American network The CW remade it in 2014 as Jane the Virgin.

5. Valentina Villanueva (My Sweet Fat Valentina, 2002)

Natalia Streignard played Valentina, the kind, overweight young woman who lost almost everything after her father died and she was sent away.

She came back to Venezuela under a new identity to take revenge on Olimpia, the family’s manipulative matriarch, and win back her inheritance, while her cousin Orestes, the man she loved, secretly became a masked vigilante.

By the end, Olimpia was unmasked and died in an explosion, and Valentina and Orestes were finally together with two children.

*Bonus: Ara Garcia (Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas, 2003)

Not every great love story on Ghanaian television came from Latin America, and Kristine Hermosa’s Ara came to us from the Philippines in Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas, known internationally as Timeless.

Ara fell in love with Christian, played by Jericho Rosales, while the two were stranded on an island after an accident at sea, but the gap between their families and the sins their parents had buried long ago kept tearing them apart.

When Christian learned the truth, his anger drove Ara and her family into hiding, and while she found comfort with Leo, an artist played by Diether Ocampo, Christian turned to Mary Ann, played by Angelika dela Cruz.

Fate kept bringing the two back into each other’s lives, and Ghanaians followed every heartbreak as Ara was forced to face the past they had never finished.