Teresa (2010 TV series)

Teresa Chavez is a beautiful and intelligent young woman, desperately seeking to leave the grinding poverty of the neighborhood where she lives, which causes her to have a miserable and resentful life despite her parents' love and support. After Rosa, her younger sister, dies from a heart disease, Teresa blames not having money for her sister's death. She vows that she will never be penniless again, making plans to escape the life of poverty surrounding her, using her beauty as a way to make it to the top. She is in love with Mariano, a man who lives in the same neighborhood with her and is studying to become a doctor in order to meet Teresa's expectations and fulfill all her dreams, but Teresa is impatient.

While studying at an exclusive school on a scholarship, Teresa meets Paulo, a wealthy young man and very popular among all students. Teresa, seeing him as a way to get rich fast, breaks up with Mariano and uses her beauty to charm Paulo. They go out throughout high school and tries to convince him to get married, but, upon discovering she is poor, he immediately breaks up with her, although he offers her to stay with him as his lover, an offer which Teresa rejects. Genoveva, Paulo's mother also disapproves of Paulo ever seeing Teresa again.

Paulo and Aida, Teresa's jealous classmate, who is in love with Paulo, humiliate Teresa in front of their classmates, publicly displaying her poverty and her lies, so Teresa decides to take revenge on them and swears to never be trampled on again. "Entre ser y no ser, yo soy ("Between being or not being, I am.") becomes one of Teresa's mottos after being humiliated for being poor. After her humiliation she swears to bring vengeance on both Aida and Paulo. Teresa then befriends her teacher Arturo de la Barrera, a respected lawyer who offers to pay for her education in law school. Teresa decides to make Arturo fall in love with her. However, seeing that her best friend Aurora is in love with Mariano, she's filled with jealousy and decides to get back together with him. Luisa, Arturo's sister, at first distrusts Teresa, until her "sweetness" convinces her that Teresa is just a humble but kind girl.

While Teresa works for Arturo as an assistant, he unintentionally falls in love with her. Luisa discovers this and convinces Arturo to confess his feelings to her. Teresa fills Arturo with hope while dating Mariano. She eventually breaks up with Mariano after seeing that he will take a long time to become rich and tells him that she is going to marry Arturo. This destroys Mariano's hope, and he finds solace in Aida's arms after Paulo dies of a drug overdose days before their wedding. At first, Mariano cannot get Teresa out of his head and he constantly begs her to leave Arturo, but her ambitions keeps her with him. Arturo and Teresa travel to Cancun, and this opens Mariano's eyes, seeing the real Teresa. Teresa eventually marries Arturo. Before this, Teresa met Fernando, Luisa's multimillionaire fiancé and Arturo's best friend. However their marriage fails because of Arturo's jealousy of Mariano and Teresa's constant thinking of the latter, and Arturo is unfaithful to Teresa with his ex-fianceé Paloma, who discovered Teresa's earlier unfaithfulness with Mariano and dies before she could tell Arturo, Teresa finds out and almost divorces Arturo. However, Arturo takes her to their belated honeymoon in Europe, and despite her efforts and her constantly thinking of Mariano, Teresa eventually falls in love with Arturo.

Time passes and Teresa is accidentally shot by Sainz's wife, which leaves her paralyzed. She slowly recovers, and Arturo finds out that Teresa and Mariano made love the day before Arturo's wedding with Teresa, and that she only married him for his money. Arturo is then thrown into an economic crisis, and doubting the love of Teresa, decides to test her love and takes her to live in the same neighbourhood that she originated from. Tired of the economic crisis, Teresa seeks to improve their status and socio-economic position by seducing Fernando. Mariano finds out and tells Luisa about Teresa's attempt to conquer Fernando's heart, and he openly admits that he's in love with Teresa an, breaking off their engagement days before their wedding, despite his mother Oriana's objections. Heartbroken due to their betrayal, Luisa slowly overcomes her pain and accepts Fernando's decision without any resentment, Armando, Teresa's father, also finds out about his daughter's actions and, disappointed he dies of a heart attack. At this time, Teresa is now in love with Arturo, but at the same time, she believes that he should recover his status. Lucia, Luisa's real best friend, also likes Arturo, which not only proves Teresa's true love for him, but causes her to be extremely jealous of Lucia.

As the story develops, Teresa successfully seduces Fernando, and convinces him to leave Luisa and to sign over half of his fortune to her. During an interview for their wedding, Teresa turns against her family, stating that she comes from the same socio-economic background as Fernando, and that her parents had died and Juana, her godmother, was merely her nanny. Finally seeing Teresa's true colors, Juana and Refugio, Teresa's mother, are left heartbroken. Later, during Juana's birthday party, Teresa tries to justify the rejection saying she felt it was necessary for the interview. All of her friends and family turn against Teresa, criticizing her for preferring money over love. Although Teresa is left alone, she dumps Fernando once she gets his money and attempts to get back Arturo's love for her and forgiveness as she feels that he's her true love. When Arturo is involved in a car accident, Teresa searches for him and he is immediately transported to a nearby hospital. As he slowly recovers, he rejects her for not loving him earlier. Teresa donates all her half of Fernando's money to Paloma's foundation for children after Fernando rejected receiving the stolen fortune. As Teresa tries to correct her mistakes, Refugio denies it as she feels that it's too early to forgive Teresa and can't be sure if her daughter's change is sincere and Juana also refuses to forgive Teresa, leaving her all alone. Back at her house, realizing and accepting that she's been left alone with no loved ones around her, she goes to her room and cries while hugging the teddy bear that Arturo gave her as a gift while stating that she'll start over again. Arturo then appears, and he picks her up from the ground, hugs her and later, they both kiss. She learned what love really is while Arturo forgave her, giving her another chance.

First Alternative Ending: There was an alternative ending that was broadcast during the popular Mexican show Hoy. This ending had a heartbroken Teresa, finally realizing and accepting that she's all alone now, with none of her loved ones wanting anything to do with her, leaving Arturo's house to begin a new life. Six months later we see her working at a company as an assistant, where she is approached by a man, who we learn is her new boss, asking her to meet him at his office. As she makes her way, Teresa unbuttons her blouse before smiling seductively to the camera and saying her famous phrase, implying that she's back to her old manipulative ways.

Second Alternative Ending: In this ending Teresa goes back to her house realizing that no one loves her, and she goes to her room and hugs the bear that Arturo gave her as a gift. Fernando shows up and blames her for swindling him, making him to lose Luisa and getting his mother Oriana hospitalized and then shoots her. Teresa dies holding on to the bear that Arturo gave her, whispering his name one last time.

The series originally aired from August 2, 2010 to February 27, 2011 in Mexico on Canal de las Estrellas. The series aired in United States on Univision from March 30, 2011 until October 3, 2011.[8]

• Teresa at IMDb