Domenica Montero English recap episodes 10-11

 Domenica Montero episodios 10-11

Please note that this is a supplement to the Caray Caray blog of telenovela recaps in English.

Also, please note that I only have an intermediate Spanish level, so there may be errors. Please don’t hesitate to correct any mistakes in the comments!

Events may be described out of order; I’m just writing a stream-of-consciousness style recap of what I remember.

 

We resume with Domenica bickering with Luis about the tearing down of the fences that keep her cows from getting water from the Laguna. He warns her that he won’t be letting it happen again.

And he’s right; he and Prudencio are waiting with rifles when Genero and his men saunter up later to bust down the fences to water the cattle. There’s a kerfuffle, and later Generó shows Domenica a bullet hole in his hat and says Luis did it.

It’s a lie, Genaro shot his hat himself and also shot one of the cows (!!!!sadistic desgraciado!!!!) to pin it on Luis. Domenica is outraged at Luis. Later there is a conflict between Domenica, Luis and Generó and Luis is incredulous that Domenica believes her sketchy foreman; she replies that she “trusts her people.” But privately to Generó she says she’s not assuming he’s always telling the truth.

There’s also a thing where Luis wants his men to be armed and not allow anyone from Domenica’s side on their property - that lady is loca! So, tensions are high.

Godfather’s son Ernesto (I call him Cute Lawyer) is planning on coming to the hacienda but they have to get a few things ironed out in the city first - establishing where the boundaries are between the two haciendas, and also to officially change the name of the hacienda from La Joya to La Abandonada. Cute lawyer first thought that was a joke, but she’s serious, so he’ll take care of it.

(It turns out that nobody is able to get concrete evidence about where the land borders are, which frustrates Domenica.)

Also Domenica wants Cute Lawyer to calculate back pay, with interest, for all the work Pedro did unpaid. She’s not letting that injustice stand; she was indignant when she found out how long he went unpaid.

Meanwhile, Pedro is really thrilled he’s going to get paid, even though he was always happy enough to just have three hots and a cot for a day’s work.

Generó is pissed, knows it makes him look bad that he took advantage of Pedro like this for so long (though he has some BS excuse to Domenica about why he let it go on). Privately, he threatens Pedro, calls him a “nobody” (this is a recurrent theme) and demands half of Pedro’s future pay. Pedro is fed up with this bad treatment.

Which is why, when he visits Luis’s hacienda later, he accepts their offer of a job. They treat him well and like he’s a real person!

Domenica is disappointed when she hears Pedro is leaving; she assumes Luis only offered him a job to annoy her, but she accepts Pedro’s decision. Generó is not so accepting and privately threatens Pedro, and also (I think) threatens harm on Nieves, unless he keeps his mouth shut.

Luis has money problems regarding keeping and maintaining the hacienda - his mom is worried and wishes he’d just sell the hacienda and be done with it. In fact, she meets a manipulative and obsequious Kiara who assures her that she’s “not like Domenica” and offers to try to convince Luis to sell the hacienda. I think Kiara just wants to get closer to the cute doctorcito.

Domenica rides her horse over to Luis’s hacienda, challenging the armed guards to shoot her in the back if they’re so inclined - of course they don’t.

She delivers a check for Pedro’s back pay. What’s fair is fair - he earned it. Luis cynically comments that Domenica is only offering the check because she doesn’t want to get sued! She rolls her eyes like whatever.

It turns out it’s for a MILLION pesos (about $33,000 US dollars I think?). It’s for 7 years of labor. Pedro is ecstatic and Luis in shock. That sum seems too high just to try to avoid a lawsuit.

Long story short, Pedro wants to invest his million pesos in Luis’s hacienda. This will help their money problems considerably! Luis and Mercedes strongly advise that he use the money wisely, save it, invest it, buy necessary things, but Pedro is adamant and also feels like it is a wise investment for his future. Finally Luis agrees and Pedro says, “So I’m your socio (business partner)? I own part of a hacienda! I’m no longer a nobody! I’m no longer Don Nadie or Pedro Nobody!” He dances around, elated, and hugs Luis. It is a lovely scene with this sweet young man.

Meanwhile, Prudencio’s granddaughter gets a message from Osvaldo that he wants to see her. She sneaks off to see him at his place. Without getting into it all, he pressures her to “show” how much she cares for him, she balks as she is not ready, he pressures her more, she naively relents, but her virtue is saved by Gossipy mom walking in. Mom blames the girl for trying to “trap” her son with a baby. Gossipy mom treats the girl terribly and Osvaldo just throws her under the bus, coward that he is.

Prudencio’s granddaughter gets into an argument with Prudencio - she accuses him of being over controlling when he warns her that her reputation will be smeared in town because of all this. 

Prudencio is so hurt by her words and he confides with (I think) Luis that he can never replace her father, that he’s failed, and that he’s “just an old man.” He says he has a choice of letting her have her own way (so she’ll love him again), or alienating her in order to protect her from ruining her life. He’s so despondent that he says he’s going for a drink, but Prudencio doesn’t drink!

In the evening Domenica and Kiara decide to go into town (can’t remember why) and have drinks at the cantina. Coincidentally Luis and a drunk Prudencio are there too.

Gabriel, who also sings at the cantina, introduces his “new song based on the events of our beloved town.” It turns out to be an incredibly cruel song mocking Domenica, telling about how she was stood up at the altar and scammed out of millions. 

Prudencio and Luis look shocked. Kiara switches from smirks to slightly upset. Domenica fights back tears, but defiantly gets up on stage to say that the people in town think they’re hurting her, mocking her, but she’s stronger, she’s gonna wear the abandonada thing like a banner, and essentially, screw you. She also tosses paper money at Gabriel as his tip (propina).

Somewhere in this episode Kiara asks her friend again if there is news about the pregnant lady that she hit; the friend doesn’t think so. Kiara says at least the lady lived, the baby died but the baby’s life “doesn’t count.” Even the friend says that according to the law, the baby does count.

They also say something about looking for clues to find that scoundrel Max Langer.

There’s also a thing about the ring found on the scene when Luis’s SIL was hit. There’s a security guard who witnessed everything and thinks it belonged to the car that hit her - police aren’t interested, so Luis has this ring (which of course is Domenica’s ring that she tossed away the day of the wedding but Kiara picked up). Luis thinks this ring is an important clue to who killed his unborn baby.

The cantina song scene was at the end of episode 10, but I may not be telling all the events in order and there will be some blurred edges between what happened in episode 10 and 11.

We return to the cruel cantina song. Luis is so angry that he punches Gabriel and a fight ensues. Prudencio is drunk but backs up Luis. The major parties leave, Gabriel and the rest of the people at the cantina resume their festivities, etc.

In the middle of this episode somewhere we have Prudencio meeting with Nana (Nicolesa?) at some bridge or whatever. It turns out they had a thing, were sweethearts, back in the day. Prudencio says he never found love (though he does have a granddaughter so he was married?) but whatever - they had a thing back then and still seem real sweet on each other.

Padrino (Godfather) surprise visits Domenica - he’s recovering from heart issues and isn’t supposed to stress himself by making the long drive, but he says he’s just going where his joy is, which is her, so it’s all good. Later his son Cute Laywer (Ernesto) arrives to see his dad there.

So now everyone is with Domenica and they’re staying for a while! Domenica is surrounded by her loved ones. 

Genaro is bickering with his business partners, Gabriel and the presidente municipal, because (I think?) Genero isn’t trying to push Domenica out as much as before - I think because he assumes he’s going to “tame” her and end up being the “dueño” of her hacienda eventually. Also, he’s thinking that she’ll buy Luis’s hacienda so they’ll have access to both properties to benefit their “businesses.”

Somewhere in this episode Genero decides he’s got to make a drastic decision in order to establish things with Domenica - he turns in his resignation because he’s so “hurt” that Domenica doesn’t have full confidence in him. It’s a bluff, of course. Domenica isn’t falling for it as he’d hoped, she says that if he wants to go, who is she to hold him back? But, she’s willing to keep him on - so he jumps at that. She asks him a favor, which turns out changing the big sign at the entrance of the hacienda - removing the “La Joya” sign to “La Abandonada.” It’s an overnight job.

There’s also stuff with Genaro working to prepare all the fake invoices and receipts to back up his bookkeeping (Domenica wants to see EVERYTHING). He’s claiming she burned some of this paperwork, but in fact he’s just working to fake documents to cover his theft and corruption.

There’s also a thing with Cute Lawyer who is clearly courting Kiara, who encourages him. Genero is jealous, but she tells him she’s just passing time, Cute Lawyer is family, what are you gonna do, and she thinks he’s corny and too intense.

We have a brief mention of that money that supposedly Tia and Kiara have - but I believe Kiara blew on Max - Tia thinks they still have it and can start a business with it.

There’s also a thing with Domenica focusing on helping the orphanage, she loves the kids there and even if the lose donors (people have lost faith in her businesses due to the scandals), oh well, she’ll just devote more of her income to support the orphanage. She also says she doesn’t think she’ll ever have kids because she doesn’t intend to trust a man ever again, and it takes two to have kids. So, the orphanage kids will be “her” kids.

There’s also a thing where Kiara is shimmying up to Gabriel, being too flirty, pretty much under his wife’s nose, and he’s all for it. 

Kiara is disappointed when Luis’s mom Mercedes acts like she’s not as determined to get Luis to sell the hacienda (we know this is because Pedro is now a socio, and Mercedes has a great motherly affection for Pedro). 

In another scene, Pedro, who cannot read or write, asks that someone help him write a thank you note to Nana (Nicolesa) for her kindness. Mercedes does this, and also tells him that she will teach him to read and write asap, as he is now a businessman!

As Nana gets the letter, Nieves asks her to read it aloud, as she wonders what Pedro has to say. It’s a sweet letter, and ends with something about, “what I’ll miss most” and Nieves hopes that Pedro mentions missing her. But no, it’s his horse he’ll miss. Nieves is tearful and deeply disappointed and leaves. Turns out Nana lied, in reality Pedro writes very sweetly about how he’ll miss Nieves and is very complimentary.

We end the episode with Domenica deciding to take a swim at a spot where she and her parents visited when she was a little girl - sweet memories there. She swims with no top on. You guessed it, this is telenovelaland, so of course Luis coincidentally happens to be fishing in a nearby spot. She sees him swimming near her, is annoyed, accuses him of spying on her. He “protests too much” and says he’d rather kiss his horse than her. This prompts her to kiss him impulsively, and he responds with complete enthusiasm - so much for preferring to kiss his horse!

End of episode 11!

Note, I saw a few minutes of episode 12, so if some of that bled into this recap, I apologize.